Some sleep over PPA to make ticket amnesty program deadline
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Early Tuesday morning, well before dawn, while city employees swept up the piles of trash from the crowds the night before, three women sat quietly inside the Philadelphia Parking Authority lobby waiting for the doors to open at 8:30 a.m.
They'd been there since as early as 6 p.m. Monday.
"I plan on being one of the first ones in so that we can get it done," Tahira Greene of Frankford said.
Indeed, they were the first to be serviced in the morning, ahead of a line that stretched about a block.
It was almost a repeat of Monday's chaos at 9th and Filbert streets.
Nerves were frayed and a handful of people passed out after several hours of waiting.
People with hundreds or thousands of dollars in violations, dating back as early as 1989, were looking to take advantage of an amnesty program that, for a mere $50, forgives all parking tickets and fees prior to 2013.
Drivers had two months to take advantage of it; hundreds came days and even hours before the Monday night deadline overwhelming the PPA.
By 10:30 p.m., Director Clarena Tolson sent everyone home with a purple voucher extending the program until Friday.
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell introduced the amnesty bill and recently asked that deadline be pushed back.
"I'm not angry with the people for procrastinating because people do that and the less you have the more likely you are to procrastinate because you got to pull it from someplace else to pay it here," Blackwell said.
"She's seen that we've given out vouchers; I think that may address the issue and the concern at hand," Tolson said.
After a total of 10 hours in line, including a free overnight stay in the PPA lobby, Greene says it was all worth it to save $700.
"It feels great! I have no cloud over my head. My tickets are paid. I can park where I want to park and I'm never getting a ticket again," Greene said.
The PPA closes at 2 p.m. each day. And after 2 p.m. Friday, the amnesty program will be officially over.
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