A volunteer checks vehicles for expired meters along Ocean Boulevard in Delray Beach. City officials say they hope meters bring in $1.2 million per year. Photo by Jerry Lower
By Tim Norris
Delray Beach’s parking checkers do not hide their light. It’s bright yellow, it flashes, and —somewhere ahead on a weekday drive down Atlantic Avenue to the parking spots along Ocean Avenue and the beach — it’s going to shine. Or glare.
The spots are full, at the moment. Hey! Past Third Avenue on Atlantic, there’s one!
Park for show. Dawdle for dough. A ticket runs $25, and Delray Beach needs the money.
In the words of the city’s June 2010, 97-page Parking Management Plan (you can pick up a copy at City Hall or find it online), the city is “a major destination” with a “vibrant retail district.”
And parking can be a headache.
The yellow flashers on the parking check carts are meant partly as a warning. City officials want you to have all the fun and spend all the money in the time allotted and then, please, move along.
Turnover is key and is encouraged with time limits, user fees and ticketing.
Most prime spots along Atlantic and Ocean allow two hours. One, in front of a convenience store just east of Gleason, allows five minutes. And don’t even think about parking in that Armored Vehicle Parking Only space at SunTrust Bank, or those disabled slots along the library (that ticket runs you $250) or that Lifeguard Parking Only spot along the beach.
Of course, valets and parking garages will be happy to welcome you — for a fee. And there is free parking available on side streets.
There are two, right there, on Southeast Third.
Even on a Saturday night, most can find spaces a short walk away. But, in the Age of Convenience, many seem unwilling or unable to seek them out or to walk the extra few blocks, judging from the crush.
From the Library lot to the northernmost beach meter, open spaces on this sunny afternoon number exactly one.
Oops! Silver VW bug got it!
Cities and towns across Palm Beach County benefit enormously, of course, from parking fees. When Boca Raton installed meters last year, it expected to bring in more than $600,000 per year. Delray hopes to bring in more than $1.2 million per year once its latest plan unfolds.
Many merchants share the feelings of David Cook, owner of Hands Art Supply on Atlantic in downtown Delray. Meters, he has said, discourage customers.
Regardless, municipalities face an onslaught. The Federal Department of Transportation reports more than twice as many motor vehicles as households. To welcome people and keep their vehicles at bay, Delray Beach officials use all their ingenuity, trumpet every alternative. And still they come, especially in tourist and snowbird season.
A lot of them seem to be sitting in these rectangular slots. On this day, well past 3 p.m., every street space is taken. And the real crunch time, 6 to 8 p.m. weekdays (Saturdays it’s 10 to midnight), is still ahead.
So far, the parking checker lamp has not been lit. No tickets on windshields, no volunteer officers putting chalk sticks to tires or slipping tickets under wiper blades.
Maybe they’re hoping more drivers have heeded the city’s Business District Map and Parking Guide signs, enumerating shops, eateries and attractions and pinpointing parking lots and garages.
Maybe more people are trying the Downtown Roundabout free shuttle bus, from the Tri-Rail station along Atlantic to the beach.
The shuttle has some riders, and city lots with free parking do get plenty of action. The hottest parking spots, though, still stretch up both sides of Atlantic and along the surf side of Ocean Avenue. And some are valet-only.
Try nipping into private spots, behind businesses, and you’re just begging for immobility. Risk the tow truck, if you dare!
Some do. Everyone wants to be near the action, and summer heat, even with awnings and misting nozzles, can wither a walker.
On this afternoon, along the line of vehicles filling ocean-side slots along Ocean Boulevard, 17 meters show the fateful zeroes of time expired.
Ah, and here comes a cart, now, silver-haired man in uniform at the wheel, police insignia on the side, yellow light flashing. Better run to feed that meter!
Or just walk. Building and maintaining sidewalks cost money. Using them is still free.
In Coasting Along, our writers occasionally stop to reflect on life along the shore.
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