Parking poses problems

By Todd C. Elliott
todd.elliott@eunicetoday.com

Citizens complaining to the management of a restaurant have lead to another look at parking in downtown Eunice.
A parking spot in the front of Ruby’s Restaurant and Courtyard is painted with blue borders and stripes along the one-way South 2nd Street. The spot is regularly used on a first-come basis by the motoring public, handicapped or not.
Those who complain because they think the spot is designated for sanctioned handicapped parking are wrong.
In fact, the police chief says there are no such parking spots in downtown Eunice’s historic district.
Essentially, there are no “no parking” or “restricted parking” slots downtown, and that includes the sidewalk for many drivers.
“I’ve seen numerous cars parking in that spot,” said Chief Ronald Dies. “But how are you going to address it? There’s not a lot of parking space available in downtown. There’s really no designated handicap parking in downtown.”
Dies said that in regards to the half-dozen “striped blue zone” parking spots  downtown, more needs to be done to make them official handicap parking spots.
“It hasn’t been officially designed as being handicap parking because you have to have exit ramps and entrance ramps for wheelchairs,” said Dies. “I know some places will paint the parking spot blue, but it’s not a legal, handicap parking spot.”
Dies said that the city of Eunice is responsible for the designation of proper parking for the disabled as well as any other parking designation restrictions.
Currently there are two or three blue parking spots with a hand-painted, universal handicap symbol on the pavement with no designated signs on the sidewalks in the South 2nd Street area of downtown.
As far as the “striped blue zones”, it is not uncommon to see a US Postal Service truck or police car parked in one of the spots on any given workday.
Dies said that if the city were to add handicap parking for businesses in downtown, then there would “be nothing else left” for able-bodied citizens due to the limited amount of existing parking.
Dies also said that parking restrictions downtown would essentially hurt the downtown merchants and business owners.
One downtown owner agrees with Dies on the enforcement while disagreeing with him on the designated handicap zones.
Curt Fontenot, co-owner of Ruby’s Restaurant and Courtyard, said that he has been dealing with the parking situation in downtown for more than seven years. He said that it’s a “no-win situation”.
“I think the problem is that there’s too much sidewalk,” said Fontenot, referring to the S-curved street design which can be found up and down 2nd Street. “If they would go back to a straight street, it would be a lot better parking. This was a design from one of the past mayors who made this curvy road.”
Fontenot said that instead of one “striped blue zone” in front of his restaurant, a straightened 2nd Street could provide three to four more additional parking spots in downtown.
“The city wants to promote this 2nd Street, but there’s no parking,” said Fontenot. “There’s no parking for the employees. Because none of our businesses really have designated parking in the back of their location. It would help if we had a single-sidewalk.”
He said that his employees at both Ruby’s Cafe and Ruby’s Restaurant and Courtyard locations in downtown are required to park in the public parking lot behind the alley adjacent to Ruby’s Restaurant and Courtyard.
“When you open up a business downtown, you know that the parking is an issue,” said Fontenot. “So, you pick you’re own battles. I’m just fortunate that my customers will walk three blocks to come eat. On the weekends it’s different. No one will stop at my restaurant because there is no parking.”
Fontenot pointed to a small, unnoticeable sign that read, “Public Parking” near the corner of West Walnut Avenue and South 2nd Street. He said that this was the city’s attempt to encourage free, public parking for the downtown area.
“The city’s trying,” said Fontenot. “The problem is that most of the employees of businesses in downtown take up all of the good parking in downtown for the public.”
Another downtown business owner agreed with Fontenot.
David Manuel, owner of the David Ltd Hair and Nail Salon, said that the people who work on 2nd street and park on 2nd Street are the major area of concern.
“You can’t park in front of your store and that seems to be the biggest problem,” said Manuel. “The people that work on 2nd Street and park on 2nd street, they need to park and walk like everybody else.”
Manuel said that he thought that there were at least two to three handicap parking spots in downtown. He said that there were once signs posted on the sidewalk in front of the designated spots.
There are about two to three “handicap spots” with two blue borders and the hand-painted, universal handicap symbol on the pavement. All three spots were filled by vehicles on Tuesday driven by individuals who were not disabled or  appeared to hold any placard or designated permit for handicap parking. There is a street-ramp for wheelchair accessibility near the “handicap parking” spot on Walnut Avenue, on the side of Ruby’s Courtyard which leads to another ramp across Walnut Avenue.
In short, the intersection has 4 corners but only three ramps in the vicinity of what folks believe are the designated handicap parking zones.
 Manuel said that the “striped blue zones” are supposed to be “no-parking zones”, but that “everyone” uses them to park.
Sue Street, manager of the Eunice Library in downtown, said that the “blue zone” parking spot is often used as a handicap spot even though it is not one. She said that the library does not have handicap doors and is currently planning a back door handicap entrance to the library.
“Most of the comments we get at the library from folks are, ‘what’s going on at the library?’ or ‘what’s going on in downtown?’ because of the fact that there is nowhere to park,” said Street. “We also have the karate place that has a lot of after-school traffic.”
Street said that the after-school hours are the peak hours for competing for a place to park at the library or the Eunice Black Belt Academy.
Until 2011, the “blue zones”–which number six on South 2nd – were “red zones”. The “red zones” were painted over that spring.
Dies was quoted in a Eunice News, January 16, 2011 edition on the matter of parking in downtown stating that the once “red zones”, or fire lane zones, were now “loading-unloading zones”.
“We’re going to make the loading-unloading zones into handicapped parking spots.  We’ll tow violators and issue citations. “
The same goes, he said then, or parking on the sidewalk and on the Park Avenue median. “It’s not a car lot,” he said.
Later that year the red stripes were painted to blue and the “no parking zones” in downtown disappeared, though no one seems to recall who did the repainting.
The new blue zones, though not officially “handicap parking”, offered more free parking to downtown patrons.
Anyone, not just the disabled, can use the blue zones apparently.
Fontenot, of Ruby’s, noted that sometimes elderly or handicapped patrons to his restaurant do utilize the blue zone in order to better visit the establishment.
However, the sidewalk itself in downtown Eunice has also become a parking place for some.
It is not uncommon to see one to two vehicles – which are typically oversized pick-up trucks or SUVs able to easily breach the high curb of 2nd street – parked on the downtown sidewalks.