NBC 15's Cassie Fambro, who always seems to do an outstanding job, really caught my attention with a report on new parking meters for downtown Mobile.
In her story, she explains that new-fangled, futuristic, digital parking meters are being installed, so that you can use a credit card to pay for your parking.
But the most interesting thing in her report is new enforcement of rules about how long you can park in one space.
Apparently, on weekdays ( between 8 am and 6 pm) in metered spaces, you can only park in one space for two hours. When the two hours is up, you cannot put more money in the meter and stay. Instead, you must get in your vehicle and flee to another parking space. (Cassie Fambro used the word "skedaddle," which automatically makes her one of my Favorite Local Reporters currently working today.) The new digital parking meters will be able to identify whether or not you have been in the space for the two hours, and if you have been in the space for two hours, the meter make note of that!
Personally, this won't affect me much, because I am afflicted with a serious chronic mental condition called HatesToPayToParkitis. I do pay to park on occasion, but when I do, I am filled with unreasonable and silly resentment that drives me insane for short periods of time. And when I can find free parking spaces in or near downtown Mobile, I foolishly feel like I have somehow "beat the system," and then I feel a foolish temporary sense of superiority.
Please look at Cassie Fambro's story below, and absorb the information into your mind so that you can deal with these changes, and understand why the changes are taking place.