Tickets should be issued for infractions that endanger the community in general. Parking in a fire lane, driving recklessly, and blocking traffic deserve public scorn. Parking meters are not in the public safety category. Collection of municipal fees for the use of the public street for parking seems to run counter to the logic of the local business economy. Clearly, parking meters are an example of one of the major dis-economies of City Hall.
Parking meters drive away customers of downtown businesses.
That's a bad move that only an inefficient government would perpetrate upon local businesses and its customers. In the downtown economy, customers vote with their feet. City Hall can make the difference between a viable downtown economy and a failing economic engine by recognizing that downtown businesses survive or fail on something as simple as a customer's pocket-change. There are other matters that complicate the national economy, but the principle is essentially the same. That's something successful politicians in Congress instinctively know but local politicians have never learned.