The End of an Era - Goodbye Parking Pass

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Our DC visitor parking pass expired on December 31, 2019. We moved to Northern Virginia this year after living on Capitol Hill for thirteen years. With two tiny condos came two visitor parking passes. Since we only had street parking, our vehicle required a residential parking sticker. But if you show proof of residency in the district, you can apply for visitor parking passes. They weren’t used that often when we lived there - primarily for workers who needed to fix something in our condo and the occasional visitor who needed to drive in to get to our house. Since April we have been using the visitor pass to park in our old neighborhood whenever we came in to town for a program at the Library. Now, we will have to do what every one else does - find a street parking space but make sure you don’t stay for more than two hours, or a parking garage if more than two hours is needed. These parking passes are so valuable and we are so sorry we can no longer use them. And we don’t have any friends or family in our DC neighborhood any longer who could let us borrow one if we needed it. I have a feeling we will be going less and less in to town because it’s getting to be more difficult. Metro and Uber are options but I don’t care to use them - though we probably will under the perfect circumstances. 

Gunk on the Windshield

It’s bad enough to have to park on the street. It’s even worse when someone sprays gunk on your windshield. We noticed many areas of dripping white paint or something like it on the window while driving last week. You know it’s bad when the windshield wiper spray can’t get it off. We decided that it must have happened when we were parked next to the building and five stories up they were tuck pointing and painting on two very windy days. So yesterday we got out the windex and the Goo Gone cleaner and tried our luck at cleaning the mess off. It didn’t work. So we got the razor edge and tried scraping it off. It helped somewhat, but we weren’t able to do a 100% job. There are still many tiny white dots splattered on the glass. Hopefully it will wear off in time. I really miss our garage and personal driveway. Street parking is a real pain. Hopefully it will come to an end soon. 

Registration and Residential Parking Renewal Notice

It’s that time of year again. For the privilege of parking on the street we need to cough up money for registering the car and getting a parking permit sticker. The option is to get a one or two year permit. We usually opt for two years just to avoid the hassle of removing the existing sticker and replacing it with a new one. I really miss our driveway, parking slab, and two car garage that we had in the Midwest. I never had to worry about finding a place to park, or having to leave the two cars we had on the street and in the elements. But things are different in the concrete jungle. At least we only have one car to deal with here. Fortunately the parking issue is usually on Tuesday - Thursday because a lot of the congestion is due to congressional staff who are only in the neighborhood during the week. There are five congress people who live in our building. They live here Tuesday - Thursday. You can set your clock by it. I suppose you could get by living here without a car, but we just aren’t ready for that step yet. So for as long as we do enjoy driving, we will need to keep renewing our registration. So we got our scraper out, removed the old sticker, and secured the new one on that expires in 2020. Who knows what will be going on then?

Parking Available - Only on Memorial Day

It is unheard of! Street parking available - today only. One of the things we miss about living in the Midwest is our two car garage, long driveway, and ample street parking. We no longer have those amenities living on Capitol Hill. It is a headache - especially during the week - to find parking. And we just had the pleasure of paying almost $200 to register the car - again - and get our resident parking sticker to put on the windshield. Something was very different about today when we went out for our morning walk. Ours was the only car parked in front of our building. And all around the neighborhood there were plenty of available spaces. It’s even less jammed than on a regular weekend. Most of the neighbors have left town for the long weekend. Since we have at least five Congress people living in our building, all those units are vacant and all the activity around them is gone. I have a feeling that the spaces will begin to fill in by the end of the day. So we will enjoy it for the moment because that’s about as long as it’s going to last. 

DC Motor Vehicle Registration and Parking Permit

In Wisconsin we had a two car garage and a long driveway. We never worried about parking. Things are much different here in DC. Yes, you had to register your car, but you didn't have to pay for the privilege of parking in the street somewhere near your house - if you're lucky. I envy anyone who has a garage around here. Luckily we can usually find something close by, but you need to be adept at parallel parking. I'm so sorry our new subaru doesn't have that function! So today we decided we better put the new parking sticker on the front left lower windshield as the old one expires this month. It's always a tricky business, and we had our scraper with the cutting blade to help. With the holiday weekend the neighborhood is a ghost town. All he locals leave and that means ample parking. I suppose it could be worse. But I still wish we had our own driveway and garage. It's just one more thing to think about. 

The Visitor Parking Pass

I really miss our two car garage and driveway with enough space for two more cars. We never had to think about or worry about finding a place to park when we lived in Milwaukee. Since moving to DC, we no longer have a garage, or even a slab to put the car. It's all street parking around here. You need to get residential parking stickers, but also visitor parking passes to hand out to guests if they dare to come visit you in the neighborhood. On holidays it's a lot easier because there are no restrictions and usually more space available. It seems like we just made this request a couple months ago. The parking passes expire at the end of the month, but technically they were outdated in September. But an extension was granted because the system wasn't ready to handle the new batch. So last month we requested our visitor parking pass and it arrived in the mail this week. There are several restrictions noted on the back of the permit. Gee, do you think anyone reads the fine print? It also comes with a map so you know exactly where it can be used. The neighborhood is deserted now for the holidays and finding a space is not as difficult. But as long as we live here we will need to continue updating our passes, and permits, and whatever else is required. It's really not that bad, just a bit annoying. 

Registration and Residential Parking Renewal Notice

Two years goes by really fast. We were reminded how quickly time flies with a notice to renew our car registration and residential parking notice. The only items we get in the US mail delivered by the Post Office are these sorts of annoyances. And so we were once again reminded of the privilege to park a car on the street on Capitol Hill. You can renew for one or two years, with a savings of about $15.00 if you go with two. Our vehicle was taken in for inspection at the station a month or two ago, and it is charged on this bill rather than at time of service. Aside from this routine is the visitor parking pass process that is a whole other story. This week seems to be the week to rant about parking - something I haven't done for awhile. In Milwaukee we had a two car garage with more space on the driveway plus street parking. We never needed to think about where to park a car, or two. But I have had a cold, sore throat, and feeling down in the dumps since last Friday. So everything is somewhat irritating now - although this issue will always be annoying. Look how people park around here?