PT THE AUDITOR It’s All the Pilgrims’ Fault T


HE BOSS SLIPPED ME AN advanced copy of Peter Guest’s col- umn this month, and I see that he is commenting on the presen- tation by Dennis Cunning at


the recent PIE and tossing in a few limey remarks about the use of “bits of paper, stickers on tickets” in the running of park- ing facilities here in the U.S.


I’ll take amoment and reviewthe issue in some


slight detail. The concept of validating parking goes back as


A few years earlier, Sir


Francis Drake had sailed the Golden Hind into San Francisco Bay and wasmet by locals who, to this


If a third party, perhaps the wench that Ben Franklin was telling them about that morning at the local beer hall, wanted to pay that fee for you.


far as the arrival of theMayflower from England in 1620.When the captain pulled in at Plymouth Rock, the locals told him there would be a slight charge to park his boat. Of course, the folks who had barely survived the crossing thought this was a slight overreach and decided to move on down the coast rather than pay the fee. Then a local buckskin clad entrepreneur jumped into the fray


and mentioned that if the so-called Pilgrims would be so kind as to use his catering company that fall for any upcoming celebra- tions, hewould be happy to cover the cost of their parking.And a new concept was born.


day, charge heavy fees for leaving your mode of transportation in their care. Itwas only after one of the locals,who sensedDrake and his


crewjustmight fit inwellwith some of the local population, took Frank aside and noted that he would be happy to cover the park- ing charge if the knight and his lads would drop by his establish- ment on the Embarcadero and hoist a few. They could pick up a document on their way out that was worth one year of docking fees at Pier 1.


Continued on Page 34


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