Jacksonville Beach Charging to Park this Weekend

Lunican · June 29, 2009, 08:55:42 AM

QuoteJacksonville Beach Charging to Park this Weekend

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, FL -- If you are visiting or visited Jacksonville Beach this weekend you may have had an unpleasant surprise.

This weekend the City of Jacksonville Beach is testing out a program to charge $10 to park at certain beach parking lots.

The policy is a throwback to one the city abandoned several years ago.

Jacksonville Beach Police, however, are saying that it may be time to start that program back up. They cite the fact that building and maintaining "free" parking lots is not free.

Full Article:
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=140627&catid=3

BridgeTroll · June 29, 2009, 09:23:23 AM

IMO $10 is excessive. $5 may be more palatable. Or maybe I will head to a beach where the parking is free and spend my money...

brainstormer · June 29, 2009, 09:40:51 AM

This will probably backfire because more people like myself will find parking on the streets and in retail lots off of 3rd and then just walk the extra blocks to the ocean. The business owners and residents will start complaining and then they will stop charging. I'd rather walk and spend the extra $10 bucks on beer!

Ocklawaha · June 29, 2009, 10:08:42 AM

They need STREETCAR! Bring it on Jax Beach, and I ain't saying some goofy faux PCT Trolleys.

OCKLAWAHA

copperfiend · June 29, 2009, 11:07:15 AM

Jax Beach charging $10 to park. Who do they think they are? The Landing?

hanjin1 · June 29, 2009, 11:19:18 AM

sweet, maybe now people will stop going there and come to downtown.... oh wait we still have a 400% homeless rate compared to them, nevermind.

Shwaz · June 29, 2009, 11:38:22 AM

Quote from: brainstormer on June 29, 2009, 09:40:51 AM
This will probably backfire because more people like myself will find parking on the streets and in retail lots off of 3rd and then just walk the extra blocks to the ocean. The business owners and residents will start complaining and then they will stop charging. I'd rather walk and spend the extra $10 bucks on beer!

Becareful... I'm sure the local retailers are ready for this and have tow trucks on the ready.

Dapperdan · June 29, 2009, 05:48:55 PM

What a dumb rule. That is a ridiculous rate for Jax beach. Why wouldn't I go a bit North to a nice state park like Little Talbot or Hugeunot and pay $5 or so per car? Somebody gave them bad advice.

David · June 29, 2009, 06:05:50 PM

Save yourself 6 bucks and go to Little Talbot Island.

tufsu1 · June 29, 2009, 06:46:25 PM

Quote from: Dapperdan on June 29, 2009, 05:48:55 PM
What a dumb rule. That is a ridiculous rate for Jax beach. Why wouldn't I go a bit North to a nice state park like Little Talbot or Hugeunot and pay $5 or so per car? Somebody gave them bad advice.

its not primarily for the beach....its mainly crowd control for weekend evenings....and to hopefully discourage the young folks who just park and hang out.

brainstormer · June 29, 2009, 09:45:45 PM

Why not just give them a ticket for loitering then. After enough tickets they'll find a new spot. Don't punish the good people.

Ocklawaha · June 29, 2009, 10:26:00 PM

Quote from: tufsu1 on June 29, 2009, 06:46:25 PM
Quote from: Dapperdan on June 29, 2009, 05:48:55 PM
What a dumb rule. That is a ridiculous rate for Jax beach. Why wouldn't I go a bit North to a nice state park like Little Talbot or Hugeunot and pay $5 or so per car? Somebody gave them bad advice.

its not primarily for the beach....its mainly crowd control for weekend evenings....and to hopefully discourage the young folks who just park and hang out.

Wow, fresh from Mickey Mouse Town, I'm thinking, what a cool idea... Chase off both of our visitors! I would hope that God would forbid us from allowing young people near our beach, horrors of horror. Maybe we could come up with a parking schedule, based on age, race, color, sex, nationality, size, religion, chewing gum preferences, etc... You know, apply some of that good ol Jacksonville genius here. I could see a national ad campaign coming out of this, maybe even some national news attention.

"Do you know how many bubbles are in a bar of soap? How many seeds in a watermelon? Cause if you do, for only $10 bucks you can have Jacksonville Beach all to yourself! Imagine, being the only customer at Buckets! Staggering along empty roads from The Lemon Bar... Yes, YOU can be one of the lucky 365 people that enjoy this spot annually... Screw Disney, Cocoa, Daytona, come to Jacksonville where you can't ride a roller coaster, can't enjoy your mate, can't listen to music, can't _______ ."

ONLY IN JACKSONVILLE FOLKS!

OCKLAWAHA

mtraininjax · June 30, 2009, 08:48:17 AM

Who paid $10 yet? Anyone? Then why raise hell about it? Just park on the street, or take the trolley, if its operational. Or, you could have to walk an extra block. But so what, there are miles of beach access. Go find another.

tufsu1 · June 30, 2009, 09:10:09 AM

Ock...maybe you need to go down to Jax. Beach on the weekend and check out the crowds before commenting that we only have 2 visitors....I know people who won't go over ther afer say 9:00pm because of the "unruly teenagers".

It is becoming similar to the problem Tampa had when trying to attract more upscale consumers to Ybor City.

BridgeTroll · June 30, 2009, 09:38:10 AM

The beaches ARE crowded on weekends... but... that is what they want right? The beach is the perfect place for "unruly" teenagers. Charging people $10 dollars to park will clog the streets and discourage visitors. $5 seems more reasonable.