"...Come on, come on
It's a heartless beating
The sun is burning down Los Angeles..."
Gas to Los Angeles (roundtrip) in a gas-guzzling Cadillac: 12 dollars
Entry into venue: 8 to 20 dollars
PARKING: 10, 15, or more dollars
The Knowledge that most of the time you paid more just to park than even to GO to the show: DEFINITELY NOT PRICELESS.
I often find myself wondering why people don't support live music. Maybe because to do so costs a small fortune.
When you have to pay 10, 15, sometimes even 20 dollars just to park, that adds a rather hefty sum to the total cost of an evening out. Even I find myself more hesitant to go to a show in LA not JUST because of the gas it costs me, but because 9 times out of 10 I have to factor in the cost of parking.
Now to make things even more difficult on us, LA has changed their metered parking system, including the hours that the regulations are enforced. No more 8am to 6pm 3 hour parking. No more free nighttimes if you're lucky enough to find an empty metered spot. Hell, now with the numbered-slot pay-at-machine system you can't even get lucky and find the broken i.e. FREE meters.
No. In some sort of Mafia conspiracy to get us in to what I THOUGHT were privately-owned pay lots, every inch of Hollywood Blvd and surrounding side streets have become mostly ONE HOUR (with a rare block or two of 2-hour) parking. You used to be able to sacrifice your stiletto-wearing feet and park a few blocks from your destination for the sake of free or at least cheaper parking. NOPE. Los Angeles has seen to that. Check and MATE. They got us. We're screwed. Either you spend one hour wherever you are going or you pony up and fork over the dough for a lot. And on Friday and Saturday nights the farther and cheaper lots fill up and you're stuck with the 15 dollar ones.
You win this round LA. But you're only hurting yourself in the end. Masochist City.
