It used to be that anyone parking illegally in Philadelphia had to worry about being caught by the Parking Authority. Now, there’s a good chance they may be publicly shamed on social media thanks to NotASpotPhila. The Twitter and Instagram account posts photos of parking violations across the city that are submitted by anonymous Philadelphians. Recent sbmissions show vehicles parked in front of fire hydrants, on sidewalks, at corners and blocking driveways.
One photo from last month showed a car parked in a turning lane on Oregon Avenue alongside several vehicles parked on the narrow median facing the opposite direction, half in the lane on the other side. NotASpotPhila’s account wasn’t created in January just to shame illegal parkers, according to the tweet from a follower that’s pinned to the top of its Twitter page with”#1 reason I do this.” “This is advocating for wheelchair users like myself who live in South Philly so we don’t have to keep our curb cuts blocked and have to go in the streets and get hit by cars,” the tweet said. “To you guys it’s nobig deal cause you don’t realize why the curb cuts are there in the first place and why it’s illegal. … I’m glad there’s someone sticking up for us like this finally because the public and the parking authority doesn’t care.” Metro has reached out to get the Parking Authority’s reaction to NotASpotPhila, but has not heard back at the time of publication.
According to Fox 29, NotASpotPhila is run by a local photographer.