Beware if you park in the "loading zones"

So, right there on Virginia Street for over an hour, I had a chat with a bunch of the beat cops. They had the taxi cabs move from the metered spaces and quickly cars did fill the spaces up and use the meters to pay for the parking.

I am told that they are only enforcing the "loading zone" enforcement now and they can ticket any car they choose for other issues. One officer, Ivan, the one I wrote about here, showed me a long list that he says can be obtained at www.municode.com. (I couldn't find it), but the list was very long, which showed all the parking infractions they could write tickets for.

The say that starting next week, they are going to tow cars and not just ticket them at the "loading zones." These orders come from higher up. Residents and businesses have complained about a lot of the parking issues with the Sysco food delivery trucks and other deliveries and this is what promoted the "loading zones" which honestly are used for an hour or two a day. So you can thank your neighbors for the stupid zones.

At the merchants meeting, it was brought up that the loading zones are never used. Hardly any tour buses arrive and when they do, they are on only one side of the street. And when the Sysco truck used the loading zone, he was ticketed by the meter maid. Basically the "loading zones" need to go.

Merchants were upset and said that all areas of the country are trying to encourage shoppers and guests, here we punish them. More than one person brought up the fact that officers and meter maids are there shadowing people and pouncing on them to write tickets the second the meter is up or the second they park in the wrong area. I witnessed this many times and was pleased to see that many others noticed this, as well.

John El-Masry from Mr. Moe's brought out a recent parking ticket he received in Coral Gables. It said something to the affect: "You would normally be fined, but what the heck, happy holidays from the City of Coral Gables! We'll give you a pass on this one."

I invited the officers to the merchants meeting, one took me up on the offer and came and he saw how the locals feel about the police, the parking and all the code enforcement issues. Of course he felt the need to ticket one last car as we entered the bookstore. A white BMW was parked across the street, at a "loading zone," and he managed to get a fast ticket written before he entered the bookstore for the meeting. In spite of that, I like him. He's a nice guy, but crazy with his ticket writing fingers.