Just days to go before the Dodgers' new "controlled zone parking" plan goes into effect, and knowing the Parking Lot Attendant has raised prices from $8 to $15 since buying the team, I was interested to see the improvements.
I arrived at 9:48 a.m. to find a line of cars waiting to enter the stadium. No improvement so far.
Once inside, it was the same asphalt, the same fading white lines, and no numbered parking spaces, although the Dodgers announced that "fans will enter and exit through the same gate and be directed to park in a specific parking lot and space."
I wonder how anyone is supposed to know which specific space to take with nothing specific to differentiate one space from another? For your pregame entertainment: demolition derby.
I drove to the Dodgers' administrative offices for an explanation, noticed huge pictures of Eric Gagne and Greg Maddux attached to the outside walls of the stadium, and started getting excited about this year's team.
Can you imagine the look on the faces of Dodgers opponents when they pull into the stadium and see Gagne and Maddux looking down on them?
When I got to the administrative lot, I noticed there were numbered stalls for Frank's Old Lady, the Tipper Gore Lady and other bigwigs. At least I could see where the money was going from the increase in parking prices.
As for the rest of the folks who work in the Dodgers' front office, it's still a parking free-for-all -- in one case, a snazzy black Jetta, parked illegally across a walkway. Someone in the Dodgers' front office obviously has their own idea of what "controlled zone parking" is all about.
Inside, I asked for the Tipper Gore Lady and they sent me PR whiz Camille Johnston, who would admit later she was the one who forget to mention the 50% increase in parking this season in the team's news release. We exchanged pleasantries, because the season hasn't started and everyone is still getting along.
I asked about the lack of noticeable improvements, and she pointed to some newly painted posts and said, "A human being will show everyone where to park."
I don't believe she was referring to the white posts as human beings, but we've yet to see whom the team has hired for the jobs.
"It's not like someone will be given space No. 272; you will have a human being" waving their arms, she said, while waving her arms, and it's probably good to have a second job in mind -- especially when you're the one who forgot to mention the $5 increase to park.
