Dear readers,
I got this e-mail in, and felt the need to pass it on in it's entirety to you to let you know that the Shirlington/Signatue garage is still a mess with no explanation.
WHEN WILL THIS MADNESS END?

Stephen,
Please let me know what you find out w/ the towing. I was towed last Friday at 12:45 am and got there 5 minutes late after they towed me. Another person in the garage said they came thru and took 10 cars, mine being one of them. I called Federal Realty and spoke to a guy who claimed to be the manager at 301-998-8100. He was a jerk and said it was basically my own fault b/c there is a sign telling you that you will get towed. I pointed out there are no hours listed on the sign and that I was parked in a library spot from 8 pm to when I was towed and that I was told I could park there in the past since the library is not open. Anyhow, I called the tow company and they gave no help either. The manager at Shirlington Library agreed that it was a shame and she would look into it but don't call her for at least a week b/c she is really busy with other stuff. So anyhow, please let me know if you need anyone else to get involved in this and I will be more than happy too and please keep me in the loop of what you find out.

PS...(A CAUTIONARY TALE)

No one from Arlington County has answered my e-mail. Anyone know something else I can do to try to get an explanation of this from someone?

A CAUTIONARY TALE - GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT

My tale of woe and tow has been picked up and posted over at DC BLOGS today!
I have written Arlington County inquiring their tow policy in the Shirlington Garage.
Will I hear back from them? I don't know. We shall see.
Thank you all for your support and comments. I will keep you posted on what the County has to say back to me.
SGS

A CAUTIONARY TALE - PART 2

So I rolled into the cursed garage of Shirlington at 6:57PM, as my picture shows, to rehearse for an upcoming extension of the Kander and Ebb Celebration at Signature. Of course I could not park in a Signature parking space, as they were all taken. (See my comments below on the last post where I tell the story of an Arlington County Police officer parking in a Signature Theatre Employee space).
I noticed as I came in that the spaces that were designated for Library customers were full.






Yet...
How is this possible?
As I reiterate, these are the hours of the Shirlington Library...








And to add further hypocrisy, the Police are added as a secondary number to the over zealous and money grubbing dirt of the earth towing company, A-1 Towing. This is even more funny since a Police car was parked in a Signature Theatre Employee space earlier this week. I guess that is ok?!
So the Library has been closed for one hour and fifty seven minutes, yet, these are the cars who are parking there...





Now the reason that I was towed was that I was parking in a Library spot. Even thought the Library had closed 8 hours earlier. Well, here are many parked cars in the Library spots and the Library was closed. Why aren't they being towed?
Is there a certain time that towing starts to get enforced, and if so, why is that time not notated in signage in the garage? Why is it ok for these people to park here and they don't get towed, yet I did?
Let's look at the ONE small sign outside the garage again...

It says Permit Parking 24 Hours a Day/ 7 Days a Week Towing enforced.
Well...obviously not. There is a hypocrisy here. The tow trucks really tow at a certain time. Why is that time not posted? If it was, I would have not parked where I did. The $100 that I had to pay left me with $75 to get through the week on. This will make things very tight for me. For what?
There is already limited parking in Shirlington, so why does the Library horde these spaces even when they are not open?
SO I left my rehearsal at 9:07PM, 4 hours and 7 minutes since the library had closed.

Look at the cars behind my cell phone. As you see, they are still there. No one is towing them. Why? Why is it ok at 9:07PM, but not at 2AM? If there is a certain hour in which it is forbidden, it should be posted. I cannot help the fact that I keep later hours due to my jobs, and if all of these people who parked here illegally at either 6:57pm or 9:07pm were not towed, then why should I have been?






I am not done exploring this, and will be e-mailing both Federal Realty and the Shirlington Library tomorrow. I will also be in touch with WTOP's Shirley Rooker with Call to Action, and Channel 7 on Your Side.
It is not in your best interests to park in this garage, as there are obviously rules that are being made up at random that don't apply at all hours of the day, and you could be towed within 5 minutes of parking there.
Stay away from this garage at all costs.
SGS