By GRETCHEN PARKER
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA — Don’t think of it as a parking ticket. Think of it as a warning. But not a stern warning. More of a friendly how-do-you-do, “Welcome to Ybor City” love note.

Even if you overstay your welcome, the worst thing that can happen to you on the romantic, old streets of Ybor City in the magical hours of twilight is that you’ll get what economic development officials call a “courtesy ticket.”

Unless you’ve already had a courtesy ticket within the last year. In that case, you get a not-as-courteous, real parking ticket.

The courtesy tickets peek out from under windshield wipers just like real parking tickets. The waving paper spoils many reunions between visitors and their cars. The “Welcome!” message seems sarcastic at first.

But the dread turns to bliss when they realize it’s not really a ticket after all.

It’s kind of like winning a tiny Tampa sweepstakes.

“Wow! That’s excellent. There’s no such thing as this in Dallas, Texas — no way,” said Nelsie Alcoser, 31, as she looked over her fake parking ticket just after sunset off Seventh Avenue.

She’s an auditor for the U.S. Government Accountability Office and was in town, ironically, to make sure the federal government is getting all of its money. She says she’s not in the habit of stiffing meters.

The idea for “Welcome to Ybor City!” tickets, which has been in practice for a half-dozen years, is more popular with the people who manage the Ybor City Development Corporation than it is with city parking officials. That’s because the city could use the money, said parking manager Jim Corbett.

His officers give out 12,000 not-a-ticket parking tickets a year. As real tickets, they’d be worth $25 each. That’s $300,000 in would-be revenue — money Corbett can’t use to pay off bond debt on parking garages, including two new ones in Ybor City.

On the other side are officials who are responsible for boosting business in Ybor.

“We like the ability to give one free ride,” said Vince Pardo, manager of the Ybor City Development Corporation.

The idea is to leave visitors with a good feeling about Ybor, even if they overstay their metered welcome, at least from 5:30 to 10 p.m., when parking tickets are officially courteous.

It reduces what he calls “the hassle factor.”

Alcoser called it a Southern touch, a well-mannered, hospitable, door-opening.

It gives you the vibe, she said, “that it’s friendlier here.”

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