My hard-working husband, who has spent the last year commuting back and forth from Manhattan, came home on the train one recent dark winter night to find a parking ticket on his windshield. He had paid to park in the lot at Princeton Junction, but in the sunless predawn hours, trying to enter the number of his parking spot at the token booth, he had mistakenly turned the 9 upside down and plugged it in as a 6.
With the $60 parking ticket in hand, I made my way to the violations window at the West Windsor municipal building and pleaded for amnesty. “It was an honest mistake,” I said, “and it’s not as if he didn’t pay the $5 required for parking that day.”
No mercy. No room for human error. “It’s a valid ticket,” intoned the clerk, “And there are no exceptions.” Disgruntled, I paid the ticket and left.
The very next weekend, we were out at Best Buy off Route 1, with money in our pockets itching to be spent locally. But we discovered that parking in that entire shopping center was a nightmare. Even though we are required to pay our taxes in a timely manner (or be dinged with a fine) those same tax dollars that are supposed to pay our municipal workers to clear the snow somehow had not managed to do the job.
Granted it’s been a rough winter, but the last big snowstorm hit almost three weeks ago. Nonetheless, dozens of parking spots that day were still rendered unusable by huge mounds of snow, even blocking many spaces designated as handicapped parking. That means trying to find parking at peak shopping periods is nigh near impossible and as during the holidays, you have to resort to stalking someone to find a place to park.
After circling for quite a while, we finally did what many others were doing: we gave up on a marked parking spot and placed our car gently alongside a curb, safely out of the way and entirely passable for other drivers. We went inside and dropped some money (who says we’re not doing our part to hoist consumer confidence and rejuvenate the economy?) We returned to find another parking ticket on the windshield, courtesy of the West Windsor police department, our second in a week. Outrageous. Our tax dollars couldn’t manage to clear out the snow in three weeks, but they did fund a police officer to punish well-intentioned, hard-working, and honest citizens.
A couple of years ago, an organization called NeighborhoodScout named West Windsor New Jersey’s best family-friendly neighborhood, citing the top notch schools and public safety. The posting has made a resurgence recently on local blogs, to which my response is this: what a crock! Give me Plainsboro any day. We’ve got ample parking AND our lots are cleared.
On another note: This week’s copious sunshine is finally doing the job that West Windsor’s snow plows were supposed to do: clearing the snow and letting large parcels of grass finally emerge from this long, endless winter. This year’s Farmer’s Almanac predicted warm weather and little precipitation: boy was it wrong. Luckily, not too many of us around here were counting on an accurate forecast to plant crops, though in years past, the local farmers would have been royally … in big trouble … as they say.
Baseball evaluations and the lacrosse parents meeting both happened this week, and even more than the traditional robin red-breast, they are welcome harbingers of spring. I know I am not alone when I say I cannot wait to come out of winter hibernation.
The lightning speed of today’s technological developments has given rise to a whole new vocabulary and even dictated new standards of behavior. When speaking of expected parental behavior on the sidelines at game time, our lacrosse coach suggested that we pose the YouTube question as a yardstick to measure whether behavior is appropriate or not. In other words, ask yourself whether you would want your words or actions broadcast on YouTube.
Interestingly, it’s the very same question that worried me at a recent baseball practice where no bathrooms were available, and the snow-covered fields were the only option for relief. Were there any surveillance cameras perched on top of the practice facility or streetlight that might catch activity that could one day show up on YouTube or Tosh-point-Oh, a completely irreverent and borderline obscene show that’s popular on Comedy Central?
Certainly, red light cameras and the fear of capture has prompted some drivers to drive more safely at intersections. In the same way, the fear of having bad behavior captured on a cell phone camera or Flip camera is prompting some people to think twice before behaving badly in public. So if doing the right thing isn’t enough, being caught doing the wrong thing and worse, exposing it to the world might prompt more civility on the sports sidelines and in other places.
But then, reality shows like the Real Housewives series, Jersey Shore, and Survivor Island reveal true human nature — that when it comes to behaving badly, some people have no shame and no amount of public disclosure is going to affect their actions. It’s a telling sign of the times.
What do you think? You can E-mail me at eunakwon@aol.com. I’d love to hear from you.
