PARKING PROBLEMS

I WENT TO DINNER DOWN IN TOWN with a friend a couple nights ago, to a popular pizza and beer joint. As it is a good restaurant, it’s always busy. We drove around the parking lot once, turned around and went out onto a side road to look for a place to park. One block, two blocks, and finally, three blocks away a suitable place to leave the truck for an hour or so appeared.

I quickly pulled into the spot, and we made the trek back to the pizza parlor. Along the way some “creative” parking was on display, with vehicles jammed into every nook and cranny along the road shoulder, with tail-ends hanging out into the traffic lane, and walkways to homes and mailboxes occupied by vehicles driven by diners presumably too lazy to walk a few extra yards. To be fair, I do understand their frustration, it used to be fairly easy to find a place to leave one’s vehicle here. More and more apartments have been stacked up along the road and alleyways, adding to the number of cars, and subtracting from the number of available parking spots.

My friend and I commented on how traffic and its associated effects has gotten much more pronounced over the last eight years he has owned his home here. And, it is a factor in his recent decision to list his home for sale. He’s been coming to the mountains here for over 40 years, and has owned a place in our neighborhood for eight. Traffic and congestion can now be a major impediment to travel in a timely manner, even in small towns and the highways that connect them.

Our dinner was enjoyable, and we walked back to the truck parked a couple hundred yards away. Readers in an urban or suburban environment might wonder why I’m grousing about what they deal with on a daily basis; after all, they’ve never experienced anything but heavy traffic and tight parking.

And that precisely is my issue. Living here in the mountains for over 40 years, I’ve come to expect a nice, quiet living environment where people are courteous and respectful of each other.

Not always, of course, but the social norm here is something that urban dwellers take some time to even notice, let alone appreciate. Another friend moved from next-door to me down to this small town a few years ago, and he really doesn’t like it. His neighbors have all recently come from the big metro area on the eastern slope of the Rockies, and they steadfastly refuse to make eye contact or reply to a simple “hello,” even when their next-door neighbor issues such a greeting from just a few feet away. Such an environment influences even long-time locals. The other day, Staci and I had just parked on a pullout on a nearby Forest Service road, preparing to walk the dogs. A vehicle pulled in just in front of us, leaving little room for us. The driver was a very personable chap, and asked if we had room to get out. I gave him a strange look and replied in the positive, though I was quite bewildered as to why someone would park two feet from another vehicle on a road three miles long with maybe a halfdozen cars along the whole thing. Staci and I walked off slowly with the dogs, (after locking all doors and windows), and the recently arrived driver decided to move his vehicle to a different spot once he realized that he had quite a bit of room. He caught up to us, we chatted and he loved on our Newfoundlands and he hiked off along the creek. He seemed familiar, and much later I remembered who he was, a teacher up in the large resort town at the head of the main valley. He’s been here longer than I, and due to the intense parking pressure where he lives, he had been going out of his way to park as close to our vehicle as possible, so as to leave room for the next driver who needed to park. His “strange” (to us) behavior was simply him being mindful and courteous to both us and the next person who might need a spot. Of course, in a congested urban area, such concern for others is truly strange. While his gesture was appreciated (in retrospect), it made us nostalgic for the days when there was plenty of breathing – and parking – room for all.