COCOA BEACH — Thousands of sunshine-seeking tourists and beachgoers are streaming downtown this weekend to bask in summer-like heat, clogging parking spaces and lots.
They’re cramming vehicles
into metered spaces. Pay-by-kiosk lots. Grassy pay lots manned by attendants. And alongside green curbs dating to last summer’s ill-fated pay-by-phone program.
Downtown parking remains a perennial issue in Cocoa Beach, where city officials estimate 2.4 million day-trippers visit each year — some of whom litter, racking up cleanup costs. A key question: What strategy would accommodate stop-and-go customers at Juice-N-Java Café or Subway alongside beachgoers from DeLand who fill spaces six hours at a stretch?