Parking: What the FUCK?
Our editorial staff here at The Clam have logged a few intricacies in the parking lots in our combined 31 years living here in town. Parking here has all too often become a contact sport. And the lots we park in play a huge part in whether we escape undented or simply needing a new rear quarter panel.
As a public service, The Clam will be striving to discover the most treacherous parking lots on our fair island. With your help we may save someone from that dreaded call to Geico.
Some of our local lots are great – they make sense, they’re spacious, people are polite. Some are horrifying, dent-attracting circles of hell. We have decided to pit lot against lot, tournament style, until we come up with the absolute worst lot in town. Help us decide the worst parking lot in town! Our first four parking lots will be up for vote today.
First Round: Second Glance vs St. Peter’s Square
Second Glance
Second Glance’s Pond Road location is an interesting parking lot. Eschewing the modern philosophy of “have more than one entrance and exit,” Second Glance and the assorted other businesses (Karate school?) have chosen the simple “everyone goes in and out in the same 8 foot space” method. Also, the paint lining the spaces has long vanished. The lot shrinks in random unexpected parts, making you feel like you’re viewing an M.C. Escher painting. And there’s always a Prius idling in exactly the wrong spot.
St. Peter’s Square
St. Peter’s Square is occasionally a nice, easy lot to park in. Like, on a Wednesday at 4 AM. Other times, it’s a cut-throat adventure in bitter desperation. On weekend nights, the lot looks like all cars were valet parked by a man high on Angel Dust. Cars block in other cars, park in the corridors, and generally go wherever there is a 10×5 block of brick to park on.
[polldaddy poll=8128693]
7/11 Maplewood Ave vs 7/11 Bass Ave
7/11 Maplewood Ave
My god, this lot. Not content to only be known as the most drug-infested spot in town, the lot is also a logistical nightmare. There’s a drive-through on one side, several spaces in the middle, and then a crapload of broken-down monster trucks and a carwash on the other. In the middle is a shuffling man on painkillers yelling at traffic. Cars back up at warp speed, not caring what’s behind them. It’s a disaster.
7/11 Bass Ave
The other, less painkiller-related 7/11 is still a logistical nightmare. “Let’s make one single line of parking that involves backing into the worst of beach traffic!” Said some asshole. As an occasional morning backshore cyclist, it’s terrifying to ride by this lot – cars are forced to back up the split-second they have an available millisecond, and they aren’t looking for you in their fear-based driving decision.
[polldaddy poll=8128695]
What about Cape Ann Savings Bank?
Word.
When I read the title of the post and before reading a single line in the body of the post my mind went to St Peter’s. I’m not sure how this is even a contest as everyplace else is an also-ran.
You need to spend some time at Second Glance on a Saturday. Where you dodge panic-stricken second-hand junk dealers racing in to SG to restock their depleted inventory and tiny children limping out of the dojo. Not to mention the drivers trying to squeeze in behind Second Glance to drop off all the stuff they just cleaned out of their garage that morning. I don’t mind any of it (as long as I don’t maim anyone) as the whole experience makes the thrill of shopping there even greater.
I’m with Mel. Write in vote for Richdale…
You forgot to list Beacon Marine Basin Parking Lot.
How about Nautilus Road in the summer? It’s not technically a “parking lot” per se, but people do some crazy-ass parking by the Good Harbor Beach bridge in the summer.
And Cape Ann Coffees is no picnic either…
The Willow Rest / Post Office parking on Holly street has a lot to offer. Total anarchy, angry Holly St residents unwilling to blow through at less than 40 MPH, a crosswalk right through the center, trucks backing out of an alley that is bigger on than inside than the outside, and the only clearly legal spot is for the handicapped.
That’s a whole separate category: streets of pent up road rage. The intersection of Sayward St., Bass. Ave, and Brightside Ave. is another with drivers coming down the hill on Brightside competing with those on Sayward to make their left turns while either dodging cars coming fast around the curve or trying to break through the wall of Good Harbor Beach traffic – depending on the season.
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It appears that we’re going to have to do this in divisions.