Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 29, 1994 TAG: 9403290151
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RON BROWN STAFF WRITER NOTE: Below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ANDREW Lee Roberts III finds little humor in a parking ticket.
Or 75 of them.
Each year, as the owner of a downtown commercial building, he doles out several thousand dollars in taxes and surcharges to the city of Roanoke.
Last year, he paid $525 more in parking tickets.
With a property management job that requires him to stay on the go, he says he just doesn't have the time to park legally several blocks away from his business.
His concerns led him to complain to Downtown Roanoke Inc., which told him that seven other cities he surveyed allowed individuals who own commercial buildings to park free near their buildings.
Roberts said Downtown Roanoke promised to seek changes in the city's parking code so individual building owners could receive a decal to allow them to park free.
On the other hand, Jerry Wayne Grubb, who works in the construction business, parks illegally simply for the convenience it affords him.
He used to park legally, until he found that running up and down a city parking garage several times a day was no fun.
``I got sick of that,'' he said. ``I just started parking on the street.''
Even after receiving 68 tickets worth $430, Grubb isn't about to change his ways. He also doesn't want to anger downtown police officers, who he says are a ``great bunch of fellows.''
He admits he's played the games that other illegal parkers play, such as keeping a previous day's ticket on the windshield in hopes of fooling the cops.
Grubb said some tricks have lost their effectiveness. He's received as many as three tickets a day on his windshield.
``The police just bang on our window and point to the ticket,'' he said. ``It's kind of like a game.''
Dorothy Elaine Shafer, who netted 69 tickets of her own, said she never played games.
``If I got a ticket, I paid it,'' she said. ``I never moved my car to avoid a ticket.''
That doesn't mean others didn't.
Shafer said she watched as one woman brought her own orange traffic cone so she could save a spot in back of her. When the officers marked her tires, she'd roll the car back.
``I was willing to pay $5 to park,'' Shafer said. ``In my job, I was in and out a lot.''
Shafer, who came to Roanoke from California, said that even with her tickets, parking in Roanoke is cheap.
``I was so glad to be out of California, I was happy to donate it to the city coffers,'' she said.
But if City Council is expecting a windfall again in 1994, Shafer's got a word of caution.
``I'm not working downtown anymore,'' she said. ``The accounts receivable will go down.''
by CNB