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March 16, 2007
The Tao of Waitressing
by Lindsay Luckey, insurgent49

    I wanted to talk this week about the p-word. 

     It has us cursing as we circle the labyrinth of one-way streets downtown.  It has us racing to put tokens into metal posts.  It is a necessary evil in a city of automobiles. 

     It is parking. 

     I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to complain about this issue.  But I would like to throw my two quarters in. 

     A while ago, I decided to stop for coffee before heading to work.  I parked in one of the two-hour parking spaces and, having been recently burned by the Anchorage Parking Authority, I paid special attention to the amount of time for which I plugged the meter. 

     Forty minutes. 

     I even set an alarm on my cell phone to remind me of the time.  I ended up leaving the coffee shop not more than forty-two minutes later.  No, I’ll even say forty-five minutes later to be on the safe side.  Granted I was a little late, but was less than pleased to be greeted with a blue envelope alerting me that I now owed the municipality $20 for my infraction.  Refusing to pay more for an already expensive day of parking, I left my car there and went to work.

     When I returned a few hours later, I was tagged with a second ticket.  Forty dollars for a few hours of parking. 

     Pretty steep. 

     Frequently I see the patrons of the restaurant I work in race out to plug their meter when they see the parking cops coming around.  Not a luxury that everyone has.  Many people who work downtown must park in the metered spots and can’t run out every two hours on the dot to plug their meters.  Thankfully there are some eight-hour meters around downtown, but they still require handfuls of coins dumped in.  They may as well run on Chuck E. Cheese tokens.

     There also seem to be quite a few broken meters around and people are ticketed for parking in those, even if there is nowhere else to park.  Once, on the way to feed an almost expired meter, I ran into someone about to ticket me.  I tried to explain that I was there to pay for another two hours and he told me that it for two hour parking only and that if I were to move my car and come park there again, he could still ticket me.  Which makes sense for people just visiting downtown, but not those working there.

     I am happy to pay for the service of parking but I’d rather pay a flat permit rate for the privilege rather than be nickel and dimed with tickets if I’m a couple of minutes late to plug my meter.

     I have no idea how much revenue the Anchorage municipality rakes in through parking tickets, but I hope it goes to good use.







     Lindsay Luckey is a waitress and aspiring Renaissance woman. She lives and works in undisclosed locations in downtown Anchorage, and can be reached at lindsay@insurgent49.com.

     'The Tao of waitressing' appears on insurgent49.com every Friday.
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The Tao
of Waitressing
by Lindsay Luckey







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in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.