Towing at the 'loading zone'
Signs are there and the area is marked but people either don't understand the signs or just don't care. A number of parents from St. Stephen's park there so I can't say it's all tourists who don't understand English, although that is a large chunk of people being towed, too.The five or so parking spaces are a loading zone for trucks and deliveries. The problem with that is most of the day the spots are not being used by delivery trucks, the spots just remain open, until someone parks their car and is quickly towed away.
The images above are people being towed the other day. Last week was a big week for tourists, you might have seen many throughout the town. I'm not sure how the merchants and restaurant owners aren't more upset over this because usually when a person is towed, they don't return to the place they were towed from.
There is an easy solution and it will work with the parking app. See the sign here? The location code is 40414, on Grand Avenue it's 40413. What if in no parking zones, the code was something different so that when a person punched in the code, the app would tell them "no parking in this area." When you try to pay anywhere before 10 am, the app tells you that you don't have to pay until 10 am, so the solution would be as simple as that in the no parking zones. But I suspect the City and the MPA would prefer to confuse people and collect the citation and towing fees rather than make life simpler for drivers.
On a good note, the parking lot behind Florentine Plaza and the lot next to 24 Hour Fitness are tow-free these days - so it's ok to park in these lots, and pay of course, without fear of being towed away.
Note that right before this story was posted, the MPA removed the bottom sign with the parking zone and pay info. So there is basically just the No Parking sign there now. I'm sure people won't read and will still park there and they should be ticketed, but towed? Should they be towed?
posted by Tom Falco at 4:00 AM
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6 Comments:
Tom, thanks for continuing to bring attention to this issue. In the spirit of the season, the City should have halted all towing last week. It IS confusing, and if not for your posts, I would have been towed in the past as well. Perhaps the City should paint the spot with red stripes. That will make drivers aware.
Nope, nope, nope. Some U people want the old Grove, but in the old Grove traffic and parking wasn't an issue. Delivery trucks and the general public had adequate space. Today delivery trucks are forever just parking in the middle of the street. As are lawn maintenance trucks & their trailers. This particular signage isn't conceived by evil people like that character who pitched to credit card companies "PAY MINIMUM $25.00". THINK, eateries & merchants must have both deliveries and customers - - - equals traffic, traffic & more traffic. How many spaces does Green Street alone require Sat, Sun and week days? This particular parking issue can be scratched up to just inconvenient unintended consequences of modern urban life similar to buyer beware. Jobie Steppe
The “buyer beware” philosophy when applied to the laws that govern our behavior as a society is so wrong. Especially when applied to an issue where said government profits from the confusion it creates. If the developers and city planners were so blind to the future demand for parking, what other basic demands of infrastructure did they ignore or overlook?
You wrote "The buyer beware - to the laws - is so wrong". Well, since we have a great court system in the U.S., you invoked the concept of law here, then, any person wronged by this parking situation can confront the transgressor to have their day in court. The problem here are people who can't read; but more probable could care less about parking rules and regulations. It just so happens that months ago I specifically went and read this signage and understood at what time I could park my van with a great big giant sign attached to advertise my art. I parked free from early A.M. till 10"00AM and paid until sunset for three weeks, no ticket or tow. If I can do it at age 76, short term memory deficit from a brain injury so should the average Joe. This is not government planned greed or evil, it the me 1st and F- -K you greed attitude. TOW THE BASTARDS because these are the same drivers who run over you when your in a crosswalk or speed down our back street Grove roads 50 MPH.
Wow! You’ve got a lot of anger and desire for retribution in you. No one no one should be penalized by the city, either their time or money, because of ill thought out wording or multiple and different applications of the law a one location. While the authoritarian view of “make it hurt as much as possible and they won’t do it again” does work, I’ve always trained my animals by positive reinforcement and they’re actually eager to please and desire to do what is right . I think that people and animals have a lot in common that way and we as a community can be more positive minded in our problem solving. It might go a fair way to making people want to come back. Punitive solutions against tourists and harried shoppers during the holiday season are not going any distance to endear our business district to visitors.
I suggest a carrot instead of a whip. Looking at the actual location of this spot a couple of options spring to mind. Perhaps the people who are called Grove Ambassadors could be tasked to keep an eye on that area during the day to stop and advise those that they see parking there. After all, their little air conditioned yellow hut and a 360 surveillance camera is roughly 50ft. away and a smile and a little human interaction might go a long way to actually living up to our relatively new sobriquet Nearby Republic . Or if they’ve paid by app, there could be way of notifying them that at certain times of day they cannot park there. Or maybe, and I know this is out there and extreme, just maybe make the signage more clear. Your anecdotal tale of stopping and taking excess time to check the signs actually seems to reinforce the idea that they ARE confusing.
There should be no, and I mean none, ambiguity to any signage advising/warning citizens of their legal responsibility in an area or situation.
Salus populi suprema lex esto
Lastly, I don’t know why you are conflating citizens being aggressively towed and penalized due to bad signage to speeding and bad Miami drivers. Bit of a straw man there. I was born here in the Grove in 1965 and have lived in every part of it. North, south east (free anchorage), and west and after many animals of mine being killed or turned into tripods, several dozen pretzeled bicycle rims, a couple broken bones and couple friends killed, well.... to quote you from your first comment, “ [it] can be scratched up to just inconvenient unintended consequences of modern urban life similar to buyer beware.”
Please forgive the Wall-o-text
-Chris
Go gosh Chris, wrong, wrong & wrong, no anger here. wrong, wrong & wrong, no retribution in my thoughts. Wrong, wrong & wrong, I did not take excessive time to read the signs, I read the sign, where do you get off calling my reading ability excessive? Were you observing me? No of course not. A carrot instead of a whip! Good god Chris it's walk softly and carry a big stick in the good old US of A, otherwise the hordes will overrun us all. The signage is clear, clear, clear to common ordinary people like me, who care about the rules & regs. Your animals were killed as you held the leash right; oh, the guilt, they weren't on the leash, right. Several dozen bicycle rims destroyed! Were you & your deceased friends disaster waiting to happen? I mean free anchorage and F- - K responsibility and the rules. Hell, I hate the rules, but there they are. Ignore them and get dozens of crapped up rims and dead pets when viewed pathetically from frosted up rose colored glasses. Like it or not life is a real burden - - - - just read the G - D Damn signs.
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