My Brother Bruce and I have struggled with parking in NYC too. One time, we actually waited in our car for a 1/2 hour for a man to finish a meal in a diner while we waited for his space.
“I hope he doesn’t get dessert.” I said to Bruce.
Fortunately he didn’t, and we were able to get his space shortly after he finished.
“This experience is so New York.” Bruce replied later, and I couldn’t help but agree.
My worst parking experience however was when I was meeting a few former high school buddies for a reunion on the Upper East Side. I saw two traffic agents walking by cars, as I pulled up next to a Mercedes to ask the driver if he was leaving. After it was confirmed, I double parked my car and waited for him to leave.
Within two minutes, a female traffic agent came up to my car and bellowed, “You can’t park here.”
“I’m waiting for a space.” I replied, and satisfied with my answer she left for the time being.
After a few moments, the mercedes pulled out of the space, and I pulled in forward to park. Just as I pulled into the space, a livery cab rolled up and the cabbie started to yell at me. It was the first argument of the night, but unfortunately not the last.
“I saw what you did. You pulled into the space when he was backing in.” He bellowed.
“He said I could take the space,” I yelled back. “I’ve been waiting for him to leave.”
The livery driver glared at me, but was unconvinced, and drove off in a huff.
I thought my worries were over, but after my argument with the livery driver I started to adjust my car in the space. I confess due to my stressed out condition I didn't do great job parking and there was a lot of scraping of tires against the sidewalk. Suddenly, another meter guy comes over and starts punching things in his computer.
“What are you doing?” I yelled out.
“There's no money in the meter.” he replied angrily.
“But I'm parking.” I stated emphatically.
“Put money in the meter!” he screamed back.
Fortunately, I had one quarter and was able to put it in the meter, and then got some change at a nearby store. When I got back to my car, there was a Pakistani man sawing a piece of wood on my meter.
“Oh shit what now?” I said to myself. I didn't know what was happening, but I wanted to defuse my next potential problem.
“Can you believe these parking agents?" I said to the man, "He wanted to give me a ticket for parking.”
“I know that guy,” He grumbled. “Someday, somebody is going to kill him.” as he proceeded to cut the piece of wood even more fiercely.
Based on his ability with the saw, I reasoned he was probably a good candidate to do the job right, and after our brief conversation and a few more quarters in the meter, I walked across the street to tell my friends about my stressful experience.
Life Lesson 25: It’s been said many times that “Good things come to those who wait,” but sometimes we have to be creative to get what we want too. In addition, a good excuse can go a long way, but remember so can a roll of quarters. So, be like the scouts, and always be prepared, especially when driving and parking in New York City.
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