One of the last few places to park for free in Coco Beach Florida

[Ray S ECenFL]

will no longer be free after Feb 28. How does $5 for each visit grab you or $60 a year for a pass.

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110220/NEWS01/102200339/Proposed-parking-fee-two-beach-parks-puts-off-patrons?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

Lori Wilson Park is one of the last places along Cocoa Beach that you can park next to the beach for free. No longer. All the streets in Cocoa beach that provide access to the walk overs for the beach all have parking meters. Cocoa Beach does enforce the parking a the meters with fines if you lose track of the time and do not feed the meter.

Kind of puts a damper on stopping off at the beach for a short hunt. There is still one park that is not in Cocoa Beach that you can park for free ( not far away) but is is very small and you have to gt there as soon as it opens to get a parking spot.

What next? Charge for parking in the public parks? That particular beach, Lori Wilson, is managed by Brevard County, not the city of Cocoa beach. If it was owned by the city of Cocoa Beach it would have been charging to park years ago. ( It just happens to be located in the city of Cocoa Beach and sits next to the beach) A lot of people who just started using the newly installed dog park are a bit upset, to say the least.

Guess I will have to cross that spot off my hunting spots. Gee, my list is getting shorter and shorter.

HH

Ray S ECenFL

[Daedalus]

Florida is charging it's self right out of the people business .
And now I read that they are closing most of there State parks. There is not going to be any place to go as they will not let anyone on a closed park as it was stated. LOL What are they thinking.

[gleaner1]

A year or two ago our state governor tried to CLOSE DOWN a bunch of state (read "publically owned") parks, trying to "trim the budget", the hit list was huge. Millions and millions of people were losing their beloved parks that have been around for fifty or sixty or even eighty years or more. What a joke, it was unbelievable. Everybody was pissed off. Apparently, so were the Feds. The Feds stepped in and kindly warned our great governor that they would cut off all Federal funding for state parks in New York if he closed but one of them. Well that whole park closing nonsense blew away like a fart in the wind overnight. A lot of good tax paying citizens, including myself, made a lot of calls and sent a lot of emails to local and state legislators, they in turn made calls to even more important people and BAM!

[AUDuke]

How pratical is it to park at a shopping center or some other public parking and ride a bicycle to the beach? I am planning a trip to Fla in Apr., but can"t afford to pay at high priced parking lots just to do a little detecting.

[Ray S ECenFL]

How practical is it to park at a shopping center or some other public parking and ride a bicycle to the beach? I am planning a trip to Fla in Apr., but can"t afford to pay at high priced parking lots just to do a little detecting.

That would depend on where in Florida you plan on visiting. If you are coming to Cocoa Beach, the only place to park for free is in Cape Canaveral at Cherie Down Beach Park . You can park in a public garage, for free and walk about a block to the beach. There is a free parking garage just south of Ron Jons Surf Shop, just off of the main road, A1A. Ron Jons is a land mark business in Cocoa Beach. Having Brevard County put a fee on parking at a public park is an outrage. Looks like the county is testing the waters to see how loud the public will scream and if it is not loud enough, all the beach side parks will have parking fees. At least the ones managed by Brevard County.

If you park in a business parking lot and walk to the beach, there is a good chance you will be ticketed or have your car towed. Why? Private parking lot. You can only park there if you are patronizing the businesses that the lot is for. You could take a chance, but I would not recommend it. Better to pay the parking fee, it would be cheaper. Since you would only be visiting for a short time, it is no big deal.

Living here is another story.

Ray S ECenFL

[gleaner1]

Public facilities like public parks or public parking or public beaches or public transportation or public whatever are expensive. Ray, it was just a matter of time.

[Ray S ECenFL]

Update:

Just to let you all know that the Brevard County Commission voted down the parking fees.

I, like a lot of other people, sent emails to each and every Commissioner prior to their meeting to discuss and vote on the fees. It would appear that the public outcry was heard loud an clear.

You can still go to Cocoa Beach and park for FREE at Lori Wilson Park. The rest of the parks in Cocoa Beach has fees or parking meters on the streets at each beach access.

Ray S ECenFL