Why Residents of Mexico City Are Organizing Themselves Against Parking Meters Julie Morse - VICE News
go to original August 15, 2015

Mariela paid a meter for two hours to park on Amsterdam Avenue in Condesa, a trendy neighborhood in the middle of Mexico City. She paid with coins, and claimed to have returned shortly before her paid time was up, only to find her car had been clamped.

"I paid in time! This makes no sense!" she screamed at the two city parking workers who had just arrived. They stared blankly at her.

"You can go to an Oxxo or 7-Eleven and pay the ticket, and then we'll come back and remove the clamp," one of them said.

Mariela kicked the big yellow wheel clamp, and then called a taxi to drive her to one of the convenience stores.

Drivers flying into a rage upon receiving parking tickets are scenes of daily life in Mexico City. Just this July, a man was videotaped hauling a parking attendant on the hood of his car to prevent him from putting a clamp on his tire.



These dramatic and occasionally violent interactions between drivers and parking attendants have been building since 2011, when EcoParq, a program contracted by the Mexico City government, started installing meters around core neighborhoods in the city.

The meters were a direct threat to an aspect of life here that had long been considered normal — informal street attendants known as "viene-vienes" or "franeleros" who managed street parking in overcrowded Mexico City with nods to motorists and small coins.

Read the rest at VICE News

Photo: Phoebe Chung/VICE News

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