Community Watchdog

A question about handicapped parking spaces being plowed in after it snows, making them inaccessible, garnered a bunch of reader comments – many echoing the sentiment of Bruce Blower, director of Handicapped Services in Suffolk County. Blower believes that property owners, not the people who do the snow plowing of parking fields, should be fined if they violate the law by blocking the handicapped spots. To that end, he’s trying to lobby state legislators for the change so police won’t have to “stake out” plowers to catch them in the act and can instead issue tickets to owners for violations.

Here are some excerpts from the reader feedback, and you can read all of the comments here, including the ones too disparaging to repeat.

--The simple solution is to fine the property owner then - even if that property owner is the town.

--I don't know why the property owner wouldn't be the one held accountable anyway. He/she is the one responsible for the lot to be cleared. If the owners started paying the fines, they would swith to a company that didn't plow in the spots.

And to all of you saying this is a non-issue: It is against the law to block a handicapped parking space. If you disagree with the law, contact your congresman. But to disagree with having a law, any law enforced is just silly. We have laws for a reason.

--Special privleges for the handicapped? You mean like job discrimination? The high price of presecription drugs? Chronic pain? Insensitive people who park in the cross-hatched areas next to the handicap spots. Those areas are for wheelchair lift vans who need space to load and unload. I can't tell you how many times I've people in wheel chairs unable to get into their vehicles because some inconsiderate dolt parked in the cross-hatched area. And there are degrees of disability as well. Some people with mobility problems only have them on bad days. I personally have a "good days and bad days" disability. I got rid of my license plate and got