{"id":122,"date":"2007-10-01T12:58:14","date_gmt":"2007-10-01T16:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=122"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:49:28","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:49:28","slug":"the-art-of-parking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/10\/01\/the-art-of-parking\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Parking"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Interview<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: Thus continues the investigation<\/a> into the many parking lots of downtown Hull by Spacing\u2019s Ottawa\/Gatineau Region correspondent Amber Yared:<\/em><\/p>\n

On our third interview for The Impervious P-lot we (Kathy, Malcolm, Michaela, and I) met with Brigitte Ann Epps, an attendant and valet for one of the parking lots behind the brown buildings in Hull. We were excited to talk to someone who would provide an insider perspective on parking lots. To start, I was curious about the small boxy structures parking lot attendants work from, like the one we stood in during the interview. Brigitte told us they are prefabricated in Orillia, Ontario. I wondered what they were called and if they were heated. I imagined attendants freezing all through winter.<\/p>\n

B: I call it — well the nicest word it\u2019s ever been called is a \u201cshack\u201d. Overall it\u2019s pretty good. We never freeze. We get too hot, mind you, because it\u2019s a greenhouse; we\u2019re surrounded by the sun and the pavement. <\/em><\/p>\n

Brigitte added that they have two heaters, a microwave, a radio, and a small refrigerator inside. She also told us that the rush of driving a Mustang goes away quickly when you only get to park it; explained the complicated system of keys, tickets, and payment; described one \u201cclunker\u201d that took her fifteen minutes to start each time she had to park it; said that her boss buys the attendants coffee every two weeks; talked about the spiders she had to contend with in a now-demolished shack; recounted how some customers swore they would bike through summer, only to return to driving after a week of cycling; spoke of her concern over providing quality customer service, including phoning clients ten minutes before closing to remind them to collect their keys before she left; and said that, although she loves cars, there is more to life than parking.<\/p>\n

The more she talked about her job, the more I was fascinated. Brigitte showed so much respect for parking cars, which she described as \u201can art form in itself\u201d.<\/p>\n

B: It\u2019s really easy to drive a car, but parking cars, totally different story. Patience is a virtue and [a co-worker] had it and he practiced with me for about six months and now I can park a car. I am so proud when a client comes to me, and it\u2019s a man, and he cannot get his car out of his spot, and I can go in and I can move it like that. And it\u2019s just like \u2018Yes!\u2019. Because a year ago I would not have been able to do it. And now I\u2019m actually, I\u2019m really good. I mean most people think parking cars is not a big deal, but when you deal with $45,000, $60,000 cars it\u2019s something.<\/em>
\n\"Amber
\nBrigitte happened to be on duty when I went looking for an attendant to set up an interview with. At that time, I had not found anything remarkable in encountering a female valet. As we progressed through the interview, it became clear that Brigitte belongs to a rare species. Of nine lots owned by one company, she is the only female attendant. In talking to her, we had unwittingly stumbled upon the realm of parking gender politics.<\/p>\n

B: You can go in a lot of parking lots but you won\u2019t find many women working there \u2018cause they don\u2019t like to hire them on principle. I don\u2019t think I have to explain myself; I think we all know why. But I guess they felt sorry for me because I moved here and I couldn\u2019t find a job.<\/em><\/p>\n

When I started working here it was a big thing. All the truck drivers would come and see me and the other guys from the other parking lots would come and see me and it\u2019s like, \u201cWow! They actually did hire a girl. Wow! Cool!\u201d<\/em>
\n\"p-lot,<\/p>\n

The parking lot where Brigitte works caters almost exclusively to civil servants who work in the brown buildings. People arrive and, depending on the time of day, park their cars or have a valet park them. Brigitte, whose parking skills are finely honed, is able to distinguish between cars that attendants park and those that customers park themselves. She motioned to one car and said it was crooked in the space.<\/p>\n

B: It\u2019s because he parked it himself. We get aggravated with this, especially during the winter because you can\u2019t see the lines. Most people don\u2019t see it. But because we\u2019re so used to it we\u2019ll know we just lost four parking spaces because they did not park between the lines.<\/em><\/p>\n

It occurred to me that the space conserved by valet parking could help lessen the growth of parking lots in Hull; valets can fit a higher density of cars within a restricted area. Maybe valet parking should be mandatory in all parking lots in Hull.<\/p>\n

Amber Yared is one among a group of artists, writers, educators, and architects working on The Impervious P-lot, a Hull-based CUP<\/a> project about parking lots and what they do besides store cars. She will be posting her findings on the Spacing Toronto and Spacing Montreal as the project progresses.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: Thus continues the investigation into the many parking lots of downtown Hull by Spacing\u2019s Ottawa\/Gatineau Region correspondent Amber Yared: On our third interview for The Impervious P-lot we (Kathy, Malcolm, Michaela, and I) met with Brigitte Ann Epps, an attendant and valet for one of the parking lots behind the brown buildings inContinue reading “The Art of Parking”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[418,647,645,413,646,125,536,643,153,644,28,152,302],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spacing","tag-amber-yared","tag-brigitte-ann-epps","tag-co-worker","tag-correspondent","tag-microwave","tag-montreal","tag-ontario","tag-orillia","tag-ottawa","tag-parking-editor","tag-spacing-montreal","tag-toronto","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Art of Parking - 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