Handicapped Parking “I had no idea…”

Where do these people live their lives.  Here’s the article. The Mass state inspector general says he’s shocked, SHOCKED, that there’s cheating going on with handicapped placards. Well not really in that way but you get the idea. A third of all the placards in use in downtown Boston were being used by someone who wasn’t handicapped. Did you know that some of the placards were actually issued to people who were dead?  Are you amazed, stunned, or simply bored to tears by the government and its inability to property handle the handicapped sticker issue.

Andy tells me that he spoke to someone from an organization representing handicapped people and was told that they didn’t want free placards, nor did they want free parking. They were happy to pay their way. They just needed access. That is a space that’s a bit wider than most and near the elevator or ramp. Oh, and since it takes them longer to move around, they need more time allowed in the space. That’ s it.

My guess is that in the article above, I could put the name of virtually any town, village, or city in the world in place of "Boston" and I could write virtually the same article, word for word. This problem is never going away until we get off our high horse and stop treating the handicapped like victims. The need a bit of extra help, lets give it to them. But free parking. They don’t want it. Why do they get it.

If the parking wasn’t free, there would be no benefit (except the wider space) for people to use handicapped placards. The black market in them would go away and all would be right with the world. Maybe even original sin would disappear and we would have world peace.

Ok, I exaggerate, but if the marketplace controlled handicapped parking, and the handicapped themselves were tasked with monitoring and issuing the permits, this problem would go away overnight.

JVH