I Told You So

 

I knew it would come to no good. And I was right.

In November of 2015 I wrote about the dangerous precedent  set by the introduction of on-street parking spaces in front of the Metropolitan building in Downtown Columbia.

Parallel parking. There are multiple parallel parking spaces in front of the shops at the Metropolitan. How can they do this? No one in Columbia knows how to parallel park. They've just taken it off of the drivers exam, for heaven's sake. Granted, there's only a handful of spaces, but somebody needs to take a stand now before this gets out of hand.

Last night my daughter and I headed over to Mod Pizza for dinner and were flummoxed by the sight of a car double parked with its flashers on, parallel to the parking lane. We waited for a moment to see if it might move out of politeness. 

Nope.

As we passed by on our way to the parking garage we noticed two things. The car was completely empty, windows rolled down, almost as though the occupants had been “raptured” while in the act of looking for a parking space. But the pièce de resistance was the fact that it sat blocking a generously sized curbside parking space. 

These folks left the car in the middle of the road rather than attempt parallel parking. And now no one else could have that space as long as they were there.

What did I tell you? I knew this could only mean disaster. Columbians aren’t ready for the challenges of urban living.

Of course both today’s post and the original one are largely tongue in cheek. We parked in the garage, which added only a few extra steps to our trip. We enjoyed a delicious outdoor meal with pizzas made just the way we wanted them. The added bonus was the gorgeous weather and a good bit of people watching - - especially children playing on the big yellow sculpture out front.

But, for heaven’s sake, who double parks in front of an empty parking space???

If they haven’t put parallel parking back on the driver’s exam, maybe they should.