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Overcoming the Challenges of Street Parking Payment Systems in Major American Cities

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If you drive a car in a big city, eventually you’re going to need to park it somewhere.

It turns out, some urban locations are better than others enabling motorists to find short-term places to park their vehicles. While some cities, seem to “make it up as they go along,” others have thought carefully about where and how motorists can park their cars and integrated helpful solutions into their planning process.

In some municipalities, there are numerous convenient parking garages. Some are built above ground occupying valuable retail, commercial and residential space, whereas others (especially those located in Western European countries) build parking garages underground where they are less of an eyesore.

Some parking establishments even have helpful electronic billboards outside, indicating whether they are full or the number of empty spots available. You park your car, pay a nominal fee, and then retrieve it later. Sometimes the enterprise is run by the municipal or county government and at other times they are operated by private entities.

In cities, like Washington DC, where I live, finding a place to park your vehicle, that is both convenient and reasonably priced is next to impossible. Yes there are parking garages, mostly commercially run, charging exorbitant rates, but the lion’s share of affordable parking is on the street.

Because of the dynamics of supply and demand and the confusing signage and payment processes it’s challenging not only to find an empty space, but to pay for parking and to avoid a ticket.

Over the past two decades, the District of Columbia has phased out parking meters that were solely coin based to ones that would also accept credit cards. Over time many of these machines broke, (or were smashed), became convenient surfaces for all manner of graffiti and street art, and despite instructions encouraging motorists to report broken meters to avoid receiving a ticket, few of these mechanisms were repaired or replaced.

Shortly thereafter DC shifted to a system where curbside parking payment machines were installed. Motorists wishing to park their cars now needed to put their cash or credit card in the machine, indicate how much time they wanted, and then the machine would print out a receipt that motorists placed on their dashboard. Again, many of these machines continuously broke and rarely were they fixed.

With the growth of smart phone apps (e.g., ParkMobile), the District, like other jurisdictions started implementing numbered parking zones. Download the app, interpret the parking restrictions, and if you are within the allowed hours, enter the tag of your vehicle, your credit card information, the amount of time you want, and presto you are good to go.

Over time however, parking zone designations either fell off the remaining parking meters, payment machines, or street signs, or more likely were ripped or scratched off these surfaces. Now, in some parts of the city, information about competing apps are posted on signposts, etc.

Missing zone designations, and no functioning meters or parking payment machines present means that motorists risk hefty fines and added stress.

If you are absolutely intent on paying for street parking, you might walk a block or two and luckily find a functioning parking payment machine or discover a parking zone sticker and hope that it matches to your exact spot.

It would seem as if this whole process was intentionally designed to frustrate motorists and signal to them that the city doesn’t want them to drive a car anyways. But then I’m reminded of the expression to not assume malice when incompetence better explains the outcome.

Needless to say, although solutions exist, it appears as if the city is unwilling or unable to experiment and implement them.

For example, why not roll out a city wide parking permit. For example, District of Colombia car owners already have the option to purchase ward based street parking permits that they affix to the inside of their vehicle’s windshields. Alternatively visitors to the district could be required to pay a toll fee when they enter the city. This can be collected when they enter the city on one of a handful of bridges or roads into the city. A portion of this fee could enable free parking during certain times of the day. The solutions are limitless, but largely unexplored.

photo credit
Jeffrey Ian Ross

Wrestling with Chanko Nabe

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Since starting to cook Japanese food, I’ve increased not only my knowledge of this type of cuisine, and my skills in its preparation, but along with trying new recipes, I’m continuously delimiting the dishes I prefer to cook and the ones l like to eat.

Although my rank-ordering has changed over time, one of the dishes I like to prepare is Chanko Nabe (a hearty stew).

Why? This meal is relatively quick to cook, I can easily find the ingredients that go into the recipe, and they are healthy to eat.

For those who don’t know, Chanko Nabe (also spelled Chankonabe) is considered to be the go to food of Japanese sumo wrestlers, and it is typically cooked in a hot pot or donabe (i.e., a traditional Japanese style clay cookware).

Moreover, there’s no single way to prepare Chanko Nabe, and lots of cooks use different ingredients and steps.

And in many respects this is the beauty of the dish, so that you can personalize it to your own tastes and that of the people who you will be preparing the dish for. (Incidentally although few English language Japanese cookbooks include recipes for Chanko Nabe, there are numerous ones on the web)

But here are the basics. You start with a firm base of dashi, add soy, mirin, and then you add chicken balls (which is typically ground chicken rolled up into meatball size), and then at the very end, the vegetables, typically Chinese or napa cabbage, and a carrot that is thinly sliced but cut in a decorative manner. I also include Chinese (not Japanese) style tofu cut into small half inch cubes.

Although some of the ingredients can be sourced from your Safeway or Whole Foods, at least half need to be purchased from a market specializing in Japanese food, or an Asian grocery store. This includes hurkasame noodles, different types of mushrooms, and kikuna. You can get by with substitutes, but the more you go the substitution way then the authenticity and fidelity to the Japanese cuisine gets compromised.

For a dish that includes almost everything but the kitchen sink it’s also important to have a sense of proportionality. I frequently lay out everything I think I want to put into the soup, but in the end cut back because I know the final dish will look overwhelming

Also, make sure you have a large enough pot. In fact you can never have a pot that is too big. And then it’s a matter of timing. Things that are going to take a longer time to cook go first and ones that are quick to cook go later.

As you get comfortable preparing Chanko Nabe you can experiment with different sources of protein (e.g., fish and meat) and vegetables (e.g., daikon, bok choy, etc.).

In short, almost every Asian cuisine has their favorite meat and vegetable soups. For example there are numerous Hot Pot recipes in Chinese and Mongolian cuisine; and Koreans have stews such as Budae Jjigae, but the Japanese have Chanko Nabe and it’s well worth exploring.

Photo credit:
Chanko Nabe
photo taken by @gwenaelledesign

The calming effect of reading poetry before sleep

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In 2016 Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President, and the Republican Party gained control of the Senate. For more than four years a large chunk of the public continuously wondered what egregious and embarrassing thing Trump and his supporters would say or do next. This insecurity was highlighted when the capital was attacked by Trump supporters in what is now referred as the January 6th insurrection.

In the midst of it all was the global pandemic that led to countless deaths, diminished health outcomes, economic collapse of some businesses, and high levels of stress for numerous people.

These events took a toll on our collective mental health. In particular, on our ability to get a good night’s sleep.

There are lots of ways to calm down before going to sleep. Some people like to drink a hot cup of milk, others a cup of tea. Still some take a bath, eat an edible, or read fiction.

But since the pandemic I’ve been reading poetry to my wife at bedtime.

Yes, it sounds corny, but it’s made a world of difference in our ability to fall asleep, and our sleep patterns and thus our lives have improved.

I started by reading a handful of poems from well-known authors like EE Cummings and Pablo Neruda. After exhausting this limited supply I scoured the shelves in our house, found about a half dozen books of poems, and started to selectively read them to my wife at bedtime. To my chagrin, I found a lot of the poems a little boring and pedantic.

I also discovered that many of the poems are downright depressing, and frequently discuss dark subjects, like blood, death, and depressive states, themes that are not conducive to relaxation, ones that neither my wife nor I want to hear in the final minutes before we attempt to nod off to sleep.

In an effort to expand our options, we pursued the poetry section of the few remaining book stores in Washington DC and bought a handful of poetry books from them.

But my biggest success in finding appropriate poems have been via surfing the web. Pretty soon I landed upon www.poetryfoundation.com and each night skim their poem of the day. Once I find a poem that I like, I start digging into other poems by the author.

Poets that have eased their way into our bed time ritual, not to mention the excel file that I have constructed, include: W. H. Auden, Robert Frost, Nathalie Handal, Nikki Giovanni, Joy Harjo, Ada Limón, and Marjorie Saiser, to name a few. They lean towards pleasant visual images of nature, love, and acceptance; of a snowy days, walking in a forest, or along a beach.

During this process I’ve discovered numerous poets who I never heard about, whose body of work I never read, and probably would never had been motivated to explore, had I not chosen to read a new poem or set of poems each night.

The process has forced me to slow down when reading out loud, pronounce every word correctly, and pay greater attention to punctuation.

I’ve learned to appreciate the rhythm and cadence of the words assembled together.

And yes, it has allowed my wife and I to more easily fall asleep.

Photo Credit:
The Parnassus (1511) by Raphael – atop Mount Parnassus, 18 ancient and modern poets recite in the company of the nine Muses.