This story keeps getting worse. (File photo)
The billionaire Ilitch family's ability to wring every possible nickel out of downtown Detroit visitors remains unsurpassed, and now a new frontier apparently opens: Writing parking tickets for their own lots, where patrons believe they've already paid for the privilege of leaving their cars.
Who can enforce private-lot parking violations? (File photo)
Free Press columnist Nancy Kaffer tells the story of one man who came downtown for a show at the Fox Theatre last weekend and found a spot in a lot owned by the Ilitches' Olympia Development, where he paid $20 to an attendant. But when he came back after the show, he found a team from Olympia leaving $50 "parking tickets" on multiple cars in the lot.
Matt Wilkinson was flabbergasted, Kaffer writes:
"Your entrances are wide-open, a man flagged me into this lot, and said it was $20 to park," he told one of the people writing citations. "I paid, and the other man parked me. There’s a hundred other people here."
The ticket writer was apologetic but unyielding.
"She said, 'I’m sorry, sir, you can appeal it,' " Wilkinson recalled.
But appeal to who? What authority gives Olympia the right to issue parking fines? If the lot wasn't supposed to be open, who were the men who took Wilkinson's money and waved him to a spot? And if so, why wasn't the lot secured?
You should not be surprised that the answers to any of these questions remain murky.
Kaffer got a response from Olympia's spokesman that said it "occasionally" will issue citations for parking in reserved spots, and that the tickets issued to Wilkinson and the others who parked there were voided for being "mistakenly issued." However, he didn't explain under what authority a private entity can write a "parking ticket" on private property.
