THE AMATEUR PARKER … No Parking Like SnowParking BY MELISSA BEAN STERZICK


parts of the country and see that people out there are freezing their tails off.


T I grew up in South-


HE TEMPERATURES HAVE DIPPED here in the LosAngeles area, and I have stoppedwearing flip-flops and tradedmy T-shirts for a light sweater. Occasionally, I catch a glimpse of the news from other


crunching sound it makes when you walk, and the awful inconvenience of having to get around in it. One of the many inconveniences of snow is parking your


car on the street and having it completely buried by a snow- plow.My car was snowplowed into oblivion once, and luckily the nice snowplow driver, on his way down the other side of


ernCalifornia and had no idea what our car’s defrost button actually did.And I never realized that the entire purpose of a garage was to keep your car out of the snowto save you the trouble ofwalking in snowor scraping it from your windows. My education in snowwas quick and painful. Iwent to college


in Utah.Those days are a distantmemory now. When I think of college, I remember that I spent all my time


working, playing, studying, sleeping and dating a long list of jerks. When I think of snow, I remember my nose hairs freezing, the


If you’re in a parking lot and a quake opens up a huge ravine right under your feet that swallows you whole, then it was just your time to go.


the street, stopped plowing and got out to help me push my Honda to dry land. One bitter Utah winter, my neighbor was forced to aban-


don herVWRabbit for several months. Her poor car was tiny and white and parked on the street.After a huge snowstorm, the Rabbit was rendered invisible and immobile, first buried by the indomitable snowplow and then frozen solid by plum- meting temperatures. The car was impossibly stuck until spring arrived and the glacier began tomelt. The city of Chicago disallows nighttime parking on 107


miles of its streets during the coldest winter months. I am guessing this is done to prevent a remake of my neighbor’s snowbound Rabbit drama. I’ve read the streets included in the restriction are vital to the successful function of the city’s emergency services and deployment of its snowplows. My imagination is not up to the challenge of envisioning


a place so cold and so jeopardized by the weather that such a dramatic parking ban is required.Andwhere are all those peo- ple going to park until the end ofApril? Snow is pretty when it’s falling. Snow is lovely when


you’re hiding under a down comforter with a good book and a cup of cocoa by your bed. Snow is also enjoyable when you bundle up and go outside for a short walk – no destination – just cold, quiet, peaceful snow that’s still soft like a bubble bath. Raging snowball fights are terrific fun. Snowboarding is pretty great, too. But these greatmoments in snow are of limited duration,


and the next thing you know, your car is a giant ice cube or the curb is mounded so high you’re parking in the middle of the street. My husband grew up in Idaho, where it’s so cold every-


body just goes numb and that’s why they all seem so easygo- ing. In Idaho on any day during the state’s eightmonths ofwin- ter, you cannot park your car outside for more than five hours and expect it to start again, ever. For the employed or otherwise engaged, this means lunch


is not time for soup and salad. It’s time to go to the parking lot, rub the ice off the keyhole, start your car (if you’re lucky), and run it for 30 minutes so you have some hope of getting home that night. Enclosed parking in that climate is highly desirable. People compare California’s earthquakes to the natural


42 JANUARY 2010 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com


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