Before I had a car in Charlottesville, I would often hear my friends whine about how hard it was to find parking around Grounds and downtown. I listened to their tirades and tears about their tickets and towing, but I could never truly empathize because I was not granted a permanent set of wheels until my triumphant return to Charlottesville after Thanksgiving Break. High off of the freedom and joys of driving back to school, cheerfully evading and slowing down for the sneaky cops on 29 South and jamming to mix CDs, I had no idea I was driving toward my own parking controversy. A certain realty company from which I rent my apartment requires its residents to purchase a $10 parking sticker to be placed in the back window of the car. Car-owning renters are not allowed to purchase said sticker until they have registration information to give the company. Knowing this, I figured I could get it from the leasing office when I returned Saturday morning with the registration, since the office is usually open Saturday mornings, and I wouldn't have any registration to give them before I left for home.
Back in Charlottesville and eager to get to the game, I found my apartment parking lot fairly empty, but the streets in my surrounding area filled with cars, parallel parked. To my dismay the leasing office was closed, so I could not purchase a parking sticker to park legally in my own lot.
I weighed my options. The parking lot was not filled, so no one could complain about my presence, at least until after the game ended and I could move to a spot on the street. And it was my last home game of college and I didn't want to be late searching for a far-away space when I pay rent for a parking space 5 feet away from me. I was also really hung over, so my decision-making skills were not at their finest.
Some might argue that because it was a game day, I should have known better than to park anywhere without a permit. I might respond by saying a person should be able to park in the parking lot for which they pay rent. But alas, I returned to an empty space where my shiny new car had once been parked.
I immediately learned the hard way that there are lots of games you have to play and win to get your car back from being impounded. First you have to guess which company towed it. There are at least 10 towing companies around Charlottesville, if not more. It's a cruel guessing game, let me tell you. Then you must convince a friend to pity you and drive you to the hard-to-find lot in postgame traffic.
And is it just me, or is rescuing your car from the towing impound lot as comparably shady as doing a drug deal? As shady as I would imagine a drug deal to be, of course. You can only pay in cash and you have to skulk guiltily to the dingy shack at the end of a desolate parking lot. Then you must wait in line while the disgruntled towing man fights with other victims of parking injustice.
And after all of this hassle I had to bide my time until Monday morning when the leasing office reopened from their luxurious five-day weekend to fight for my $90 back. Of course, I was immediately shot down.
I pleaded my case well, I thought -- it's not that I was trying to be sneaky and rebellious and park where I knew I shouldn't. I'm an actual resident and have been for almost two years. It is only because I was accepting the company policies and relying on their office to be open at the time it usually is Saturday.
And the Saturday after Thanksgiving excuse is a little pathetic, if you ask me. I mean, having Friday off is enough. I love Thanksgiving, but it's pretty much a fake holiday. If an office is usually open on Saturday it should be relied on to be open. But I was told unsympathetically that because the towing company would not reimburse the realty company, the realty company would not reimburse me.
After lamely trying to protest this injustice by whining: "So there's nothing you can do? Really?" several times, I gave up and demanded a legitimate parking sticker. It is a bit humbling to acknowledge that so much of my dignity depended on this sticky orange square. But again I was denied the legitimate sticker because my car has a temporary registration and temporary plates, which it will have for the next three weeks until I return home for Winter Break and receive the new ones.
What my leasing company did not seem to understand was that this does not mean the registration or the license plates are fake or sketchy. They are real and legitimate, just temporary for the next three weeks. It is curious to me that this mystified my realty company, for one would assume that newly purchased cars are not an anomaly, but pop up often in parking situations. Their reasoning was that if the car had to be moved for some reason, they would be unable to contact me to let me know. This makes zero sense because the plates I will be receiving would be registered under my parents' names anyway, and they have my contact information here in Charlottesville on file.
So they begrudgingly gave me three weeks worth of temporary passes, which are made to hang from the rearview mirror until I go home and get "real" registration. I suppose the lessons I learned from this are that rental companies secretly hate accommodating their renters, and the Charlottesville parking situation is as bad as everyone says. At least now I have a parking tirade to call my own.
Mary's column runs biweekly Friday. She can be reached at mbaroch@cavalierdaily.com
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