I was estatic at the headline above. Finally someone is giving the Parking Industry its due. PARKING RULES. yes! We do. We are a large industry that affects practically everything that happens in our culture, and we get so little credit. But now, PARKING RULES.
Our industry has taken enough abuse. Its time to fight back, and a headline in the New York Times means that the main stream media is finally coming around, giving us the credit due to our strength, our depth, our wisdom, the affect we have on the daily lives of those we serve.
One of the major problems we have is attracting good people to our ranks. So few young people go to college with the idea of coming out and making parking their career. But now, with the backing of the "Newspaper of Record" maybe we can win one.
Just think of it — a young college freshman sees the article and is inspired. "Gosh, PARKING RULES. I didn’t understand the significance of the industry. This must be a major moving force like hospitality or medicine or architecture or engineering. I think I will make parking my career. He studies all right courses, interns during the summer with a major parking operator, and when he gets that sheepskin and heads off to Chicago, or Nashville, or Vancouver, or LA, and is inducted into his industry of choice.
PARKING RULES!!!
Read about it here.
JVH
One Response
Very interesting topic. I have been in the parking business for over 30 years and must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed all 30 of them. I have made good money and my children know what I do for a living.
However, I don’t think that they have ever considered doing what I did for a living.
One of my daughters is in retail the other is a journalism major.
I have seen this business change and evolve over the years. Back about 15 years ago I was in operations running parking divisions and companies. It was a tough day to day job. When I would visit with my neighbors they would ask how I could make a living “parking cars”.
It didn’t matter that you supervised 100 employees, run multi-million dollar businesses, were a more fully rounded person business wise than those around you. They equated someone in the parking business with a person that parks cars.
Someone once told me that on Wall Street in NYC there are hot dog vendors. Wall Street executives would buy hot dogs from the poor, dirty, nose running, illiterate selling hot dogs sometimes because they felt sorry for the “little guy”. Little do they know that some of these “little guys” earned more in 2 days in cash than they did in a week.
I guess what I am trying to say here is that it is a matter of perception.