Comments on: My near-miss parking ticket in downtown Tacoma: Is a ticket possible as soon as you put the car in park?

By: boonrob

boonrob — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:26:02 +0000

This was a waste of space in the paper edition. I look forward to stories of reporters that don’t get a good table at a restaurant. As a paper that seems to strive for the city to manage its expenses—you should have taken the ticket–and paid it.

By: nospokenword

nospokenword — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:22:42 +0000

Should you have received a ticket for idling at the curb to a few minutes? Absolutely not. Public servants should use some common sense discretion and apply basic customer service principles to their work. If there had been a safety issue (and I think parking in a handicapped accessible stall is a safety issue), then that would be one thing, but no one’s life was in danger because you pulled up to the curb. And since you were sitting in your car, it was poor judgment for the enforcement staff to start writing a ticket without asking for clarification on what you were doing. Finally, trying to get that last word by saying, “You can’t homestead here. It’s your responsibility,” shows very poor judgment on the public servant’s part. They are not there to lecture or one up the public they serve. I acknowledge that it’s probably a difficult and thankless job, but it’s the job for which they signed up, and they need to carry it out appropriately. I really hope that the City corrects this officer and sets a better tone in general.

By: Kathleen Cooper

Kathleen Cooper — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 03:43:09 +0000

WCrain10, would you e-mail me with more details about the Pantages if you’re not comfortable posting here? I’m at kathleen.cooper@thenewstribune.com.

By: WCrain10

WCrain10 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 03:35:32 +0000

I wonder if this was the same Parking Enforcement person that was going to ticket school buses parked in front of the Pantages Theatre to pick up children that had been to a play?

By: Polago

Polago — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:35:52 +0000

I read, somewhere, olemag, that a handicapped stall in a restroom isn’t treated the same as handicapped parking, from the standpoint that there is no law that says that a non-handicapped person cannot use a handicapped stall. The purpose of the handicapped stall is to provide the space and equipment necessary for handicapped people, not, necessarily, to reserve that stall for only handicapped people.

That being said, I feel that the handicapped stall should only be used as a last resort by those who don’t require that facility.

By: crocodopolis

crocodopolis — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 06:42:53 +0000

I haven’t paid for a parking ticket in decades.
Reason?
If I have to pay to park, I go somewhere else.
Nothing in downtown Tacoma I can’t find somewhere else with free parking.

Like the man above said: one of these days Tacoma will figure out what it wants to be when it grows up.

By: Olemag

Olemag — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 04:33:06 +0000

Reply to Tom. I feel your angst. Having had a disabled husband, mother and father, and now me, I often find no handicapped accessible parking available. In the downtown area there are not enough spaces and there are very few on “pill hill”, where there should be an abundance.
While we are airing our grievances about discrimination of handicapped persons, how about going into the public rest room to find a teen-age girl trying on clothes in the handicapped stall? Or with three other stalls empty, watching the perfectly able young woman bolt for the handicapped stall instead?
It may come as a surpirse but some of us require those “bars” to get off the toilet. Is that too graphic for you to understand?
And a death sentence should be mandatory for any architect who designs a public rest room without leaving space to navigate an electric scooter or wheelchair.

By: dirtydan54

dirtydan54 — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 02:08:15 +0000

I have a problem with having to pat to park on property I and other people own. No city or other muncipality owns squat, let alone the public streets and highways.

What doesn’t make sense to me is why should I or others have to pay anything at all to any entity that has no ownership, right or claim to what we own? It just isn’t right.

By: Lorakittle

Lorakittle — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:19:22 +0000

Has anyone seen Parking Wars? This is a problem in every single city that has paid parking. Everyone has a good reason why he or she should not be subject to the laws. I don’t know what everyone else thinks, but if you want to go to a business or conduct business at the city county building you have to pay to park. Period. The only place you shouldn’t have to park would be the library. I just take the bus whenever I have to go downtown. It’s easy and I don’t have to worry about parking, not following the rules of parking, or someone hitting my car. As for Kathleen, I see your point and I also see the parking enforcement officers point. It would be my guess that you are reimbursed for parking costs because it’s an expense incurred by doing your job. It’s also much easier less stress etc. to just pay. I really don’t see what all the fuss is about.

By: Kathleen Cooper

Kathleen Cooper — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:04:19 +0000

East_Tacoma, that is really frustrating. I’m sorry that happened. I agree that you could have used some discretion. Seems like we all need a little room to make mistakes now and then, especially for something like parking.