A warm thank you to the City of Bend

I don’t work downtown.

I’m glad for that because I’m not sure how I would address the parking nightmare downtown employees face. I do find myself going in for full day consulting gigs though, and I don’t hesitate to use the parking garage on these occasions. I had no problem whatsoever doing that Monday – went in early, snagged a space in the nearly empty garage, whipped out my checkbook and left a fat $5 in the slot. During the entire day Monday I would smile and shake my head a little at the procession of people exiting the office every couple hours to move their cars. This isn’t news to anyone I’m sure – it’s fairly common practice and a constant thorn in the side of the City (if you believe what you read on the subject).

By choice I schedule meetings in the downtown area and Wednesday turned out to be one of these typical meeting days. Parked in the garage, met a friend for coffee at Thump. Left the garage and parked elsewhere to attend another meeting a few blocks away. Followed the 1-hour meeting with a business lunch at Soba. Downtown is hopping and you learn to wait patiently to get your order in and meal finished. I returned to my vehicle to find – my warm thank you from the City of Bend.

And no wonder! Scofflaw and hoodlum that I am, I didn’t excuse myself after ordering my meal to run back to my car to move it. That extra 35 minutes was like a 35 middle finger salute to the City and every business owner downtown, for which I humbly apologize. Granted, in the course of my time downtown I supported two coffee shops, one restaurant and one specialty shop – but there’s no excuse for my lack of planning.

I would ask the City to use my $22 apology to help the homeless. Which might eventually be me if I continue parking downtown.