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I braced for the worst as I ventured to 717 South with a friend last Friday night. Parking is such a pain around S Howard Avenue. I always dread it.
But there it appeared in the back row of the restaurant lot. A spot with my name on it. One of only two left. What luck!
I celebrated because it rarely happens like that. Normally, I have to circle around scouting for a space, fearing that wherever I land will result in a ticket or a tow.
Parking woes have become a way of life in SoHo. Too many attractions packed in too tight a space. Too many cars for too few spaces.
But now police say the parking crisis is more than a hassle. It's dangerous.
Police Capt. Hugh Miller attended last week's City Council meeting to talk about parking issues in SoHo and South Tampa in general. Firetrucks can't get through streets lined with cars, he said. Neighbors can't back out of driveways, and police officers can't respond to calls.
"Parking is just out of control," he said later in an interview. "People are faced with not knowing where to go. The whole situation needs to be revisited."
Miller suggested the city transfer parking enforcement duties from the Police Department to the parking division and develop a more proactive parking plan. Writing a ton of tickets won't resolve the issue, he said.
In fact, some people have come to consider a ticket part of the cost of a night out.
Miller's recommendations range from limiting parking to one side of streets to educating businesses about parking rules to adding signs.
"We could lose a whole block if a fire breaks out," he said.
City parking officials said they'd be happy to take over enforcement. They handle it downtown, in Ybor City and at Ben T. Davis Beach. Why not SoHo?
Admittedly, it would mean more tickets and more revenue for the city, parking chief Jim Corbett said.
"The cost of salaries would be covered by citations," he said. "It would not be a losing venture for the city."
But he doesn't gloat at the thought of blanketing cars with unwanted orange notes.
"The solution is providing parking," he said. "Ticketing is going to run businesses out of business."
Providing parking isn't so easy. SoHo's bars, restaurants and shops continue to pack in the crowds but have no room to accommodate the traffic. Factor in new businesses and townhouses headed to the strip, and the situation will only worsen.
For years the city has budgeted money to add parking in SoHo but never spent it. The reason: no consensus on where to put it.
The last SoHo parking study was done in the late 1990s. The city hired a firm to identify ways to add parking. The results were hardly groundbreaking: Build a parking garage and create parking spaces under the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway at Howard and Morrison Avenue (near the Tiny Tap Tavern).
Both ideas died for lack of money and interest. Sure, the city could build a garage, but where? Vacant land has disappeared and what's left sells at a premium.
The Crosstown idea seemed more reasonable but drew fire from neighbors who didn't want to turn space under the already intrusive highway into parking lots.
Those lots are still on the table, but it would take a U.N. resolution for them to materialize. You'd have to convince people in Historic Hyde Park and New Suburb Beautiful that parking spaces would benefit their neighborhoods.
Harder yet, you'd have to get past the Amaryllis Garden Circle, which spent a huge amount of time and money beautifying the space at Howard with plants, benches and bronze cranes.
Roger Grunke, president of the Historic Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, said his group would be opposed. Instead, he would advocate that the city create a long-term urban design plan that takes into account parking and transportation.
"The root of the problem is simply growth," he said. "It's not bars."
Amen to that, say bar owners.
Tom Golden, co-owner of the Rack on Platt Street, said parking has been a constant struggle for his customers and employees. To cope, he rents private lots with the Hyde Park Cafe across the street. He also contacted the city about adding on-street parking along Platt, which was denied.
The venture has been costly. He pays $6,500 a month, he said, in parking-related expenses, which include insurance and security. That's more than the rent on the bar.
But he's not complaining. Business has boomed since the Rack opened nearly three years ago. SoHo continues to grow.
"There's not going to be a solution for the parking any time soon," he said. "God isn't making any more dirt down there."
For now, it's every car for its own spot.
THE LAST DROP: Some good news on the parking front. Tampa International Airport opened a six-story garage this week in the economy lot near the Post Office. So no more parking in the grass or mud during high travel times. Rates are $7 a day, with the second day free.
- Susan Thurston can be reached at thurston@sptimes.com or 813 226-3394.