Parking Enforcement Not Leading by Example

Dear PoPville,

I thought this might be worth sharing, especially since it’s more than a one-time thing. On my way to work this morning, I took a car2go to the dry cleaner across from Giant on Park Rd NW. Before I could pull into the lot, a Parking Enforcement vehicle blocked the driveway. She waved me around so I could squeeze behind her vehicle and into the lot. She got out of her car, chatted briefly with a police officer, then went into the grocery store. As I was leaving, an employee of Q&Q Cleaners and I were standing outside and staring in disbelief at this vehicle whose driver so rudely blocked her driveway. The police officer yelled from across the street that she would be right back.

I know that I’m not allowed to do that, even if I’m going to be “right back”, so why should it be acceptable for a parking enforcement? I’ve seen enforcement do this before, in front of the same grocery store, except in that instance, the driver parked his car in the traffic lane, then entered the grocery store.

There are lots of legal parking spaces in DC. If your job is to enforce parking, you should limit yourself to those legal spaces when popping into the grocery store.