ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — The Fourth of July holiday is highlighting parking woes in paradise along Pinellas County beaches.
Spots along Pass-a-Grille Beach and St. Pete Beach filled up quickly Monday. Many Tampa Bay residents arranged to be dropped off close to the water.
“I live in Gulfport, my husband's dropping us off,” said Deborah McDevitt, bringing her two granddaughters to the Pass-a-Grille. “We've been coming down here for years. It's one of our favorite beaches, but it's just ridiculous, not just the price that goes up every season, but the fact that you can't park.”
McDevitt said she learned her lesson the last time she went to the beach.
“I was here in May with my other granddaughter who lives in Virginia, and I rode around for one and a half hours. She was on the beach, and I could not find one spot,” she explained.
It’s a situation that's especially discouraging for those that can’t walk well, if at all.
“It’s hard for me to walk a distance,” Lakeland resident Nydia Santiago expressed. “It’s hard to find parking really easily here that have the handicap. You only have just a few of them. So it's tricky.”
Santiago relies on her kind friends to help get her to the gulf and then find a parking spot and walk back.
“And then we have to watch because then you have to move, in certain areas, you have to move your car every two hours,” her friend Victoria Altman said.
At Pass-a-Grille, newer parking signs reserve rows for three-hour business parking and most side streets are for resident permits.
“I've been here eight, eight and a half years,” McDevitt said. “I used to be able to park down here and in front of the stores here and now that's a dedicated just for the stores, no side streets, you're able to park down and literally you'll spend hours looking for a spot.”
If you can find a spot, the cost is also .50 cents more this year, now $3.75 an hour. If your vehicle is in violation, you can get a new ticket every two hours.
The City of St. Petersburg implemented a few new transportation options in hopes of helping with parking woes including the Sunrunner bus goes from downtown St. Petersburg to the beach.
In addition, Freebee is a free, door-to-door, on-demand transportation with service anywhere in St. Pete Beach, according to the St. Pete Beach website. Pick-up and drop-off locations can be anywhere from Pass-a-Grille to the Blind Pass bridge.
McDivett explained that she doesn’t support high-rise parking structures like those in Clearwater, but she said the city needs to do more to help locals.
“I don't know, but I hope they come up with something because I love it here," McDevitt said.
We reached out to staff with St. Pete Beach to ask about parking advice and handicapped parking concerns. A spokesperson said there is flat rate holiday parking for $20 at St. Pete Beach but did not immediately address handicapped parking.
See real-time parking availability along 9th Ave, Pass-A-Grille Way & Gulf Way here.