World

Lacking curb appeal

A Florida town is cracking down on parking pickup trucks in public

Citizens of Coral Gables, Fla., who don’t keep their pickup trucks hidden in their garages at night will soon face fines—the first ticket will be $100, subsequent violations could be as much as $500.

The city established its ban on parking pickups both on the street and in driveways overnight in the 1960s. But enforcement of the contentious law was put on hold in 2003 when a man sued Coral Gables after officers ticketed him for parking his truck on a residential street. Last month, the Florida Supreme Court ruled against considering an appeal from the man, giving the city a green light to put the law into effect once again.

Enforcement officers will begin by giving out warnings, then tickets starting on Aug. 8, to residents who don’t hide their truck away between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. A city spokeswoman told the Miami Herald that the law is meant to preserve the bayside city’s character, citing Coral Gables’s attractiveness as one reason why property values stayed at a higher level than in neighbouring communities during the recession. But critics say the law is old-fashioned, as pickup trucks no longer only function as work trucks, as they did 50 years ago when the law was created.

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