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Disabled driver fed up with parking at mall

Police are not likely to step up enforcement at Tyrone Square, but mall managers say they'll improve signs and pavement markings.

By JON WILSON
Published March 13, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - A Jungle Terrace resident is pushing to crack down harder on drivers who illegally park in busy Tyrone Square Mall's disabled spaces.

"Every time I go in there, I have trouble parking by the food court in the handicapped spaces. I've heard others say the same thing," said Ron Russell.

It is another element in the disabled parking discussion that has re-emerged as a city issue. Through letters to officials, activists have voiced concern that enforcement has tapered off and that parking spaces aren't clearly marked in many cases.

Russell said that since December, he has made a few random checks at the mall - "It's not a crusade," he said - and has counted at least 56 violations. Most involve vehicles not displaying the placards that authorize parking in disabled spaces.

In a letter to Mayor Rick Baker this month, Russell asked for more of the city's volunteer road patrol's disabled-parking enforcement specialists to patrol the mall.

Police say the mall spaces already are being watched regularly and that it is unlikely patroling will be increased. Mall managers, meanwhile, say they are improving signs and pavement markings so the spaces for disabled motorists will be better defined.

The subject came up at last week's meeting of the city's Committee to Advocate for Persons with Impairments. Russell, a committee member who broke his back while serving as a Chicago firefighter, reiterated what he had told Baker, asking for more focused enforcement at the mall.

He said he spoke as the Jungle Terrace Civic Association vice president, not as a CAPI member. The mall is part of the Jungle Terrace neighborhood, and Russell is chairman of the neighborhood's traffic and safety committee.

Duke Stern, an eight-year road patrol veteran who attended the CAPI meeting, said he's not sure increased manpower would help.

"I wish we had more people, but if we had three times as many, I don't know if we would issue three times the citations," Stern said, noting that it is "fortuitous" when parking enforcement is on hand at the same time violators are.

Besides, the mall already is scrutinized, especially during busy times like holidays, said Bill Proffitt, the Police Department's Community Affairs manager and boss of the road patrol and enforcement volunteers.

"Last year, we even had somebody with binoculars. We were waiting in the wings and when they parked (illegally) we swooped in and gave them a ticket," Proffitt said.

Common violations are nondisabled motorists who hope they can get away with parking for just a minute or two in the spaces and those who are frustrated because they can't find an open space elsewhere.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires a minimum number of spaces for the disabled based on a parking area's total number of spaces. For example, a 100-space parking lot should have a minimum of four spaces accessible to the disabled; 500 regular spaces would require nine disabled spaces. At least one space must be van-accessible in all cases.

People who park in disabled spaces and are not authorized risk a $258 fine. Judges have thrown out some tickets because spaces weren't properly marked.

Volunteers issued 858 parking tickets citywide during fiscal year 2003-04, Proffitt said. Of those, 254 were for disabled parking violations, he said.

[Last modified March 13, 2005, 00:22:15]