Free parking comes to an end at beach north of Sunrise Boulevard

[DebbyDiver]

This is the saddest news I've read in weeks!! That is one of my favorite beach dive spots in the world. It's not so much the new cost of parking I mind as it is having to schlep quarters and watch my time to ensure getting back in time.

Free parking comes to an end at beach north of Sunrise Boulevard
By Brittany Wallman
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

January 22, 2007

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Powder blue skies. Rolling sea. Warm sand. Free parking.

Which one doesn't belong?

Parking meters are expected to rise this year on a section of Fort Lauderdale beachfront with 250 free parking spots, the last free seaside public parking in Broward County.

The 170,000 residents of Fort Lauderdale would get a break, still parking for free on the strip of State Road A1A north of Sunrise Boulevard. But visitors from Tamarac to Quebec would pay $1.75 an hour.

City elected officials said they support the plan, which still requires a public hearing and vote in order to add lifeguards to that stretch of the beach, which is unprotected.

"That would suck," Mike McMullen, a visitor from Saratoga, N.Y., said recently as he pulled a beach chair out of his car trunk in a free spot. "That's a little steep. The money generated by tourists alone should more than compensate for that."

City Manager George Gretsas brought the end-of-the-freebie idea to commissioners last fall, saying he had found a creative way to give commissioners the lifeguards they've repeatedly requested. The guards would watch over the public beach between Sunrise Boulevard and Northeast 18th Street, ending where the condos and hotels take over the shorefront.

In just the past month, three swimmers have died on unguarded beaches in Fort Lauderdale -- one of them at the northernmost public portion.

Fort Lauderdale's free parking is used mostly by nonresidents, according to a city survey. City parking officials and Nicki Grossman, Broward County tourism czar, said they know of no other city in Broward that provides free beachside parking.

"The citizens of this city pay big money to maintain the beach and do all kinds of things over there, and like they said, 75 percent of the people using it are not from here," City Commissioner Christine Teel said. "If people want to go to the beach, then they'll have to pay $1.75 an hour. That's cheap entertainment. You sure can't go to a movie for $1.75."

"The people I see down there aren't there simply because they can't afford it, it's because it's free," Vice Mayor Cindi Hutchinson said when commissioners endorsed the idea last fall.

Only Commissioner Charlotte Rodstrom questioned the proposal, saying, "I do not believe in giving up the last tiny spot of free parking on the beach."

Commissioners said they intend to shield their own residents from the changes, and even add to residents' free inventory. Residents would buy a $3 card and could use it to continue parking free at the A1A spaces, and also to park free at the city's South Beach and Birch Street/Intracoastal parking lots, where currently they pay a discounted rate.

Thus, residents' free beach parking would expand fourfold, from 250 spaces to 1,138.

But visitors -- and those from Fort Lauderdale who don't have cards -- would start shelling out more. They would pay $1.75 an hour where it's currently free, and may also see the flat fee at the South Beach lot rise from $6 to $10.

None of the changes would affect the popular $1.75-an-hour city lot at Las Olas Boulevard and State Road A1A, across from the beach.

A sign on the north end of the public beach warns, "No lifeguard on duty" and that "rip currents, strong and dangerous surf, dangerous marine life and other life threatening conditions may exist." Still, people swim there, and surfers ride the waves on windy days.

Former beach lifeguard John Dotsey, a lifeguard now in Indian River County, is the one who found the drowning victim from Ontario near 18th Street as he jogged on the beach there in mid-December. Police determined that the Canadian committed suicide by drowning.

Dotsey recalled a rescue he made years ago near there, when he was guarding in front of Hugh Taylor Birch State Park. It was a common save, nothing fancy. The man dropped to his knees, thanking God he was alive. He thanked Dotsey profusely, then left. At the end of the day, he returned to thank him again.

"He goes, `What do you think a human life's worth?'

"I said, `You can't put a price tag on it.'

"He reached in his pocket and said he emptied his bank account and he had $3,000. He wanted me to have it. I said, `I won't take that money.' ... I was blown away."

Charging visitors to park, he said, is a fair tradeoff.

"So you gotta pay $10 to park for the day," Dotsey said. "Ten dollars isn't worth a guy's life, in order to park?"

Before voting on the plan, the city is waiting to make sure they can protect nearby side roads from a flood of frugal beachgoers.

City officials voted unanimously in July to restrict public parking on the Birch Park Finger Streets, the short neighborhood roads that run into A1A near the free beach parking.

The program, on a six-month trial that ends in mid-March, allows the city to ticket anyone who parks on the streets who doesn't possess a special permit, available for purchase only by the homeowners.

Brittany Wallman can be reached at bwallman@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4541.


Copyright © 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

 

[SFLDiver]

Crud!!!!

With lifeguards present, that more than likely means an end to launching kayaks from the area.

CRUD!!!!

Unless we get there before they arrive in the morning,
then declare Safe Harbor upon return.

 

[DennisS]

That's what I was thinking, I hope they keep it open for diving. I don't mind paying for the parking but regulated beaches tend to get overregulated. Someone said in another thread they got grief from the lifeguard for putting a kayak in at the Dania Beach dive area. I've launched there for years.

 

[Tom Winters]

Why should a lifeguard care one way or the other if you're launching a kayak? It's not a whole lot different from a longboard.

 

[deepstops]

Why should a lifeguard care one way or the other if you're launching a kayak? It's not a whole lot different from a longboard.

But then again, surfing is restricted to very small section of the beach.
Besides, the best break between Port Everglades and Oakland Park Blvd is in front of the Sheraton Yankee Trader and there's no surfing allowed there unless you do it at night (the Yankee Trader has very nice lights shining on the beach).

 

[SFLDiver]

Lifeguard job security depends on not having any accidents along their stretch of turf,
and kayaks bumping into curious tourists is a big no-no.

Deerfield beach lifeguards got a big nasty write-up in my online dive log one time
for practically threatening me with calling the cops and all that after I was trying to come back in on their turf after an early launch. The very stupid thing is, there is a kayak rental concession right next door (just a tad north of Embassy Suites).

Declaring "Safe Harbor" as I understand it is saying you cannot safely make it to another port and are landing your craft regardless. If anyone else has more info on safe harbor, please do post.

 

[DennisS]

I ended up doing the same thing off of Hollywood beach. I launched early and when I tried to come in the lifeguard whistled me off. They told me to pull in further north. I didn't know there was a launch beach, I just kept trying to paddle in as soon as I got far enough away from the whistleblower. That put me in range of the next whistleblower. I finally got up to the takeout beach, I was about 3/4 mile from my car.

I can see their point, you don't want to get between the kayak and the beach if there is any swell. They don't want some 5 year old between you and the beach if you're coming in sideways. It would be nice if they established a launch area around sunrise.

 

[SFLDiver]

$1.75 per hour ...... that's about a quarter per 8 minutes.
I'm typically parked on the beach for a good 4 hrs for a morning kayak dive.
$7.00 in quarters is a hefty stack.

Just when I thought the parking Nazi's at LBTS were bad.

City Manager George Gretsas gets a big dung sandwich IMHO.

 

[DebbyDiver]

And here I was thinking that I wanted to buy a dive kayak...tell me, is there anywhere left in Broward County where one can launch a dive kayak and not have to schlep the little plastic boat tooooooo far and actually see some pretty stuff?

 

[Sperbonzo]

This will probably also kill off shore diving from that beach.... unless you get out there before the lifeguards are on duty. Beaches with lifeguards have a problem with people diving within their line-of-site. According to some that I've argued with, apparently they are liable for anyone that goes in the water from their beach, and since when you are diving they can't see you, then if something happens then they can't help and therefore they are legally liable.


Fricken lawyers.:shakehead