CINCINNATI -- If you've been to Over-the-Rhine, you've probably seen some decapitated meters.
It's enough of a problem that the city's getting rid of some "meters" entirely and switching to kiosks.
City parking staff are installing 40 kiosks "in locations with high incidences of defacement," according to a memo from City Manager Harry Black. Specifically, they're going in near Findlay Market, Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine, along with Court Street, Sentinel Street and Freedom Way in Downtown.
The kiosks "are not as easily damaged and vandalized at lower rates than single-space meters," he wrote.
Drivers will need to enter their license plate number when they pay, city spokesman Rocky Merz said, then take a printed receipt back to the vehicle to display on the dashboard.
So what happens to all the meters the city removes? They'll head to neighborhood business districts, Black wrote, to replace old coin-only meters with the new versions that accept credit and debit cards, too.
Correction: An earlier version of this story indicated there would be no receipt from the kiosks; WCPO regrets this error.
