Unclearly marked handicapped spaces in St. Petersburg are causing many parking tickets to be dismissed.
By JON WILSON
Published December 7, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - City crewman Trent Beams applied his industrial-strength blowing machine to a few dirty, old parking spaces. Whoom! Up rose a gritty cloud of dust, leaves and asphalt chips.
The Friday morning job at Progress Energy Park was the first step in a campaign to clearly mark disabled parking spots in city-owned lots.
Poorly marked spaces create a problem for disabled drivers and are costing the city money, officials say.
For the past few years, the city has made a point of cracking down on people who park illegally in disabled spaces. Since Jan. 1, 1,114 tickets have been written for such violations, said Earl Cooley, parking enforcement coordinator.
At $250 per ticket, that represents $278,500 in revenue if all were paid.
But many issued on city lots have been thrown out of court because the parking spaces weren't clearly defined. Sometimes the blue lines marking the spaces aren't visible. Others don't have a wheelchair access aisle. Signs marking the disabled spaces are missing or improperly installed.
"We just want to make sure if somebody gets a parking ticket in a disabled space, there won't be any loopholes," said Phil Oropesa, parking manager.
Disabled drivers have blue placards, keyed to the owner's driver's license number, to hang from their rearview mirrors. Without the placards, drivers can be ticketed. (Disabled drivers who don't hang their placards can be charged with "failure to display.")
Friday's work at Progress Energy Park (home of Al Lang Field) involved restriping a half-dozen spaces whose weather-beaten lines were chipped and nearly invisible.
"Bottom line, all we want is to make them clearly marked so that people who have the right to use them can use them and the ones who don't say, "No, I can't park here,"' said Ronn Ginn, a volunteer helping the effort.
Work is scheduled for city lots on the Pier approach, at Albert Whitted Airport and the port district, officials said.
Then the campaign will expand to other city parking areas such as those at recreation centers and libraries, said Jim Giambruno, a police officer who is the city's road patrol coordinator.
The road patrol consists of civilian volunteers. Four monitor disabled parking violations only, Giambruno said, writing tickets when necessary. Like the other road patrol volunteers, they wear uniform white shirts and green trousers. They carry no weapons, use their own cars and are reimbursed 29 cents per mile.
Giambruno said more volunteers are needed to help with disabled parking enforcement. Anyone interested can call 893-7141.
City-employed parking enforcement officers who ride scooters, a familiar sight downtown, also write tickets for disabled space violations. The volunteers typically concentrate on malls and strip malls outside downtown.
"That's why we're getting the city involved in repainting. We're not going to give a ticket out if a space is not marked by state guidelines. If you want us to enforce the rest of the city at malls or strip malls, how can we do it if the city isn't doing it properly?" Giambruno said.
Some of the money collected from fines helps pay for projects brought forward by St. Petersburg's Committee to Advocate for Persons with Impairments. CAPI advises the mayor and the City Council on issues affecting disabled people.
One such project will start in 2004: closed captioning at City Council meetings to help hearing impaired people, said Walton Dutcher, CAPI chair.
Others projects have included sailing center renovations to attract disabled sailors for world-class competition and curb cuts for better wheelchair access.
Council member Bill Foster suggested city government should make the parking-space campaign the start of a broader effort.
"It's a regular-maintenance issue," Foster said. "Not only for this, but for other city facilities where there may be other codes issues."
