A beach day used to be an affordable family activity for all income levels; that’s changing

It’s Spring Break in both Pinellas and Hillsborough counties this week, and that means lots of beach time (even if the weather isn’t quite cooperating).

On Monday, my college-aged daughter insisted on going to the beach, despite 30 mile per hour wind gusts. Upon using my app to pay for her parking, I was gobsmacked by how expensive it was. She spent about five hours at the beach, at a cost to park of a little over $25 after “convenience” fees for using the only method of payment available. (Guys, it’s not convenient if it’s the only choice, it’s just “the price.”)

In some places, parking could get even more expensive.

Officials in St. Pete Beach are considering raising public parking rates by $0.50 per hour across the board, with another $1 per hour increase for sunset.

While those numbers may not seem like much of an increase, high parking costs are already a burden to some locals who, once upon a time, were able to enjoy this uniquely Florida pastime regardless of household income.

If St. Pete Beach hikes its rates, parking will be $5 an hour on weekdays, $6 per hour on weekends, with the so-called “sunset pricing” pushing those both up by $1 between the hours of 4 and 8 p.m.

At other nearby beaches, parking rates are already high. Madeira Beach charges $4 per hour at its locally owned lots, sometimes more for special events. It’s one of the cheapest rates around. Treasure Island’s rates are $4.95 per hour on weekdays and $5.95 on weekends. Sunset Beach side street parking is $1 more than that.

For a full day at the beach, families can easily spend $25, $30 or more just to park.

So why am I going full Karen on parking rates? Because if parking had been this expensive when I was raising young children, our beach days would have been far more rare. My children would have grown up missing out on the only types of activities I could comfortably afford when they were younger: learning to skimboard, playing paddleball, making elaborate sandcastles and all the other beach activities us homegrown Floridians know too much about.

In the early 2000s, our trips to Pass-a-Grille Beach during the Summertime cost about $6 for parking for most of the day. I would pack sandwiches made at home, juice boxes from the fridge, some sliced fruit and maybe a bag of chips if we felt like fighting with seagulls.

As a low-income single parent at that time, still putting myself through college, those Summer months were hard. While some families were taking vacations to far-flung places, the best I could do with my kids was teach them to body surf, search for the prettiest seashells and hope for some dolphin sightings.

Once, we saw a manatee up close and you would have thought my kids just went to Disney World. (Don’t worry, we kept a very respectable distance, because we love animals.)

Now, that same trip would cost me $25-$30 in parking alone — the cost of more than four beach trips some 20 years ago.

Before I go any further, let me just point out that I don’t mind paying taxes, and to me, paying to park in city- or county-owned lots is akin to a tax. These funds pay for important services, including to keep the beach clean and safe. So for me to push back is really saying something.

I also want to point out that I fully understand the various strategies behind parking fees. In addition to raising revenue for needed services and general beach upkeep, parking fees can also help manage overcrowding and excessive traffic.

But our local officials should be encouraging recreation, not discouraging it through high parking rates and increasingly diminishing parking opportunities without the requisite transit options to avoid traveling to the beach by car.

Yes, there are some transit options. Some families may live close enough to bike. But for many residents, driving is the only realistic option.

I ramble about all of this to say there has got to be a better way to fund local governments and manage crowds during busy times such as Spring Break that doesn’t make a day at the beach unattainable to families struggling in this economy.

In the case of St. Pete Beach’s proposed parking fee increases, officials there say the funding is needed to keep up with the cost of maintaining the beach.

This is fair!

If St. Pete Beach implements its rate increases, it could boost revenue for the city by as much as $1.2 million, money that would become even more critical if lawmakers and voters eventually approve a reduction to property taxes that fund local governments.

But officials typically try to avoid passing regressive taxes, which disproportionately impact people with lower incomes.

One exception is the sales tax, for instance. A person buying the same exact beach towel from a local surf shop pays the same amount of tax on that towel whether they make $40,000 a year or $400,000 a year, meaning it takes up more of the lower-income person’s overall earnings.

So paying $25 for parking might not mean much to a family with a higher income, but it could represent some hard choices for a lower-income family. That is regressive.

Already, most beach towns offer free parking to people with disabilities, or to certain veterans. How hard would it be to create a Pinellas County resident pass? Pick a reasonable fee and offer an annual pass. Maybe it’s $100 for the year. If you live in the county, you can park any number of hours throughout the whole year. The $100 would pay for itself over the course of a Summer for residents who frequent the beach.

Granted, if the goal here is to ensure lower-income families can enjoy the beach without an exorbitant cost, maybe that $100 is still not viable.

I frequent the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, where parking passes are required for anyone parking for more than 10 or 15 minutes. There, visitors can buy daily, weekly, monthly or annual passes. I tend to only go for two or three days at a time, but purchase a weekly pass because it’s cheaper and more convenient than buying a pass daily. This is an easily replicable model and offers flexibility and possible cost savings to those looking to entertain their families on a budget.

Maybe cities could implement hourly rates for quick trips, but max the fee at a more reasonable $10 or $15 for those planning to make a day of it.

Or, what if residents could apply for an income-based parking pass?

Too many logistics? Fine. What if there were a way to ensure locals paid, say, half for parking? Let the visitors carry the bulk of the tab! As I watch flocks of pale-faced college kids from up north storm our local beaches, I can’t help but think they deserve to pay a bit more when their presence requires extra services — like cleaning up all those Bud Light and White Claw cans and spent vape pens.

Still not sold? How about this: If a resident meets certain income limits, maybe they just get to park for free.

Another idea: Make the first hour of parking free. This would allow locals to take a quick stroll on the beach without swapping it for a Starbucks latte. It would also encourage commerce by allowing people to shop at local businesses without having to bust out an app to pay for parking.

My point is, there are ways to think outside the box that could Make Affordable Beach Days Again (MABDA, trademark not pending).

We live in an age where technology is king, and we hear so often from so many how kids these days (waves cane in the air) are too glued to their devices. Granted, the beach is chock full of teenagers taking selfies for what this aging mom thinks is entirely too much time. But there are still countless kids building sandcastles, skipping seashells and begging their parents to come for a swim.

When kids are doing those things, they’re not on social media or watching funny cat videos ad nauseam.

But we risk robbing children of these opportunities by making a day at the beach out of reach for working parents, and that’s not cool.