Back from banking. There have always been three 15-minute parking spaces right to the west of the bank. And a loading zone to the east. Normally, when I know I'll only be a couple of minutes I do the loading zone, but the parking ticket person was there and already being vociferous, so I went to the fifteen-minute meter. Mind you, these meters have been there for over a DECADE (they used to be normal meters). I put a quarter in for my fifteen minutes and it didn't work. I was furious, but thankfully Mr. Ticket Man was right there so I went up to him and told him to fix the meter or give me my quarter back. He said, "It's telling you it doesn't want you to park there" (I'm not making this up) - I said to him, it didn't tell ME that, it just took my quarter. He said it was a passenger loading zone. I said, say what? I said, why isn't there a sign? He said there is. I said there isn't, I parked there yesterday. He said there is. I said, when did they put it up, last night? He said, yes. I couldn't believe it. Studio City, which used to be a quaint, charming, friendly neighborhood, thanks to these rich, entitled ASSES who've ruined it with their teardowns and their money all because they just have to have their kids go to this particular school, has now become a venal, sickening place, catering to these jerks. So, the City has ruined everything because they see CASH. It used to cost a dime for an hour of parking and there were meters everywhere. Now it's a quarter for fifteen minutes. And then they do this passenger loading crap because the new restaurant that's there probably petitioned them to do so so they could use them for their own purposes. Or whatever. Thankfully the bank and surrounding stores has its own parking lot and validating is easy and you don't even have to validate if you're under fifteen minutes.
I tell you, after twelve years of living in this house (and seven in my other house two blocks away), I have seen this neighborhood decimated and turned ugly. So, it may just be time to get the HELL out of here and go back to Sherman Oaks - Grant is fixing up his new purchase and I've seen it and he's adding stuff just for me, and when it's done, in June, I think I'm out of here.
