A Sea Isle tradition: claiming the curb with a coat of paint

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. - Call this summer drama 50 shades of yellow. And then gray. And back to yellow again.

In this overpopulated beach town, the summer parking battles are being fought with cans of paint. And a parade of trips to Municipal Court.

Hey, the accused are arguing, this is how it's always been done in Sea Isle: You paint the strip of the curb in front of your house yellow to make sure cars don't block your driveway, or maybe even you make it a little longer to save a space. Don't you? Like the lawn chairs in South Philly, it's this Jersey Shore town's little attempt at "savesies."

The practice is so long-standing in Sea Isle that homeowner Dave Garrison told a judge last week that a Realtor told him the city had grayed out his personally yellowed strip only because "it was the wrong yellow."

So Garrison sought to be more compliant. He scraped up some authorized yellow from a nearby corner and took it to Home Depot to match it. Then he came back to his house on Landis Avenue and tried to do a neater job, closer to a match.

"This time I rolled it on, and it was the right color," he said.

The ticket came in the mail, violation of Ordinance 15.6.2, court appearance required, punishable under a general penalty ordinance by up to 90 days in jail, community service, and a fine of $1,250. (But in reality, the fines have been $123, including $40 of restitution to the city for the cost of painting the curbs back gray.)

In all, said code enforcement officer Brian Teefy, 295 patches of homeowner-yellow were painted over this spring, a policy mandate to gray-wash the town that went up the chain of command to City Hall. "We went through a lot of paint," Teefy said. "We have a uniform shade."

In truth, it was getting out of hand.

"Throughout the years, people used to start painting a little bit of yellow along their driveways," Teefy said. "People do one foot, the neighbor does two feet, and then it's eight feet. By the time you're done, you have people doing 20 feet."

The crackdown has rippled through the town's justice apparatus.

"We're trying to eradicate the improper painting," said municipal prosecutor Thomas Rossi, who has found himself conducting impromptu interrogations over "when did the curb shift from gray to yellow?" in vestibules of the old schoolhouse (still subbing as the Courthouse post-Hurricane Sandy).

"The rule is don't paint your own curb," he said. "We paint the curb gray. That puts that space back into the parking inventory."

In these desperate parking times - Sea Isle's year-round population of 2,000 swells past 40,000 in summer - the yellow curbs have been spreading. New construction has put duplexes and triplexes and multiple driveways cut into the main streets through town. Try finding a spot on Pleasure Avenue. One couple over Fourth of July parked 17 blocks from their rental. Everyone's visitors show up with cars.

Police Capt. A.J. Garreffi said officers were occasionally ticketing cars on improper yellow curbs.

So Officer Teefy's "Signs and Lines" crew went out this spring and grayed out all the improper yellow. As homeowners arrived back in town, some sought to reclaim their curb and painted back over the gray. Those people, about 27, were sent summonses, violation of the Sea Isle ordinance that prohibits anyone to paint, or have painted, any curb. This has led to a stream of 15.6.2 cases before Municipal Judge Vincent Morrison this summer.

On Thursday, in addition to the usual mix of cellphone violations ($200), fake IDs ($500), caught with a joint (more complicated), and DWI's (awaiting trial), the judge handled his typical load of painting prosecutions: two guilty pleas, including one homeowner who drove up from North Carolina, two dismissals against next-door neighbors caught up in the web of their neighbors' painting actions, and one down for a full trial.

Garrison, of Drexel Hill, pleaded guilty to 15.6.2 but said the city, after looking at his photos of cars blocking his driveway (a coffee shop is across the street), said they would take another look. Maybe some yellow was in order after all.

In the trial case, a plea bargain was accepted by John Eastlack Sr., represented by John Eastlack Jr., that allowed him to pay $40 restitution but not the $50 fine.

Rossi told the judge the city could not prove who actually painted the curb yellow. "We can't see who the culprit is," Rossi said.

The Eastlacks declined to comment.

Although word spread that curb painters were getting $1,500 fines and skirting jail with community service, the reality is nearly all end up with a $50 fine, $40 restitution, and $33 court costs.

"No community service," said Rossi. "Maybe we should make them go out and paint curbs."

Observed one man awaiting a DWI trial, "The paint store must be doing a helluva business."

609-823-0453 @amysrosenberg