There were hints at the coming tempest. A couple of the escorts had interactions with a dude in a pick-up truck over the past week or so. He claimed to own the $3 pay lot where we direct clients to park, but anybody can say anything they like when it is shouted from a pickup truck window, that doesn’t mean it is true.
Every six months or so this happens, some dust up over where clients are allowed to park means we have to figure out where else we can refer people to park. Those meters can get pricey, not to mention someone has to go plug them every two hours. That’s a whole lot of quarters! (And nickels and dimes.)
During the most recent interaction, the dude shouting from the pick-up truck had a company shirt and company car for the parking management company that runs the $3 lot. We respected his request that we remove our orange cone (that we were using to help clients find the lot more easily, as it sits next to a monthly-only lot) and that escorts not be on the parking lot property. Okee-dokee, pick-up truck dude. You got it. (Nevermind that antis were going up to all the cars in the lot, looking inside. Apparently he was okay with people snooping through his customers’ cars.) I hope you don’t need the revenue that the clients provide you, ’cause your normally full lot on a Saturday morning looked like this:
See that yellow sign? Yeah, that’s new. It basically says stuff you’d expect from a lot, like you’ll be towed for parking askew and taking up two spots or not paying. “Unauthorized vehicles” can also be towed. We’re not sure exactly what that means, but we’re guessing he would use that clause to have clients’ cars towed from the lot, if he really does have any authority and isn’t just jacking with us.
Ah, the Parking Wars. It’s just another weapon the antis are using to make it difficult for women to obtain access to medical care. Previously, in parking wars, one escort was blocked from plugging the meter by antis, who were all the while trying to get the meter maid to write a ticket. No, really. The antis blocked the escort from the meter, the escort standing there with money in hand; antis trying to get a ticket written. One anti who is very cozy with some of the meter maids has had her unmetered car bypassed while other cars were ticketed along the street.
Of course antis don’t mind parking illegally. If they are parking for Jesus, it’s okay. For example, this anti, who chose to ignore the “No Parking” sign. That’s her CHOICE.
And then there’s the protestor, who had some real doozies to shout to the clinic windows, who pulled into the $3 lot and parked without paying.
See, pick-up truck dude, this is what your lot looked like as we were leaving on Saturday morning. This lot is normally nearly full by this time on any given Saturday. That’s a full day’s revenue for 12+ cars lost. And the one, lone car? That’s owned by the protester who didn’t pay.
Remind me not to hire you as my business manager, pick-up truck dude.
Louisville Clinic Escorts 
Not that it does you any good, but you can park in my drive way any time !
How interesting this was to see that you have the same problems we have at our clinic. The anti’s early on sent an anonymous letter to all the businesses on the street where the clinic is telling them that we are parking patients there and parting there ourselves, whether they want us to our not. They they had the local hospital that is nearby and has parking adjacent to the clinic say we couldn’t park in their area even when those places are closed. We are so fortunated that a doctor who has an office up the street has given us permission to park patients’ cars in her lot. She specifically told the antis that they cannot park there.
There is also a lot across the street for a business that we were evicted from but they parked there on Saturday even though it was posted. At least they did until one Saturday during their “prayer service” the police came by and announced loudly that people who were parked in that lot had 2 minutes to move their cars. It gave our escorts great pleasure to watch them scatter like little roaches to move their cars. Then they started parking on Wednesday down the block at a surgery center until finally they came up and told antis and escorts they couldn’t park there during the week. Of course we weren’t parking there because it is posted. But, as you pointed out, the rules don’t apply to them. The funniest outrage is that sometimes we park patients a block away on a public street and the antis anonymously sent a letter to the residents on the street telling them we were parking patients in front of their houses and they should call the Chief of Police about it if they objected. One of the residents was so angry that they called the clinic to let them know and told the clinic that they had absolutely NO problem with patients parking there.
New challenges always seem to arise in this “war.”
Oh, my goodness. It sounds like you have quite the jigsaw puzzle of parking that we do, here. I love your stories about the antis scrambling to their cars, and the neighborhood resident standing up to them. Thank you so much for sharing, and stay strong!
It absolutely is just one more thing after another. At least it’s not just us – so sorry you have to deal with that crap, too!
I saw something once that said that legal rights to abortion mean very little if the access isn’t there. Problems with parking is just one more roadblock to access.