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The updated photo with added sign to show where the handicapped parking begins and ends..
Updated: 6:29 p.m. Friday -- The city of Detroit added a second handicapped parking sign to clearly define where the two handicapped parking spots are on E. Kirby, clearing up any confusion people parking might of had. It helps people avoid getting a $150 ticket for mistakenly parking in a handicapped spot.
From Tuesday Night
The last time I wrote about confusing handicapped parking zones in Detroit was in 2021.
Back then, Tony Sacco, co-owner of Mootz Pizzeria + Bar, was fed up with unsuspecting customers getting $150 tickets for illegally parking in a handicapped zone near his shop on Library Street in downtown Detroit. He said he complained to the city, but to no avail.
Tony Sacco on Library Street in 2021.
So, at the time, Sacco took matters into his own hands -- literally -- and grabbed a roller and started painting the curb and street to designate the handicap spots with blue paint. The problem, he said, was there was a small handicap sign at the end of the block, but it was very unclear how many parking spots it applied to (it was four). After he did that, and I wrote about it, the city cleaned up the paint and put two bookend signs defining the handicap parking zone.
On Monday, a friend went to contest her $150 handicapped parking ticket at a hearing at the Detroit Parking Violations Bureau on 10th Street, off of Lafayette, in Corktown. I tagged along.
On July 26, she was having lunch with a friend at Babo Detroit at Kirby and Woodward in Midtown Detroit. She parked on Kirby, across from the Detroit Institute of Arts. She parked one space away from the “handicapped parking only" sign. She assumed the one spot in front of the sign was for handicapped parking and the second was fine. She paid the meter, only to return to a $150 ticket on her windshield.
“I immediately said, ‘this has to be wrong,'" she said. “We were not in the handicapped spot. It was very upsetting."
Detroit 36th District Magistrate William Burton Jr.
On Monday, she told Detroit 36th District Court Magistrate William T. Burton Jr. that she paid the meter and found it confusing where the actual handicapped parking began and ended. She said she thought it was OK to park where she did.
The magistrate inquired if there was a “bookend” on the block, meaning two signs that defined the beginning and end of the handicapped parking. He learned there was not.
“I understand the confusion,” he said, then telling her he’d reduce the fine. She had to pay $50.
People who park in handicapped spots should pay $150. But frankly, in this case, she should have paid nothing. But I understand the magistrate’s predicament. There were other people who came before him that day who complained about being confused about the handicapped parking, including one man who also had parked on the same block as my friend, and got a $150 ticket.
On Tuesday, I spoke by phone to Magistrate Burton, a good person with good humor, who treated everyone in court with respect. But when I asked him about people being confused about the handicapped parking, and how often he saw that, he declined to comment.
“I’m just there to decide on the facts,” he said. “I take every case very very seriously and I weigh the pros and cons and come up with a fair decision.”
On Tuesday, I also called the city for comment. A short time later, while I awaited a response, I went over to the handicapped parking zone on Kirby where the friend was ticketed, to take fresh photos. I ran into a woman from the parking division who was snapping photos. I identified myself as a reporter and asked if the car that was now parked where my friend had been parked was a handicapped or regular parking spot.
She said so long as people paid the meter, that spot was fine.
A zone properly marked on Cass Ave.
Afterward, I drove around to check out the handicapped parking zones in Midtown and downtown. The lion's share were clearly marked with two bookend signs. On Cass Avenue, at Wayne State University, one handicapped parking zone not only had two signs clearly defining the area, but also had a painted blue curb to clarify further.
But there were some zones that still left room for confusion, like on the north side of Warren, west of Woodward. There was a handicapped sign that could have applied to one or two or three or possibly four spaces. It wasn’t clear.
A spot on Washington Blvd. could have been clarified a bit better, as well.
Municipal Parking Director Keith Hutchings sees the situation with my friend differently.
"We believe that in this case, the parking space is clearly marked as handicapped parking and that the ticket was properly issued," he said in a statement to Deadline Detroit. "It's important that anytime someone is parking in proximity to handicapped parking that they be familiar with all of the parking related signage in that immediate area."
He went on to say that it should be clear to people that the two spaces in the handicapped zone on Kiriby where my friend parked are both for handicapped parking because they are sandwiched between two signs: "handcapped parking only" and a "no standing this side of sign," close to the intersection of Kirby and John R. He also provided me with a marked-up photo.
Marked up Municipal Parking photo
His argument is not an unreasonable one, particularly if you're someone who is an expert in parking issues. But for the average person, it's not unreasonable to assume the second spot is open to anyone. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, the magistrate, who saw pictures of the handicapped zone, said during Monday's hearing that he understood that it could be confusing.
And let's not forget the parking division person who told me the spot was fine for anyone to park at so long as they paid the meter.
On the upside, Ron Brundidge, director of Detroit's Department of Public Works, tells Deadline Detroit in a statement:
"The department of public works is responsible for the installation of all traffic and parking related signage in the city and is committed to making sure it is as clear and understandable as possible."
"If there is some confusion regarding where handicapped parking zones begin and end, we certainly are open to installing additional signage to make it more clear and will begin exploring this right away."
Amen.
The $150 may be good for the city coffers, but not for Detroit's image, businesses, and certainly not for the people who want to patronize them.
