Another Roadside Attraction : Notwithstanding the Christmas crunch, L.A. parking leaves East Coast in the dust
Staff writer John Glionna’s story about the stress Angelenos face with the “maul parking” mentality of the holiday season prompts one observation in this space:
Angelenos should relax and stop complaining. Parking is one area in which Los Angeles residents have it all over their traditional East Coast rivals.
“You mean they only have to worry about parking during the (expletive deleted) holidays?” a visiting New Yorker asked in dismay. A Washingtonian was even less diplomatic.
“Whatta bunch of wimps,” he said.
They’re just jealous.
Yes, we know that certain motoring terms have an entirely different meaning here in California. A car’s “road feel,” for example, usually refers to how it handles when it is moving. Here, it’s literally how the road feels to your hand--as you reach out and touch it during gridlock on the Ventura Freeway.
But parking? We have the big-city monopoly on parking, and it’s enough to make those East Coast snobs crazy with envy.
Taking a job in New York, are you? Be prepared for frank discussions on housing and on where exactly you’re going to keep your car. And all that stuff one hears about not needing your own car in New York--it’s just a smoke screen. They’re really telling you that you can’t have one. Don’t even bother driving one into town.
In parts of Boston in winter, people stake out their street parking spaces with all manner of things: trash cans, cones, brooms, shovels, shopping carts. It’s a warning that said space had better be open when the user returns. Transgress and take over the space as your own, and you risk finding eggs or catsup all over your car, or worse.
And Washington is a cramped town where home driveways and off-street parking are as rare as winning the lottery. Just imagine, for example, driving your new luxury sedan home from work and having to search your neighborhood for 30 minutes or more for a parking space. Better yet, imagine walking out of your door the next morning ready for work but unable to remember whether your car is four blocks east, or west, or north, or south.
One former Washingtonian remembers a conversation he had with a friend who could not accept the fact that his buddy was leaving friends and career behind to get married and move to Los Angeles. Finally, something about the move made perfect sense to his friend.
“She has a two-car garage?” he noted. “Wow.”
