Parking Wars
I love this show. Here's the premise: a camera crew follows a parking enforcement officer (or two) around a city as they give tickets and boot cars. It's always in what I think of as second tier cities - Providence, RI, Detroit, Philly, etc.
I love this show because I am fascinated by people's reactions to getting a ticket. I got a ticket once. Yes, once. I was 20, and illegally parked outside of a restaurant to run in and pick up my order instead of trying to find a parking spot in a mostly full parking lot. Do you know why I did that? Because, like the guy who recently jumped into the tiger den at the Bronx Zoo, I momentarily lost any semblance of common sense. Thank goodness my lack of sense simply resulted in a little embarrassment and a loss of $25 or whatever it was, and didn't result in multiple broken bones, and national public humiliation. I don't know why I thought my desire to save some time was more important than following laws, but it's over 15 years later now and I've never done that again. As someone who spent a good portion of 1995 being carried on back boards in and out of ambulances, I should really have known better.
When the ticketing officer came over to me with the ticket, I tried to talk my way out of it. He politely but firmly refused my (admittedly very lame) excuse. I mumbled a thank you while taking the ticket, because while I may have been a horrible kid, I was at least a horrible kid who learned good manners.
I am amazed by all the people on Parking Wars who scream, curse and threaten the parking people. I guess that's what makes for good tv. I wonder if they act like assholes because there's a camera crew. Ten years ago, when reality shows were newer, yes maybe. These days, I am guessing having a camera in your face is simply not as big a deal.
Though I have still not been able to wrap my brain around how people can behave so badly, treat others so poorly, and not be horribly ashamed of their behavior. The other thing I don't understand is the sense of entitlement so many of these people have. I want to understand the psychology behind being angry at yourself for a stupid decision and taking it out on the person who forces you to acknowledge those stupid decisions.
Hey all this talk of driving reminds me - can I borrow your car for an hour or so? I like to drive every few months. I'm terrified of forgetting how. Thanks, and I promise not to get any tickets.
I love this show because I am fascinated by people's reactions to getting a ticket. I got a ticket once. Yes, once. I was 20, and illegally parked outside of a restaurant to run in and pick up my order instead of trying to find a parking spot in a mostly full parking lot. Do you know why I did that? Because, like the guy who recently jumped into the tiger den at the Bronx Zoo, I momentarily lost any semblance of common sense. Thank goodness my lack of sense simply resulted in a little embarrassment and a loss of $25 or whatever it was, and didn't result in multiple broken bones, and national public humiliation. I don't know why I thought my desire to save some time was more important than following laws, but it's over 15 years later now and I've never done that again. As someone who spent a good portion of 1995 being carried on back boards in and out of ambulances, I should really have known better.
When the ticketing officer came over to me with the ticket, I tried to talk my way out of it. He politely but firmly refused my (admittedly very lame) excuse. I mumbled a thank you while taking the ticket, because while I may have been a horrible kid, I was at least a horrible kid who learned good manners.
I am amazed by all the people on Parking Wars who scream, curse and threaten the parking people. I guess that's what makes for good tv. I wonder if they act like assholes because there's a camera crew. Ten years ago, when reality shows were newer, yes maybe. These days, I am guessing having a camera in your face is simply not as big a deal.
Though I have still not been able to wrap my brain around how people can behave so badly, treat others so poorly, and not be horribly ashamed of their behavior. The other thing I don't understand is the sense of entitlement so many of these people have. I want to understand the psychology behind being angry at yourself for a stupid decision and taking it out on the person who forces you to acknowledge those stupid decisions.
Hey all this talk of driving reminds me - can I borrow your car for an hour or so? I like to drive every few months. I'm terrified of forgetting how. Thanks, and I promise not to get any tickets.
Labels: City Livin, Little Green, People watching, Polite is Dead
posted by Green at 9/23/2012 05:21:00 PM
4 Comments:
I too think of Philadelphia as a Second Tier city...
A few years ago, a personal blogger I'd just started reading and found mostly quite funny posted a story about how she'd once got out of a speeding ticket by crying and screaming at an officer that him keeping her from her weekend getaway with her boyfriend would most likely ruin the proposal that she knew was coming. She gleefully admitted that she had no idea if her boyfriend was proposing, but she didn't feel like paying for a speeding ticket so made it up to make the officer feel bad enough to let her off. Such antics had worked several times before. I continued reading only long enough to determine that nobody called her out on such entitled assholery in the comment section, which was filled with "Right on!" and "I'll have to try that!" and "LOL!" Clearly these were not my kind of people.
Also, "like riding a bike" is a lie. When I got on a bicycle for the first time in 12 years, I wiped out. It took quite a while to figure it out again. Definitely find a way to practice driving.
Uh, Amanda... can you be MORE wrong? Who died and made you Queen of the Realm, UhMANduh? Where do you get off judging people for Sticking It To The Man when you struggle to maintain your balance atop a vehicle small child safely pilot every day?
I'm totally kidding, I hate it when people treat accountability like a nuisance that should not dare to impose itself on the filming of the movie of their lives - Starring "THEM as The Beaver."
(Sorry, Green - It's slow here in the office today... and we don't do much observin' of the HHH here in TX.)
Having lived in Philly for a few years, the Parking Authority there is horrible. Every year I paid for my permit to park my car near my apartment and at least 5 times a year I would end up with a ticket even though I had my permit which was current and I was parked in the correct location. I then had to take pictures of my car and the permit and my street and send them in saying clearly they were in the wrong. But it still happened all the time. Most of the people who work there are a tad incompetent.
It's actually a private company that runs it and the money doesn't go to the city at all which makes it worse. All the money that comes from the tickets doesn't go into the city at all.
A lot of the people on the show are just idiots however some of them I understand as they do get a tad ridiculous if you live in the city. And many of those parking people they show in the show tend to get big heads for being on the show which makes it even worse.
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