Parking Cops Take A Look At Neighborhoods

Turning onto a residential street near Gonzaga Prep, city parking cop Dan Brown finds a stream of cars crunched near the school on Euclid and Morton.

A Ford Tempo sporting both a Nethercutt bumper sticker and Grateful Dead decal was parked backward, too close to both an intersection and a fire hydrant.

Brown could have written three $20 tickets, but he didn’t. One is usually enough to get the word out.

“They seem to get real upset at us if they get more than one at a time,” he said with a smile.

A block away, a white Subaru has its back end sticking into the street.

“Last week I had people sticking out on all four corners,” he said. “It’s better today.”

Spokane’s parking enforcement officers are primarily responsible for downtown meters and commercial delivery zones.

They leave the core area twice a week to patrol commercial areas on the North Side to enforce handicapped-parking laws.

But on the way to and from the NorthTown, Franklin Park and Northpointe malls, Brown slides in and out of residential areas where there have been complaints. Many of these are around schools.

Last year he stopped at Rogers High School almost daily, marking tires and enforcing two-hour limits around school boundaries. Last week was his first trip back since school started, and he wrote one ticket.

“I’m sure that we’ll get more complaints now that school has started again,” he said.

When working downtown, Brown writes some 100 tickets per shift.

On the North Side, things are quieter. He writes only a handful of tickets in an hour, unless it rains.

“One day last year there was a rainstorm, and I must have written six or eight handicapped violations in an hour. People didn’t want to run across the parking lot in the rain,” he said.

He drives through parking lots around Sears, The Bon Marche, Best, Montgomery Wards, Tidyman’s, Holy Family Hospital and then Northpointe. There were no violations in handicapped parking.

At Rosauers, 9414 N. Division, a new Chevy Sprint was parked in a handicapped space, but Brown couldn’t see the state permit.

He started to write a citation.

“Did you give him a ticket?” one shopper stopped and asked.

“This car right here? Yes, I did,” said Brown.

“Good, good. I’m glad to see you here.”

Just then an elderly shopper came out, a clerk carrying her groceries. She had a permit in the car but had forgotten to display it.

“I’m sorry. Have a nice day,” said Brown.

Brown heads south to Shadle Park High School. Smack in front of the school, along Ash Street, is a green minivan rolled onto the curb in a “No Parking” zone. Brown writes a ticket.

Around the corner is another no-parking zone, and another violator is ticketed.

A block away at Oak and Rockwell, two cars are sticking out from the curb into the street. Two more tickets.

There are more than enough parking violations to keep one parking enforcement officer busy all day.

But because of staffing, unless there is a specific complaint, residential neighborhoods are not patrolled regularly.

“If we were to patrol the residential areas on a regular basis we’d write so many tickets it would be unreal,” he said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: No parking Here is the legal distance parked vehicles must be from: An intersection - 30 feet. A marked crosswalk - 20 feet. A fire hydrant - 15 feet. A private driveway - 5 feet. Residents with complaints about parking violations in their neighborhood should call 625-6480.