While the plant has several other functions, usually it serves as the site where students would go to pay parking fines and such.

Each agent generates three to five times annual pay in parking fines.

These days, about 90 percent of diplomatic parking fines are either paid or overturned on appeal.

Last year, the city collected $381 million in parking fines.

Local authorities raise more than £1 billion a year from parking fines.

Only a few teller windows are in use, for collecting parking fines.

An administrator said Athens does not even get to keep its parking fines.

He offered one specific idea: collecting more of the city's unpaid parking fines.

Such a collection process would require a central bureau for reporting parking fines, he said.

Last year, the city collected $298 million from meters and parking fines.