Isotopes Fan Shut Out of Lot To Make Room for High Rollers

TRYING TO SEE PAST ALL THE ELECTION SIGNS: Marc Scudamore emails “now that we’re into another election year, just what is the law on the placement of election signs? I notice that some intersections get blanketed pretty good with what looks like election signs on public property.”

Dayna Gardner, director of communications for Mayor Richard Berry, passed along these regs on “special political signs”:

“Special political signs shall be permitted up to a total area of six square feet on each premises in a residential zone and up to 32 square feet for each sign in a nonresidential zone. Special political signs may be erected no earlier than 60 days prior to the election to which the sign pertains; they shall be removed within 10 days after that election or after the termination of the candidacy, whichever occurs first. These sign shall not be posted in the public right-of-way.”

And Deborah Nason of the city’s Planning Department has this additional information put together by Juanita Garcia, acting division manager of Albuquerque Code Enforcement:

“No signs should be placed in the public right-of-way including street medians, sidewalks or utility poles. In addition, signs should not encroach upon the clear sight triangle at street intersections.”

Also verboten are signs in between a sidewalk and the curb. The city’s political sign regulations manual includes illustrations that show where the signs are and are not allowed. A copy is available at www.cabq.gov.

MORE ON THOSE ISOTOPES PARKING SLOTS: After last week’s column explained Isotopes ballpark has 200 handicapped parking spots on site and more at University Stadium, an unhappy fan called in.

Bob Wudarzewski says he and his wife, who has MS, attended the Cinco de Mayo game. They arrived early, saw open handicapped parking spaces in the lot by the third-base entrance, and were told by the attendant “no handicapped parking here today” because those spaces “were reserved for executive suite holders.” Wow.

Bob says he dropped off his wife and parked in the football stadium lot, where he was charged $5, even though he had a handicapped placard. Wow again.

And when he counted the on-site handicapped spots he only came up with 12 marked in the three lots on the ballpark property and 37 at the stadium. Not much for the more than 10,000 fans who can head out to catch a game.

When he heard about the exchange, Isotopes general manager John Traub was more than a little disturbed. He says the organization has worked hard to build what he terms a “tremendous history” with the community, and that includes being cognizant of fans’ various situations and how they can impact their time at a game.

Reserving handicapped spaces for what some might deem high rollers “has never been the case and never will be,” he says. In fact, Traub says Isotopes staff, administrators, even the owner when in town all park off site (at the science technology building across University, at the BMX lot east of the park or at University Stadium, for example) because “we don’t want to take up premium spots” from fans.

On Thursday, Traub was meeting with parking attendants to make sure all know “if there were empty handicapped spots and they had a placard, there is no reason why they shouldn’t have been allowed to park on site. … The drop-off is an option only if there aren’t any parking spots available when someone arrives.”

As for the number of spaces, Traub says “we have a total of 214 spots in lots a, b and c. There are 12 marked handicapped spots. We allow handicapped fans to parks in a, b and c in unmarked spots as long as there is availability. Regarding the UNM spots, there are 37 on the west side of the football stadium, and we designate another 15 in an adjacent lot that is used exclusively for handicapped parking. That adjacent lot is directly north of the football stadium.”

As for charging someone who has a placard, state law says handicapped parking is free on government-owned lots save for airports. Traub says “as you probably are aware, UNM handles the parking on their lots. Anyone with a handicapped placard should not be charged, period. We addressed that with UNM, so that is a mistake which should not occur again.”

The bottom line? Traub says while he can’t control what the organization’s 400 or so employees do, he can control the information they are given, so any misunderstanding “is not on the employees. It’s on me.”

“Our track record shows we try to do the right thing.”

WYOMING GETTING WIDER: Several readers have asked what’s going on with the lane closures on Wyoming between Paseo del Norte and San Antonio.

The street is being widened.

Mark Motsko, who handles information for the city’s Department of Municipal Development, says it’s Phase 2 — Phase 1 was between Academy and San Antonio.

Crews are adding a driving lane and bike lane in each direction. The $3.7 million project is slated to be completed in early 2013.

Assistant editorial page editor D’Val Westphal tackles commuter issues for the Metro area on Mondays and West Siders and Rio Ranchoans on Thursdays. Reach her at 823-3858; road@abqjournal.com; P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, NM 87103; or go to ABQjournal.com/traffic to read previous columns and join in the conversation.
— This article appeared on page A4 of the Albuquerque Journal