Parking and our civil rights

Memphis and accessible parking

By Tim Wheat
Everyone around here has been talking about a TV news report about a man that stopped his wheelchair behind some patrons near Buster’s Liquor Store to protest their use of an accessible parking space. We don’t know that they did not have a hang-tag that would allow them to park there, as a matter-of-fact, we all don’t know many of the details, but it did not stop the discussion.

“If they hadn’t parked illegally,” said Allison Donald, “there would never have been a fight.”

You can expect the Memphis Center for Independent Living to take a strong disability angle on this issue; however, I just wanted to try to look objectively at what happened as we learn more of the details.

Most people park legally, and I know that Buster’s Liquors is a busy place with a lot of pressure to get the good spaces in the limited area outside the business. It is also clear that most people park legally. Removing the civil-right for accessible parking, it seems clear that this is not an issue for most people. The typical Memphian may be inconvenienced by not being able to park in the spots nearest to the door, but everyone is competing for the remaining parking.

I would think that everyone else in the parking lot would feel slighted. I mean, they took the extra time and effort to park legally and correctly, someone parking in the accessible parking spot or the access aisle appears to be a insult to everyone, not just a civil-rights violation to people with disabilities who are authorized to park there.

“He was exercising his rights,” said Bobbie Fields. “I had to do that same thing at my apartment the other day. I called the manager and the police because someone had parked on the ramp to my apartment. Violating the law is violating the law.”

From the news report that we saw it seems that people were getting angry about a lot of things that may or may not be related to accessible parking and the Americans with Disability Act.

“It is very inconvenient when people park in the access aisle,” said our Executive Director, Sandi Klink, about the lined space beside accessible parking that allows people room to deploy a ramp or use a walker. “People will park there, leave motorcycles there or they will leave shopping carts and trash cans so you can’t use your ramp. I have had to wait for people to come out of stores and I have educated security guards who are supposed to look out for those kind of things.”

I remember the first woman who I helped to move out of a nursing home. She never drove and would never drive a car, but she would get terribly angry at someone who parked illegally in accessible parking. I suppose it is a visible affirmation of our civil rights, or an obvious violation.