If You Don't Pay Your Parking Tickets, Expect the Boot in Downtown Athens, Ga.

These boots are made for… booting the tires of those who owe more than $50 in fines to Athens Downtown Parking. Chuck Horton, the newly hired parking director for the Athens Downtown Development Authority, says that 81 people were booted in February.

During February, downtown parking had a monthly income of $189,822, up from the 2012 figure of $185,260. Last February, only five people were booted.This year, the boots provided $4,050 in extra fines.

“If you look at the big picture, we’re trying to get people off the streets and into the decks,” Horton says. “Our goal is to have people not use the street with long-term parking. We want them in the Washington Street deck.”

That will happen more swiftly, he thinks, when the pricing structure changes to make the decks cheaper than street parking, which is 75 cents an hour. The deck is $1.50, with the first half hour free.