PPA Tweets Apology After Staffer Wrongly Blames City Council For Parking Policy
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Philadelphia Parking Authority found itself in some hot water in the Twitter-sphere, after a staffer fudged the facts in a tweeted reply about South Philadelphia parking.
On Wednesday, a resident tweeted the Parking Authority asking why cars are allowed to park on the median of Oregon Avenue and in left-hand turns lanes on Oregon without getting ticketed. The PPA's twitter feed, @PhilaParking, responded that "City ordinances, passed by City Council years ago, allows this parking."
Problem is, no such law exists, and the reply prompted a flurry of tweets Thursday, including some accusing the Parking Authority of lying. The Authority's Deputy Executive Director Richard Dickson says a staffer screwed up.
"They believed that there was a law, and they should have checked before putting that answer on the (Twitter) account."
Dickson says the real answer is that the city contracts with the PPA to enforce parking policy, and the city's policy is that no parking regulations exist on that part of Oregon, nor on the median of South Broad Street.
"It is not by ordinance. It is by policy that the Parking Authority does not enforce in that section of the city."
And Dickson vows that no more incorrect answers will hit the Twitter-sphere.
"We will ensure that no one tweets a response without clearing it with someone who knows the particular answer in that subject area."
The Parking Authority by late Thursday had posted a correction on its Twitter feed.
