The Amateur Parker TheWord on Parking By Melissa Bean Sterzick


A recent search for news of the world of parking (you can find


most of these stories in the PT News sec- tion on our Home Page at www.parking- today.com) yielded the usual robberies, abductions and rate increases, as well as several more intriguing headlines. Here’s a sampler platter of the good, the bad and the ugly.


City worker’s wages to be docked for parking tickets Well, isn’t it interesting: cityworkers


with unpaid parking tickets? Many peo- ple out there are trying to stay one step ahead of the law, but you’d think city employees would know better. Now, one municipality is taking parking fines right out of their paychecks. I feel just a bit bad for them, because I wouldn’t want my employer to have that kind of power. But it’s like teachers making spitballs in the bathroom or firefighters light- ing matches in the forest – getting caught is worse for insiders.


Car plunges 7 stories off Pennsylvania casino parking deck; 1 dies I imagine this kind of headline gives


parking structure builders a headache – or worse. From what I read, engineers and builders consider this scenario when they design parking structures. Unfortu- nately, it’s difficult to stop someone who is determined to do it.


Handicapped parking: Time for a crackdown on abuses First, “crackdown” is not a realword.


Second, bravo. Some publicity and a few random checks of handicapped placards, and abusers could be sufficiently deterred from their illegal activity. It’s just as easy for me to say “handicapped-parking thieves are deadbeats” as it is for the deadbeats to say “I’m not hurting any- body.” But they arewrong, and I amright. Integrity should keep them from behav- ing so badly, and if it doesn’t, the applica- tion of goodmanners would be appropri- ate. After that, they just need to get caught, because they are the kind of peo-


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ple who do the right thing only if they will be punished otherwise.


City council hikes downtown parking rates Ever wonder why newspapers use a


word such as “hikes”when they are refer- ring to an amount that equals 25 cents per hour? There are two possible answers: first, the word “increase” didn’t fit in the space allowed; and second, the word “adjust” would not attract as many read- ers. I understand parking rate increases; however, I think that askingmore than $1 per hour is unreasonable if coins are the only payment option. If I don’t have enough dimes, nickels and quarters inmy


He keys their cars and leaves threatening notes on their windshields, wherein he calls them names.


purse to pay for two hours of parking at $1 per hour, nobody does.


NBA Finals parking: Arrive early or prepare to pay $50 Once again, parking at major sport-


ing events goes for a premium. I’m not shocked anymore. I have little interest in professional sports and will probably never be required to pay such an astound- ing price for parking. So, knock yourself out, sports fans. You’re going to fork over $10 for horrible nachos, so you might as well spend $50 on parking – howelsewill you knowyou’ve enjoyed yourself?


Asphalt going green with ‘cool pavement’ in Phoenix This I one of the coolest ideas I have


read about parking all year, and when I say “cool,” I mean smart and innovative. Paint the parking lot green (using celadon solar-reflective cool pavement coating from Emerald Cities USA) and it will not absorb and then radiate so much heat, so they say. The numbers include a 90,000-


square-foot lot and a reduced surface tempera- ture


of 30


degrees Fahrenheit on hot days. I’ve been to Phoenix on a hot day, and “hot” is not the right word. Try “scorching,” “boil- ing,” “sizzling,” “searing,” “burning” or “blistering.” (Thesaurus is a great tool.)


Lawyer charged with keying badly parked cars So this guy goes a little nuts on peo-


plewho can’t park.He keys their cars and leaves threatening notes on their wind- shields, wherein he calls them names, questions their intelligence and suggests they take parking lessons. This man is a lawyer, and though per- haps better educated than his vic- tims, has less brainpower than they do.He vandalizes two cars in the same parking lot and for the notes uses stationery from his nearby athletic club in both inci- dents. The police are advised and set up a sting by doing a terrible parking job and waiting for the


accused to attack again. He does, and they cart himoff to jail.


High school students empty parking lot for Memorial Day ceremony Instead of using the school parking


lot for their cars, students at one high school drew an enormous American flag and wrote the names of more than 5,000 service members who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. It took 13 hours to complete the job. This is the kind of activ- ity I love to hear about. One of my earliest columns was about the many great things I have done in parking lots – all of them legal and rated PG. Why not reconfigure a parking lot, even for just a day, into a memorial?What a terrific idea to use this enormous space as a canvas to honormembers of ourArmed Forces.


Melissa Bean Sterzick is an Amateur Parker and PT’s proofreader. She can be reached at Melissa@parkingtoday.com.


PT Parking Today www.parkingtoday.com


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