JAMES DEAKIN: Parking Pains

[ghosthunter]

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx...bCategoryId=72

[SIZE="4"]Parking Pains[/SIZE]
BACKSEAT DRIVER By James Deakin (The Philippine Star)
Updated December 08, 2010 12:00 AM

I will never understand how developers can spend billions of pesos on a first world project only to put in third world parking. It’s as if they expect their customers to just fall in from the sky. Take the newly opened entertainment complex near NAIA 3. You can imagine that something as massive and aggressively promoted as this would be attracting tens of thousands of customers per day – yet they only provide parking for a family of five. If these guys designed cars for us, they would be 20-seater vans with fuel tanks the size of a hard boiled egg.

Yet no matter how many new and wonderful projects you see sprouting up, most developers end up repeating the same sin. Last month, I was invited to an event in this casino’s fashionably misspelled night club. It was pouring down. I tried their covered parking inside the building but both slots had been taken – or whatever pitiful amount it is that they allocate for guest’s use.

So it’s off to the open car park directly across, which thankfully, is not too far a walk. But just as I started to get my hopes up, I get the dreaded wave from the security guard. I should have known, if it seems too convenient, then you can be sure its only for staff, management or valets.

Paying guests need to drive a couple more blocks to an open car park far enough to be in a different post code. I would have gone for the Valet, but the thought of having someone park my car is like having someone chew my food for me. Over the years, I’ve lost things, found dings, and seen a quarter tank of fuel disappear over two hours. So despite the downpour, I pressed on.

I reach the last outdoor car park. Visibility is poor, but I could see that it seemed full. I pull up and ask the attendant if there are any available slots. She assures me that there are, so I take my card and start circling. After five minutes the guard tells me that there are no slots. Annoyed, I decide to leave and try somewhere else. As I go to exit, however, the attendant asks for 45 pesos. I asked her why and she tells me it’s for parking. I tell her that I couldn’t park, so how could she charge me a fee. (it’s a small enough parking lot for her to see me circling) She looks at me like I may have confused her with someone that might actually give a damn, and says, “Sir, 45 pesos.”

This goes on for a few minutes. I refuse to pay on principle. She refuses to let me out. She tells me there is no fifteen-minute grace period and ends each sentence with, “Sir, 45 Pesos”. The tone never changes and neither does the grating Kris Aquino tune she sings her sentences with. There’s a fairly tense stand-off until some cars start to line up behind me. Now she has the upper hand, knowing full well that any decent person will not hold up innocent motorists who have nothing to do with this battle. I insist that the very least they can do is find me the space they promised was available.

It took them another 15 minutes but eventually I parked and tried to sit out the rain, but the flooding was already ankle high in most parts of the car park and looked like it would need another hour to drain. I sat there like that Meatloaf song, all dressed up and no place to go. It was getting beyond ridiculous already so after around thirty minutes of useless idling, I decided to count my losses and just take off. I called the host of the party and apologized for not being able to attend his event. Turns out I wasn’t the only one who did. To think it wasn’t even a weekend.

When will these developers understand that you are only as strong as your weakest link? You can have a Michelin 3 star restaurant, state of the art night club, boutique bars or whatever, but if your guests arrive soaked or sweaty after walking through flooded car parks and dealing with the seedy characters that love to hang outside casinos, it just dampens the whole experience.

The Sofitel in Manila is a classic example. It’s arguably the nicest hotel in the country. But it has one of the worse parking lots I’ve ever seen. Plus it is one of the most expensive. They even charge their in-house guests for crying out loud. It has come to the point where I just simply don’t bother attending events there if I can avoid it. Especially in the rain. It just leads to indigestion.

A week before this I was in the Shangri-La Makati. The hosts of the event were kind enough to give me a parking voucher. As I went to retrieve my car, though, it turns out it would have been cheaper to not use the voucher. Serious.

After swapping these (and numerous other) horror stories during a flight to New Zealand recently, an executive from Kia tells me about his harrowing experience outside a restaurant in the seedier side of Makati where establishments are notorious for “reserving” their own spaces on public property even if it is illegal to do so. Knowing their rights, and refusing to be bullied, the executive and his Swedish guest ignored the guard who started barking orders at them. That was until the idiot fired a shot in the air.

A couple of years ago, C! Magazine’s resident photographer, Alan Ranch, lost over 100,000 Pesos worth of camera equipment in a secured car park in Ortigas. It was parked 15 feet or so away from the teller, yet the thieves managed to smash the glass and make off with the bag without being noticed. Needless to say, there was fine print on the back of the ticket the size of bacteria that says the management is not responsible for any loss.

Cute. But the thing is, it doesn’t matter how small the print is, if someone is taking money for a service, they have to assume some kind of responsibility. You cannot simply make up your own bloody rules. What are we, grade 3? “I have an invisible forcefield!” Get real, guys. If that were the case then we would all have signs on our cars saying that we are not liable for any damage that our vehicle may cause. And while were on it, putting down rocks, tires or branches on a road outside a busy restaurant does not entitle you to reserve that space.

There are more people using parking facilities than toll roads in this country. Yet we have a Toll Regulatory Board. When the SLEX wanted to raise their prices from 22 pesos for using a 29-kilometer stretch after spending 11 billion Pesos on its rehabilitation, it almost triggered People Power 3. Yet these car park operators that have a mili-fraction of the overhead that toll operators do seem to get away with charging 45, 55, 65 or more pesos for 12.5 square meters.

They will argue that parking is a privilege, not a right. Well, so is our patronage.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx...bCategoryId=72

[Mguy]

Simple, there ought to be a law to regulate the parking business.

Enrile and Co. were on the right track questioning these parking facilities for overcharging, lack of security, etc. Until the bigwigs paid them off and suddenly silence. Not one peep or word after that.

Stupid politicians.

[desert fox]

Paid parking lalo na sa mga shopping malls....

pabor ba kayo dun? di ba bilang mga customer pribilehiyo natin ito? na dapat e libre na?

[foifoi05]

ok sana if you'll know your car is safe. Just like in San Juan, they dont even check your ticket, stock memory nalang nila. Even sa mall, madalas they dont check if yung ticket has the same plate number.

[jimnyeatworld]

hehehe resorts world hirap talaga pumark dyan. i parked dun sa open parking which is like 1 km away from the casino.

good thing pagkababa ko sa Santa Fe ko, somebody called us driving a Fortuner and VIP shuttle pala ng Resorts world

if pupunta dyan sa Resorts World:

- bring your biggest and best car
- have your wife dress up in her ***iest and fanciest clothes & bags

it will create an impression na gagastos ka ng pera sa casino. which we did naman, pero initially ang plano manonood lang namin kami sa New World Cinemas eh heheh

[uls]

hehehe resorts world hirap talaga pumark dyan. i parked dun sa open parking which is like 1 km away from the casino.

good thing pagkababa ko sa Santa Fe ko, somebody called us driving a Fortuner and VIP shuttle pala ng Resorts world

if pupunta dyan sa Resorts World:

- bring your biggest and best car
- have your wife dress up in her ***iest and fanciest clothes & bags

it will create an impression na gagastos ka ng pera sa casino. which we did naman, pero initially ang plano manonood lang namin kami sa New World Cinemas eh heheh

yan ang gusto ko kay OB

consistent ang mga kwento niya

naala ko yung kwento mo last time -- when you and your wife walked into the casino and everyone was staring at you coz both of you are so fit and ***y

[A121]

Also, why are developers allowed to erect buildings without enough parking space. There should at least be a threshold set.

[desert fox]

Duda ko in the near future, pati mga Comfort rooms sa mga shopping malls me bayad na din....

Worst,pati pag-gamit ng escalator...

Sun and the beach!!!!

[ghosthunter]

Also, why are developers allowed to erect buildings without enough parking space. There should at least be a threshold set.

I think we have regulations already for that (or proposals for it) but no enforcement.

[foifoi05]

I think we have regulations already for that (or proposals for it) but no enforcement.

i believe its in the bldg code. wala lang nag eenforce. kasi for the landowners every sqm counts, dapat kumikita. Maraming nasa code na hindi na susunod.



so far mahigpit lang ang govt sa setbacks, firesafety/exits, etc

Duda ko in the near future, pati mga Comfort rooms sa mga shopping malls me bayad na din....

actually meron na po sir