If you've got to park, this is your pass to a fine-free spot

Kim Hannan, a former bartender and downtown ambassador, now makes her rounds on foot as a parking enforcement officer in Norfolk.

She and other parking officers are familiar to many downtown workers and shoppers. Hannan cheerfully calls them "sugar" and "sweetheart" when she sees them on the street.

Still, the woman writes a lot of tickets.

A Virginian-Pilot analysis of parking ticket data in Norfolk during the past 2-1/2 years revealed that Granby Street downtown was the No. 1 location for parking tickets. During that time, 25,083 tickets were written by Hannan and other officers on Granby alone.

"We're doing our job. We're enforcing rules that are set forth by the city," said Hannan, working on Granby and other downtown streets one recent morning. "We're nice people; we're not out to get you. We're not circling around your vehicle."

She's gracious to people who apologetically scramble to move their cars when they see her coming with her hand-held computer. But she has a warning: Don't try to park at a meter without paying.

"We tell them if you are parked for free in Norfolk, you are parked illegally," she said. "There's no free parking in Norfolk."

The Virginian-Pilot collected and examined data from Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach - the three South Hampton Roads cities that issue the majority of parking tickets in the region because of larger urban and tourist areas. Suffolk and Chesapeake issue few parking tickets.

NORFOLK

It's no surprise that downtown streets are saturated with parking tickets, but other hot spots include Norfolk International Airport and Old Dominion University.

Monarch Way, 45th Street and 49th Street are the top ticketed locations near ODU.

At this time of year, however, ODU students get a brief break from the city's 10 parking enforcement officers, said Linda Davis, Norfolk's parking administrator.

Because many students and their parents are unfamiliar with parking restrictions, city officials do -'t think it would be fair to ticket them while students are moving in, Davis said.

The Norfolk data also show that, out of the 193,246 tickets issued from Jan. 1, 2006, to early June of this year:

- 87,598 were for expired meters, and more than 48,000 were for parking in "no parking" zones.

- 10,318 were for failure to move vehicles for street cleaning.

- In the first five months of 2008, 32,889 tickets were issued, down from 33,882 in the first five months of 2007. That's because some parking spaces have been lost to downtown construction, Davis said.

VIRGINIA BEACH

The courthouse led all locations in Virginia Beach in parking tickets issued, followed by streets at the Oceanfront.

There were 4,824 tickets issued at the courthouse, out of 89,866 written between Jan. 1, 2006, and July 31 of this year.

Tickets spike in the Beach in the evening and overnight hours. From 8 to 9 p.m., tickets increase nearly 30 percent from the previous hour because that's when residential restrictions begin at the Oceanfront, said Karen Robinson, a deputy city treasurer. There's another spike between 2 and 3 a.m. because that's when municipal lots close, Robinson said.

In the Beach, 23 parking enforcement employees issue tickets at all hours, joined by police and other agencies.

PORTSMOUTH

Portsmouth hired four new part-time parking enforcers who began work in August 2007, and the number of parking tickets issued has more than doubled.

In the first five months of this year, 7,823 tickets were written; in the same period the previous year, 3,745 were issued. "You put more manpower on the street checking for violations, you're going to write more tickets," said Jack Austin, the city's parking superintendent. "It is having a positive impact in creating turnover in the curbside parking areas downtown, which really makes parking more available to customers of downtown businesses."

The Civic Center lot on Water Street is the top spot for citations, accounting for more than 18 percent of the 26,419 tickets issued between Jan. 1, 2006, and the end of May this year. It was followed by Crawford, High, Court and Washington streets in Olde Towne.

Most of Portsmouth's tickets are written by "enforcement technicians" who work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday. About 44 percent of tickets were issued from 9 a.m. to noon.

The effort is paying dividends for the city. In 2007, the city averaged $12,000 to $15,000 a month in parking ticket revenue.

Now, the parking authority estimates the city is getting $30,000 a month, more than covering the cost of the part-time workers.

 Pilot writer Meghan Hoyer and Pilot news researcher Jakon Hays contributed to this report.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 446-2957, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com