If you live in this community, then you have to know what a terrible stain this booting company is on the character of the neighborhood. You, as their employer and the only reason they are here, will bear the brunt of that responsibility and the backlash associated with it.

You say that the reason you use the booting company is lack of parking spaces for the employees of the building, but I personally was booted (with my out-of-town father) there at 11pm on a weekend. This is obviously NOT about parking during business hours.

Nothing short of running the booting company out of EAV will suffice. Do the right thing and join the majority of the residents in trying to solve our problems, not create more.

As Tank alluded to, if your parking enforcement was only during hours where the businesses in your building were operating, that would alleviate much of the conflict. I don't think anyone begrudges you ensuring that the people working in your building have a place to park. But barring people from parking in the lot on nights and weekends when the lot generally sits empty forces people coming to the Village to park further away, sometimes in less-than-safe areas. That increases crime rates, reinforcing the perception that East Atlanta is unsafe. That's bad for you, that's bad for your fellow business owners, and that's bad for our community.

I am happy to have your business here in the Village and I hope you have great success. However, in case you missed the rest of us, we all pay taxes, eat, drink and play in the community. I'm actually raising kids here too. I don't consider that a favor to my fellow neighbors, I consider it being part of the community. If you really want something special for your troubles, meet me at Joe's and I'll buy you a cookie. I will want to park in the lot for this though...

Chris- first, thanks for reaching out to the community with your position. You did not have to do that.

It is however not community-minded to boot individuals in what would normally be a mostly empty parking lot outside of core business hours. As others have said, if this is about making parking available to your tenants, then the right thing to do is to insure they have available parking during core business hours, but allow the community use of the parking lot outside of that. Anything other than that is disingenuous and absolutely not community-minded.

Chris owns the lot. He can manage it the way he wants. Perhaps he could charge after hours? Parking is in high demand in EAV, especially on weekend nights, so charging for space is not unreasonable.

Inferring that Chris has something to do with increased crime is ridiculous. That's a different issue, albeit a huge one.

That said, booting is a real pain and you'd think they'd be a little more flexible, especially in cases such as David's. Additionally, I think Chris' argument needs to be a little better thought out and written, as Tank pointed out with the discrepancy with after hours booting, so people can at least understand where he's coming from.

Allow people to park on nights and weekends. Start booting at 7am for cars left over night. Problem solved. I hate when locals bitch about parking. If you are local you should know where to and where not to park. It aint that hard. I have never been booted or received a parking ticket in 9 years of living intown.

If he allows parking after hours, who is going to clean the lot?

"Families" are being impacted, because they get booted after-hours? Sounds more like people with disposable income frequenting bars & restaurants.

On another article about the lot & booting, I suggested to the owner that some enterprising individual might want to set up a parking concession, charging to park but at the same time being present there- and cleaning up afterwards. EAV residents and patrons have been so against paid parking, yet OK'ing multiple liquor licenses and the 'special district' designation that allows businesses to essentially thumb their noses at parking requirements that hold for the rest of the city- booting is what you end up with.

Parking is hard to find in the evening as well. I suggest offering parking spaces for a fee like any other available lot in Atlanta. It will help cover the expense of maintaining the lot and provide convenient parking for those that value it the most. Plus, you are entitled to profit from owning this, but you will still have to enforce it like you are doing now. Plenty of EAV freeloaders will chastise you for being a capitalist, but don't let the whiners unwilling to pay a few bucks for convenience get under your skin.

For all those suggesting charging for parking - that's not allowable by the zoning in East Atlanta (or so I'm told. The only reason that Dolly's can do so was because their lot was a pay lot before that zoning went into effect so they were grandfathered in), so that's not an available option.

This needs to be solved quickly - it affects the businesses in my neighborhood and we need to grow our area, not upset visitors and have them not come back. Booting should NOT BE ALLOWED when the businesses are closed. That's just being greedy. Maybe this lot should be turned into a pay lot - with stickers on the cars of the people who work at 514 Flat Shoals so they don't have to pay or get towed if they don't. If people park and don't pay - get the boot. Pay, and stay for the time posted. Solved.

Oh! I did not know that - maybe it can be revisited because that sounds like the best option. At the least, parking should be allowed without any penalty at night after business hours and on the weekends when the businesses are not open.

Chris is actually a nice guy and his business is a great addition to the neighborhood. We need to cut him a little slack while he tries to figure everything out regarding the parking. Our business has suffered greatly due to the booting but we also realize that he is the owner of the property and has a right to do as he pleases with it. We are confident that he didn't realize what the booting company was doing (booting people for a 5 to 10 minute park ) or how many people have been booted doing so. We also have very high hopes that we will have some sort of limited use of the lot shortly. Please be patient and supportive while he figures this out. In the meantime, your local businesses need you more than ever. We have been really surprised at how many people said they were not coming back to Joe's because of the booting, knowing that it wasn't us doing it. Having been in the neighborhood and at Joe's for almost 17 years it is pretty disheartening to hear such. Thanks, everyone.

Have the businesses surrounding this lot and that are afftected by the parking situation ever had a sit down meeting with the owner? There should be a time/day set up for y'all to come together and figure out what needs to be done. The booting companies are notorious for not doing the right thing and until some major issues are discussed and communicated, nothing can change. I hope something gets resolved soon because businesses like Joe's are the backbone to our community!

Something isn't right with Fogg's statement: he owns the lot but doesn't control the booting or the lot? What? Did I overlook something? Who hired the booter? Fogg, right? Assuming I'm right, why can't Fogg set parameters for the booter? If the booger won't listen, then get a new booter.

Having said this, Fogg owns the lot and pays taxes and insurance on the lot. He should do whatever he wants with it, as long as it is legal. But, Fogg seems to know that its better to have good relations with neighbors, so give him credit for trying. I suspect that one thing that concerns Fogg is liability and associated costs. I like the idea of making it a paid parking lot (zoning laws can be changed). That would for his insurance. Or, the businesses who surround the lot or depend on the lot can pay Fogg a fee, thus not burden their customers (of course they could raise their prices to cover the new costs). Fogg could provide free non-business hour parking M-W and then charge Th-Su. They're are plenty of reasonable and beneficial ways to work this out. Just don't drag it out any longer -- its been dragged out so long now that suspicions about the real intentions are starting to arise.

Of course, you could just park on the streets in the surrounding neighborhoods but how long before those neighbors start complaining? That's a h

whole nother can of worms.

By the way, this booting company is Empire Parking, 1039 Grant Street, 30315, 404-605-9242. They are predatory, opportunistic, and completely unreasonable. At least that's my impression after encountering their "technician" who lurks in and tries to be invisible in that lot. Maybe all booting companies are like this. Maybe these companies should not be privately owned. I'm just sayin'...

It's his parking lot. If he wants to lease it then that's a good option. If not, then why should he have to pay to keep it clean after the bar crowd leaves, pay for upkeep, electricity and then also allow others to park for free? No community has rights to private property. I can't just park in your driveway if you have an extra space. East atl should allow charge parking and there would be less booting. Bottom line is that it's his property. Would it be okay if someone walked into your restaurant and bar and did not buy anything but just sat there? In the end you may just end up with owners chaining off their lots at night.

Re: Maintenance, the community association and the business association teamed up to hire a service to keep the village clean, including parking lots. This owner could have come to an agreement about including his lot in with that, but he apparently chose to remain separate.
My husband was booted for using the ATM - and ONLY the ATM. This situation is not helping our neighborhood at all.

Mr. Fogg, with respect, I want to post that I was booted in this lot this weekend even though I am an employee/contractor of the building and had a parking permit posted clearly and unobstructed in the front window.
After waiting 20 minutes the booter arrived and made it clear that, although I had a clearly posted permit, he was still NOT inclined to remove the boot. After being questioned like a criminal and made to walk on eggshells the boot was finally removed. When I asked him why he would even boot me in the first place, he claimed it was a "misunderstanding" on his part about the companies there and the parking permits. There should not be any misunderstandings on the part of the Booter or booting company about the policies of your lot. Especially considering a) there are only 3 companies housed at 514 Flat Shoals and b) the ONLY job of the booting company is supposed to be to boot those without permits.
This real-world situation illustrates why booting companies and the people who employ them get an often deserved bad reputation.
Unlike others, I am not suggesting that you make your lot free and open to all. I work at the building and see the daytime parking troubles. However, I am suggesting that there is a lot of room between reasonably securing your lot during the day (or at any time you choose) and employing a booting company which is incentivized to boot every vehicle it sees.

The problem is that nobody knows what or where 914 Flat Shoals is. How about getting a new sign with some specifics that people will understand, like, "Parking for Suntrust Building Only".

A no pay lots zoning seems odd and outdated. The business district is popular enough there, particularly on the weekends, to justify the use of the various parking lots for a fee. I'm sure there are plenty of people who ride through, can't find a spot, don't know all the tricks to parking in EAV, and move on. To have 30+ empty spaces at SunTrust every night is silly.