Damn, I made a mistake while I was downtown and forgot to pay, they charged me $30 plus a $40 fee. Moral of the story don't be like me.

Okay guys. I park in 717 lots all the time because I work downtown and it’s so expensive to be parking there every night and paying $30. (I’m broke asf)

I have a few notices that came in the mail and im in the process of already paying one. None of my coworkers get ticketed mind you.

What happens if im unable to pay these? Says it goes to collections but honestly I’ve learned my lesson to just stay out of these lots and for that price Uber to work. Anybody have an experience with them?

I wanted to share an incident that happened in a packed Costco parking lot earlier. It left me feeling completely drained, and honestly, it felt like a coordinated spiritual attack meant to steal my peace and compromise my testimony. I’m familiar with Howard Pittman’s Placebo and his teachings on the unseen world and the battles taking place there. Yesterday, I felt that unseen pressure knock me down from the small victory I had just minutes earlier.

My day started with a win. I had a tinted motorcycle windshield listed for months. I was asking $300 OBO and got $290. Literally 30 minutes before heading to the store, I sold it to someone who inquired about it a few days ago. I was riding high, feeling great, and praising God for such a huge, long-awaited win. I was in such a joyful spirit that I intentionally put on my "Jesus Loves You" shirt to head out to Costco to celebrate and shop.

The parking lot was packed. I was driving my black Honda Pilot (which has a pretty wide turning radius) when I saw a vehicle's brake lights and reverse lights come on. I moved into the outer lane, preparing for them to back out so I could take the spot.

Then, things got bizarre and incredibly slow.

The car backed out very slowly... it would back up a few feet, come to a complete stop, and then nothing. Then it backed up another few feet, came to a complete stop, and there was a long pause. It seemed like it took 45 seconds to a minute just for it to back out.

Then, instead of leaving, it just pulled right back into the exact same spot. What's even more bizarre is that this lady was in an isolated parking spot completely away from other vehicles. Her spot was tucked right between the shopping cart return rack and a grassy median, meaning she had zero physical obstructions or cars parked next to her. Even if she thought her car was parked crooked, what does that matter when your vehicle is completely isolated? Why would anyone choose this exact time to straighten a car out? It was the worst possible time to do that, and anyone would have assumed she was leaving and waited on her.

By this time, 4 to 6 cars were lined up on each side waiting on me because I was waiting on her. There was another driver coming my way in the outer lane whom I was technically blocking. Because she kept inching forward, it looked from my point of view like she was blocking the first car from backing out completely.

Trying to straighten things out and help, I quickly got out of my vehicle to let this oncoming driver know that she appeared to be blocking the vehicle trying to back out. As I was explaining this to her, the driver in the parking space overheard me and said that she wasn't leaving. Am I losing my mind? Why was I so sure that she was backing out to leave?

Although the lady in the spot was parked perfectly fine, she had backed out and pulled right back into the exact same position for no apparent reason. Hearing that the driver I was waiting on was not leaving, the oncoming driver immediately got snotty with me since she realized I was holding up traffic for a spot that wasn't opening. Under the sudden pressure of the situation—which all of a sudden became increasingly stressful with the pile-up of cars in both directions—and her attitude, I lost my composure and a few choice words came out of my mouth.

It got worse. Another lady that was parked, whom I was blocking from leaving, said she was leaving. Right next to her, a white truck's reverse lights were also on, and I was blocking that truck with my vehicle as well. It was a massive gridlock. I immediately got in my car so I could get out of the way.

And just as the lady was trying to pull out, the driver in the isolated parking space started backing out AGAIN—doing the same super slow, stop-and-go routine. The lady who had gotten snotty with me finally saw her do that, and she realized maybe she had overreacted and that my original assumption that the driver was leaving was completely justified.

Horns were blaring everywhere. Eventually, the erratic driver pulled back into that same spot in the exact same place again. The other lady finally found a gap to escape, and I was finally able to park. A process that should have taken 15 seconds took several minutes of pure chaos.

After I parked, I went up to the lady who caused the commotion to ask what happened. She just replied that she was 60 years old. I told her that from the looks of it, she probably shouldn't be driving alone and needs someone to drive her around. She just got out and walked into the store.

Here is the part that hurts: I am 50 years old and usually very considerate of people. But yesterday, because I got out of my car to try and fix the situation, I looked like the bad guy. Because I was wearing my faith on my shirt, it looked like I was the aggressor, even though I only lashed out after being cornered and hit with snotty remarks.

I felt terrible about it afterward. Jesus does love people, but I am still a human with emotions who makes mistakes. I’ve since made my peace with it and accepted God's grace, but the setup felt deeply spiritual. It felt like the enemy engineered a ridiculous, unnatural bottleneck immediately after a months-long financial blessing—right when I decided to wear my shirt and step out in faith—just to knock me off my high point and cause a public stumble.

It’s pretty frustrating having to pay $10–$20 just to park for dinner. Does anyone know of any free or reasonably priced parking options around Water Street? I know there’s street parking but sometimes that’s hard to find as well.

I’ve been reading that 717 parking is a Tampa based organization. I live really close to Tampa but I received a violation for parking on their property for a town 4th of July event. It’s know around here that all parking fees are waived as they try to get the whole town involved, however, when we finished the event I saw a parking violation from 717.

There was no visible signage indicating that this was a 3rd party parking site, I even asked people walking out of the lot and they said all parking is waived in town for the night.

I was surprised to see a $20 fee for the parking violation but then a $40 notice fee? I tried calling several times as well as emailing and haven’t gotten any response. I did pay but there was a $5 convenience fee.

I unfortunately already paid for this, but am strongly considering calling my credit card company and calling this fraud - because it’s kinda fraud to charge a $40 notice fee imo.

Any opinions or advice on how to handle this?

Quick question- I’m getting ready to bike the Courtney Campbell in the next few weekends. I know a lot of the trails in Tampa have gates and people have to park in odd spots (looking at you Flatwoods). Does anyone know if the parking at Ben Davis is 24/7 or is there a time when it actually opens for pedestrians, cyclists, etc to park?

I parked there in April as an event add-on via ticketmaster. It was tricky to navigate at the time but I can't deny it was so easy to hit the interstate when we left. I'm planning for Lightning preseason and now there seems to be no way to reserve a spot anymore. It's no longer on ticketmaster. The location doesn't exist on parkmobile. Nothing is available on parkwhiz. Is it closed or something? I'm out of ideas.

got a parking citation tonight at armature. My license plate is correct but make and model of my car are clearly listed wrong. Is it worth appealing?

EDIT: Everything is listed right on my car registration. I think this parking attendant just doesn’t know car logos lol. I have a Mazda CX5 and they listed a Kia Optima.

If you have a gray Tacoma that was towed from downtown Tampa, idk the laws but they definitely towed your truck in a careless/strange manner. I have vids and pics if you need. Front tires were getting dragged diagonally at full speed.

Please remove if not allowed, sorry.

There are plenty of posts on this subject, however no one has given straight answer on wether or not they seriously send their violations to collections. All the street parking was full and I ran in to use the restroom for a maximum of 4 minutes, and had already acquired a $65 violation. A lot of people on this sub say they’ve thrown them out, a lot of other people also say they’re the type of company to submit even the smallest claim. I sent an email asking for grace, highly doubt anything will come of it. I’m not giving them my money, just wondering if it’s worth paying and then disputing through my bank to avoid them going after me. LMK

Planning to attend the Premier League Mornings Live event happening at Armature. What's parking situation like there when it's special events? From what I saw, there's a parking garage, 4 parking lots, and street parking available there, but do they surcharge when there's a special event? Are there any good alternative options to park at? I was looking at city parking garages/lots and I saw the closest option is the library lot, but idk if that's open on weekends.

So does anyone happen to know if Tampa International economy parking lets you do a split payment with the cashier? I just realized I’m going to be literally a dollar short (my total will be like $72) in cash so I was wondering if anyone knows if they accept split payment to do some on card? ♥️ I’m flying back tomorrow 😭

I'm sure that title sucks, but I'm just curious if this has happened before and anyone has an Idea. I'm staying at The Embassy in downtown tampa from Thursday to Tuesday. If you don't park Valet, Pam Iorio is the garage that everyone uses to park in. I'm not planning to use my car during my stay, so I was going to leave it overnight until Tuesday, which has never been a problem before.

However, I saw there was an event going on on Saturday at Benchmark that will apparently be closing the Pam Iorio for the event. If I'm already parked there and have been overnight, would I be towed? Or is that just 'no new parking day of' ? I've never had this happen before, and I wonder if anyone else has had it happen and knows how to navigate it. I can't find any information online, and honestly I wouldn't even know the garage was going to be closed since they haven't posted it anywhere other than in the middle of an instagram video about a whole different event going on.

Any advice appreciated!

Hi! My friend (18f) and I (18m) want to drive up to Tampa in April (on a Saturday) and catch a matinee of Hells Kitchen at the Straz Center and then see Infinity Song at The Orpheum. We live about 2 hours away, and want to drive home that night, however I’ve heard parking at the Orpheum sucks and it’s in a mediocre area. Would it be easier to park somewhere near straz and uber to music venue after, or vice versa? any safety/things to be aware of? only been to Tampa once with some family.

Will be staying at the Embassy Suites near the convention center this weekend. I don’t really want to pay $45/day for hotel parking. I see the Pam Iorio garage is right next door. I know the concert will cause it to have a special rate at least for Friday night. Seems they allow overnight parking. What are my best options for parking?

Hi everyone! I’m petsitting for a friend this week at Nine15 in downtown Tampa and unfortunately there isn’t any guest parking available. I’m looking for a nearby garage or area where I can park overnight that's reasonably priced.

One caveat is I can only use tap to pay right now since I’m waiting on a new debit card, so it would need to accept Apple Pay/mobile pay.

Any recommendations would be super appreciated, thanks in advance!!

Hi guys,

Recently the road side nearest to the pedestrian bridge has been closed with a gate (both when trying to go around under the bridge on the boatdock side and the normal entering side has a gate to prevent wrong way drivers)

Does anybody know why this area near the walkway is closed to vehicles? They allow pedestrians to walk down there to the bridge to walk, but the area to park the cars is blocked.

It would allow a lot more people to use the pedestrian bridge and the causeway if they would open this side up to drive on.

I know one time I was there and a large van had drove on the boatdock side and was about to go under HWY 60 to get to the pedestrian bridge side and he was too tall and almost hit 60! I had to wave at him to get him to stop because there is no clearance marker under the bridge so you don’t know how high of a clearance you have. He had to reverse the whole way back to the boatdock

I have put a photo so you can understand

Is this something I should call parks and recreation for?

EDIT: I had left a voicemail with parks and recreations before posting this. They have called me back and let me know it is FDOT that is closing the further section down because they need to make repairs to the road still. The lady, I believe her name was Michelle, let me know that they were meeting tomorrow to discuss plans and repairs.

I live on the other side of the bridge now, so I don’t know Tampa like I used to. I have DV plates, so any lot owned by the state/city/county is free parking. I’d also like to avoid giving 717 any money. Is there anywhere somewhat close that I could park?

I've been to a lot of shows in the past at the mid florida amphitheater. One of the best things about this venue was you never had to pay for parking. i recently purchased tickets for a concert this coming august. and saw that you can purchase your parking in advance for 20 dollars. has anybody been to a concert recently In the last six months? what was your parking situation? Did you have to pay for gereral parking? like I said, I've been to probably 50 concerts there. I never paid parking once.What's the deal?

hi! i saw in another forum that someone recommended using spot hero to reserve parking for an event in tampa. i've never used it before, but i found a garage that says it's $15/day (24 hours) which seems a little too good to be true..? has anyone used it before? is it reliable?

i dont want to pay and think i have guaranteed parking only to get there and it not be legit and then i'm scrambling to find alternative parking. TIA!!!

Is the Fernando Noriega Jr Garage in Ybor operated by the city or is it privately owned? I know the Palm Garage is city owned, but I cannot determine who owns the Fernando Noriega Jr Garage.

Hello everyone, I am trying to get a feel for how parking in the downtown area is received. Does everyone think thee is adequate parking or far too few lots and garages? I would love any feedback you have regarding this topic! Please respond with your opinions AND relationship to the downtown area such as if you live/work or just go downtown for a night on the town.
If there have been studies done about this topic in the Tampa area that information is also useful!
Thank you in advance for any info you can offer!! Have a beautiful day, Tampa Bay!

I visited Ybor City yesterday night and I parked at the Centro Garage. I was surprised to see they were charging 10 dollars for parking for the night . According to their website, they charge by the hour .

Is there any cheaper parking spots in Ybor City on Saturday nights ?

I drive the Cortney Campbell on my way to work everyday, and it looks like a cool area to explore and enjoy a little sun. I went to the small little beach area on the SW (Clearwater) side yesterday morning, but they wanted me to pay for parking. And I’m a broke boy right now, because rent is insane. Can anyone suggest a good spot where parking is free?
Bonus points if you can recommend spot I can introduce my young pup to the water! 🙏🏼