Charlotte's parking-ticket traps
The most likely spots in Charlotte to get a parking ticket, analyzed
The following article appeared in the Feb. 20, 2026, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with smart and original local news for Charlotte. We offer free and paid subscription plans. More info here.
Several blocks in uptown account for an outsized number of parking tickets, Ledger analysis reveals; city revenue surges after extending meter hours
by Tony Mecia
The 200 block of West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in uptown looks like a typical urban street.
On one side is Romare Bearden Park. On the other sit two large apartment complexes and a 7-Eleven. Truist Field, home of the Charlotte Knights, is just around the corner, as is Latta Arcade.
But this uptown block is also something else: It’s the most fertile ground for parking tickets in all of Charlotte, according to a Ledger analysis of city parking ticket records.
Parking enforcers have written more than 7,200 tickets on this block since 2022. That’s 20% more than the next-ticketed block, the stretch of South Tryon Street between Trade and Fourth streets, and 40% more than the No. 3 stretch between Fourth and Third streets — both of which are smack dab in the city’s center.
People who have received parking tickets on West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard say they find the ticketing to be aggressive.
“It’s horrible,” said Maya Harris, a dog trainer with Dog Owner’s Academy who was returning to her car by the park one morning this week. “Literally, around the park, they are ticketing all the time.”
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