[OldNorth] New frontier of parking problems

[Valerie Vann]

I experienced an interesting aspect of the parking issue
yesterday, in the form of an escalation, or grossification
of something that has been happening more frequently recently.

Since I live on the west side of the 600 block G, we always
get a certain amount of parking overflow of the mall lot.
Sometimes this takes the form of trucks waiting for businesses
to open, tour buses (or team buses) whose passengers are
at the restaurant, or RV at the restaurant or stocking up
at the COOP, etc.

The problem comes when they "park" with their engines running;
the buses usually do this because they keep the AC going; and
trucks with refrigeration do it for the same reason. The buses
have been late into the evening, and trucks both very early
and very late. You probably don't realize how much noise a
bus or truck engine and AC compressor makes until you've had 
one parked in front of your house for hours. Plus the exhaust
fumes of course.

We also get "stored" RV's, but at least they're just
eyesores and prevent street cleaning, they're quiet at least.

Presumably the drivers pick my place because the driveway 
gives extra room to maneuver a whale into the curb, and my
side has big shade trees.

Yesterday shortly after noon a HUGE (40 feet? more?) RV/mobile 
home parked right in front of my house. This thing looked like
the Beverly Hills Hilton on wheels. It occupied two full
parking places and part of a third. 

All the curtains in this monster (including the windshield) were
drawn. There was a dog inside that barked at every passerby
(G St. gets a lot of foot traffic during the day). 

But the "best part" was that the AC unit on top was roaring
away (which is what lead me to investigate why I was hearing
"truck noise" for more than a few minutes). AND to keep
the  AC going, the engine was also running at idle, but
"reving" about every 5 minutes, and the tail pipe spewing
exhaust into my front yard.

The thing finally disappeared about 6:30pm, just as I 
was wondering if it was going to be there overnite, and
considering my options if it was.

Val
----
Valerie Vann
valerie at vanngroup.com