By Suzanne Sprague
Dallas, TX – Ambient sound of a sidewalk cafe.
Suzanne Sprague, KERA 90.1 Reporter: It's just after nine o'clock on a weekday night in Dallas. I'm outside in the Knox-Henderson area, across the street from a restaurant and bar called The Samba Room. Many of The Samba Room's customers are turning their car over to a valet; and while the majority of the cars are being taken down into a private underground parking garage, several have been left in spaces that are supposed to be free and open to the general public. So I asked one of the parkers, who wouldn't give me his name, why he put a grey Porsche up front in a public parking spot. At first, he insisted I was mistaken.
Sprague: And that little valet sticker that's on his car?
Valet: Probably from somewhere else.
Sprague: But about a minute later, he gave me another story.
Valet: It's okay. It's illegal. I wouldn't park here anymore. So if you want, I'll move it, and I won't park there anymore.
Sprague: He didn't move the car, but he didn't get a ticket, either. A parking enforcement officer who came out to The Samba Room following a reported complaint explained why.
Parking Enforcement Officer: When you go to court and you didn't see it, it's hard to prove it. Like I told him, I've been on this job for almost nine years. I know why you have the car there: because of the tip. That big shot is in there, the big guy is in there and you've got his car, watching his car. And he admitted it. He admitted it. He's watching his car for him, and they do it all over. Not only him. They do it all over.
Sprague: And even when valet parking is done legally, it can create other problems. Avi Adelman, a neighborhood activist in the Lower Greenville area, says people who don't want to pay to park at restaurants and bars end up taking all the spaces on the nearby residential streets.
Avi Adelman, Lower Greenville Activist: Two, three streets deep, you cannot find a parking place. Two or three streets deep, you have cars blocking personal driveways. Two or three streets deep, you have cars parked illegally in various configurations that need to be towed for safety's sake.
Sprague: Adelman believes the city does not offer the number of free, public parking spaces in the Lower Greenville area that city code requires. Dallas city officials say there is legally enough parking, but Director of Public Works David Dybala and Parking Manager John Rose admit it's pretty crowded.
David Dybala, Dallas Director of Public Works: There is overflow parking and that is a challenge, especially in those areas.
John Rose, Dallas Parking Manager: I think it becomes an issue of how far do you want to walk.
Sprague: Recently, the city council approved a plan for a new hotel in the Oak Lawn area that will force all visitors to valet park. There will be no self-parking in the immediate area. Council member Laura Miller questioned the proposal.
Laura Miller, Dallas City Council member: One concern I've heard from a lot of people is that the valet parkers will take up all the good parking around an establishment, and then people are forced to park down the street or on a side street. And so that's very aggravating. They think we should enforce a provision that would allow valet parking, but the valet parkers would then have to take the car to some lot down the street and leave open the parking that's around the establishment for the patrons that don't want to valet. And I agree with that.
Sprague: There's no movement at City Hall to change the valet parking laws, although three residential streets in the Lower Greenville area have recently been designated resident-only parking. Several more have filed applications. City officials say if more valet companies appear in areas like Lower Greenville, they'll soon have to start building parking garages to handle their business. For KERA 90.1, I'm Suzanne Sprague.