Parking services need to give us a little more love

  Maegan Carberry Carberry, a fourth-year
political science student, is Daily Bruin Senior Staff. E-mail her
at [email protected].

For the last four years, I’ve been involved in a
tumultuous relationship with this university. One day I’m
romanced by the kindness shown to me by the guys who stack park my
car in Lot 4 (who are the nicest people on this campus if
you’ve never met them). Then, the next day I’m swearing
up a storm in the citation review office on Westwood Boulevard
after being hassled by UCLA Transportation Services. Why is it that
some people can be so friendly when they do their jobs, and other
people are like human drones on autopilot with drool hanging out of
their mouths?

I’ve been irritated at many a counter in my stay at UCLA
““ at the Arthur Ashe Center, Murphy Hall and the John Wooden
Center when I forget my card (although I work there now, so it
doesn’t matter anymore!) But nothing ““ absolutely
nothing ““ compares with UCLA parking.

In the last six months I’ve gotten three tickets. Twice I
forgot to display my permit (obviously my fault). The other time I
parked my car in Lot 4 with about two other cars in the whole lot.
I was greeted by the parking ticket guy who told me to have a nice
day and then proceeded to issue me a ticket immediately after I
left the garage for being parked in two compact spaces ““ my
tire was touching the adjacent white line by, like, a centimeter.
How this is anything short of harassment is beyond me. But if I
ever encounter meterman #5 on campus, he’d better duck for
cover because I’ll hurl my shoes at him.

As I raved to my colleagues at the Daily Bruin about how rudely
I was treated when trying to deal with my citations (I spent an
hour there because they said my permit didn’t exist, but
later found it on file and said someone at their office
didn’t enter it in the system. No one apologized for the
inconvenience), I thought of everyone else’s nightmarish
parking story. Who doesn’t have one?

I wonder, does this mean that parking is inherently evil? Think
of the DMV. Or is this conditioned? After all, the parking people
are probably unsociable since they’re sick of being sworn at
by irate psychos like me.

Nonetheless, some sort of kindness could be extended to people.
(A special thanks to the two ladies who treated me like a human
being at the end ““ you know who you are. And sorry to the
girl I yelled at! You can’t fight fire with fire.)

The love affair, as it always does, revolves around the ultimate
shallow question: what am I giving, what am I getting? With
parking, it can’t be a one-way street. We both have to
give.

I didn’t start out being bitchy. I tried to be calm. I
tried to remember that the problem stems from the system and not
the particular person in front of me. But the more callously she
behaved, the angrier I became. Shouldn’t she have been more
personable? Shouldn’t I have controlled my temper?

This university and its services are so extensive. The size
requires lengthy processes that don’t always work. Surely a
little patience and flexibility on our, the consumer’s, part
would make things more tolerable all around. But the other side has
to give too.

In the end, it’s all about the love-hate relationship.
Whether it’s from obligation or desire, I keep coming back.
In the end, I suppose it’s better to have loved than not to
have loved at all. But I do look forward to this June, when the
university’s services and I can finally break up ““ and
I can use the hard lessons I’ve learned in another parking
lot, with another citation, on another grouchy day.