St. Paul cracking down on parking meter cheaters
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
The days of getting away with skipping St. Paul parking meter payments are coming to an end.
Why it matters: In recent years, the city barely enforced parking meters as it struggled with staffing shortages, which contributed to a steep decline in revenue for the cash-strapped city.
By the numbers: The city collected just $3.6 million from parking meters and fines in 2024, about half what it did in 2019.
Reality check: It's not just an enforcement issue. Parking revenues have declined across the country as fewer people are working and visiting downtowns, where the bulk of the city's 2,000 meters are located. That's particularly acute in St. Paul.
Stunning stat: From 2022-24, the city wrote an average of 4,700 citations a year, which is around 13 per day, for expired meters.
- It was part of a prolonged drop since 2009, when the city issued 26,482 tickets, or nearly 73 per day.
Case in point: On a recent Saturday, Nick was paying a meter outside of Treasure Island Center when a man pulled up near him, rolled down his window and yelled: "Hey!"
- "Don't pay that meter! I've been parking here every Saturday for six years and I've never gotten a ticket."
- The lack of enforcement is no secret to people who work at the Capitol, either.
Yes, but: The city issued 13,283 citations in 2025, a nearly threefold increase over 2024.
What they're saying: The St. Paul Police Department has struggled to hire for its parking enforcement officer positions in recent years because it's a pathway to becoming a cop, and there's been a metro-wide shortage of law enforcement applicants, said spokesperson Alyssa Arcand.
- The city has staffed 10 or 11 parking enforcement officers between 2021 and 2024, compared to 15 or more before 2020.
- "It is one of our priorities that we're making more citations and doing more enforcement for expired parking meter citations," Arcand said.