This Old Bull

A couple of weeks ago, on a Tuesday, I did my morning normal routine with a slight modification: I couldn’t take a shower because there was no water. The city had decided it’d be cool to shut it off, presumably for some construction that was taking place along Blackwell St, and not tell anybody. The apartments had no warning and thus couldn’t give us any warning either.

Then today, as I exited my apartment on the way to [work](http://www.oit.duke.edu/) I noticed a line of parked cars, including my car, all with neon orange “PARKING TICKET” envelopes on their windshields. Apparently the city had put up “No Parking” signs on the telephone poles at some point and again utterly failed to inform anyone. I’ve been parking outside my building for as long as I’ve lived here with no trouble whatsoever. I came home last night after doing the grocery shopping and didn’t notice the new signs, assuming they were there already. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten, unless some small, barely noticeable change takes place, in which case you get a $10 parking ticket.

To their credit, Ally and Kia in the leasing office had no idea they were going to be ticketing, and agreed to take $10 of next month’s rent if I’m unable to successfully contest the ticket. Still, it’s the *principle* of the thing.

As most people who have worked for a university or college can attest, higher education has parking and transportation departments that can border on totalitarian. [Duke](http://www.duke.edu/) isn’t really any different in that regard. I understand that most of the folks in the [Parking & Transportation Services](http://siren.auxserv.duke.edu/parking/) department are good, honest people who are doing a very necessary and important job, but the reality of the situation is that sometimes that job requires them to be stern and draconian.

Today, however, I had the sublime experience of being able to return their parking permit to them. I was paying about $30 per month to park in the decks here at [American Tobacco](http://www.americantobaccohistoricdistrict.com/), and that’s something I no longer need now that I both walk to work and am provided two permits — one for each bedroom in my apartment — by the leasing office. That’s around $360 a year I’ll be glad to have back.