News

Nov 27, 2023

Newark's new parking fine costs the same as 21 slices of Grotto Pizza

If Newark Restaurant Week lured you to the college town and your parking meter

If Newark Restaurant Week lured you to the college town and your parking meter expired last week, your stomach probably turned — and not because of all that spicy rigatoni that you ate.

The new fine for such an infraction is no longer $20; it's $70. Or, say, $30 more than the cost of the three-course dinners served up during restaurant week by 14 participating restaurants.

No, this is not an episode of "Impractical Jokers." This is real life.

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The fine in Newark is more than in New York. The penalty for the same violation in Manhattan from 96th Street and below is $65.

City officials would be quick to note that the fine is reduced to $35 if you pay within 15 days. (No word yet on if you get a further discount with a Groupon or promise your first born to the Newark parking gods.)

Either way, University of Delaware students (and possibly their bill-paying parents back home) will be met with steep increases when classes resume Feb. 6.

The $70 fine costs about the same as 21 slices from Main Street's Grotto Pizza, a dozen shots of Fireball at Deer Park Tavern or 15 tall caffè lattes from BrewHaHa!

Once we picked our jaws off our car hood over the 250% increase, we decided to do some more comparisons.

Newark's fine is nearly double the state's highest fines elsewhere, found in Bethany Beach and Wilmington ($40), although Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki recently proposed reducing his city's fine to $25.

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Meanwhile, down I-95, Newark is headed in the opposite direction at breakneck speed.

These are the fines for expired parking meters in 25 other Delaware cities and towns. They are listed in order of the locale's year-round population size.

The Newark City Council approved the increase in November, increasing fines for the first time in six years.

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Other increased fines include for unauthorized parking in a handicapped space ($300, up from $100) and parking in a fire lane ($180, up from $75).

The cost of parking meters was also bumped up to $1.25 an hour to $2.25. City-managed parking lots managed will increase from $1 per hour to $2.

The increased fines and rates will bring in almost $2 million in new revenue, officials have said.

Lee Mikles, who co-owns Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen, is one of the lucky Main Street businesses with their own parking lot for customers. But there are times when their lot is full, leaving their customers to hunt for spots on Main Street.

"It's definitely eye-opening," he says of the fine. "Any time the cost of an area increases, it's going to weigh on someone's decision to go there. There's going to be sticker shock, but people are going to have to accept the new reality."

Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at [email protected] or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and Twitter (@ryancormier).