KHOU: Parking Authority threatens crackdown on handicapped motorists
Yesterday, KHOU-11's Doug Miller ran a story on Mayor White's exciting new parking authority, which is apparently threatening to crack down on our city's handicapped motorists:
Houston’s new parking commission will talk about solving some parking problems for disabled drivers on Wednesday.
One of the ideas on the table is arousing controversy among activists for the handicapped.Feeding the meter’s a fact of life downtown unless you have a handicap parking permit.
“With a handicap tag or a handicap plate, you can park at any meter provided that it’s a working meter anytime,” said disabled parker Mike Heintzman.
A handicap hang tag is basically a free parking pass for any metered space.
Most of us can park at parking meters for only a limited amount of time. But if you have a handicap tag, you can park at a meter as long as you want.
Now, the City of Houston is talking about changing that and basically imposing a time limit even for people with handicap tags.
“What we want to do is create more turnover so that everybody has access to that particular parking space because most of the time their adjacent to particular buildings that are high in traffic, whether it’s for able bodies or disabled bodied citizens,” said Lilliana Rambo Houston Parking Director.
The handicapped in Houston have enough obstacles without now being targeted as a potential revenue stream by an administration that just LOVES new revenue streams. This proposal shows stunningly bad form and is offensive.
Someone downtown must have decided that media coverage of the City of Houston threatening handicapped people wasn't such a good thing, because Doug Miller runs a much different story today:
Disabled drivers are downright angry about people abusing handicap parking permits. And now, Houston is talking about getting tough on those able-bodied drivers.
[snip]
The abuse of these handicap parking tags to avoid paying for parking on Houston streets is just plain rampant. Nothing the city government has done has put a stop to it. Now, the city’s parking commission wants to take action.
Among the proposals: Clearing the way for perjury charges for lying on handicap permit applications, a process for confiscating illegal parking permits and educating doctors who certify patients for handicap parking permits.
Let me try to put this in language that maybe even the Parking Commission bureaucrats downtown (and surely Mayor White's press team) can understand:
Cracking down on Handicapped Permit abusers = Very Good Thing.
Cracking down on Legitimate Handicapped Permit users = Very Bad Thing (Offensive).
PREVIOUSLY: Parking Authority archives.
UPDATE (07-20-2006): Michael Berry passes along word that he'll be talking about this issue on his radio show today on KPRC-950 AM. Berry took us to task a little in the comments, so expect a different perspective from him.
BLOGVERSATION: Houstonist.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/19/06 09:09 PM | Print |
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