mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
I ran across this sign in a parking garage yesterday, and it really got me thinking … what else would I do in a parking garage? Then again, there must be some really fun stuff happening in parking garages (that has nothing to do with parking cars) if they bothered to enact municipal code 3.36.280 specifically to ban it. But for the life of me, I don’t know what. (I feel so out of the loop.) Maybe you guys can help me out here — what the heck are they talking about?
The really tall parking garages offer wonderful views of the city-scape (or of the stars depending upon your locale). I got kicked out once because a friend of mine and I were admiring the view.
But other alternatives could include: skateboarding, visiting the back seat (an alternative to the cliche “look-out point”), or perhaps drug traffiking?
posted by SuperEmi on 5-16-2007 at 11:07 am
My college buddy and I always wanted to play a game of roller hockey in a parking garage. Put one goal at the top and one at the bottom, get together about 30 people on skates, and have at it. Of course, you’d have to switch goals at half-time.
But that’s probably not why this sign is there. Maybe it’s like here in Boulder, where the regular thursday night cruiser ride uses the top of a parking garage as a drinking/partying stop before heading back out to freak the mundanes.
posted by thew on 5-16-2007 at 11:16 am
in response to SuperEmi’s comment, I think it’s worth pointing out that in my younger, stupider days, I used it for all three of those (well, not drugs, but there was a whole lot of underage drinking going on between the first two. in fact, the one by my house still has a legendary hidden corner filled from top to bottom with empty 40s)
posted by CJAwesome on 5-16-2007 at 11:37 am
I’ve heard of people living in parking garages.
I can imagine that some dark corners of parking garages could be used by hookers and their johns…. I feel dirty just thinking that one up!
posted by Jenny on 5-16-2007 at 11:40 am
I was thinking more along the lines of skateboarders and bike riders…and in some rare cicumstances those “freestyle running” guys.
posted by Rexmons on 5-16-2007 at 11:44 am
In my younger years I used to enjoy taking girls on creative dates. A picnic in a tree, dinner in the Chem lab prepared over a Bunsen burner in various flasks, and I have a great story involving a boat and very territorial swan.
One of my favorites was telling a girl that we were dining at a very nice rooftop restaurant; evening gown and jacket required. Then I would drive her to an empty roof-top of a parking garage where a buddy was waiting with the dinner and a candlelit table.
I am married now, so there is no need for such creativity (although my wife often protests the point.)
posted by n2y2 on 5-16-2007 at 11:45 am
I thought of that movie, “Tokyo Drift,” where the drifting takes place mostly in parking garages(?) . . . possibly, because I have never seen it.
Of course, some of these garages are pretty disgusting . . . so who knows what happens there?
posted by Allison on 5-16-2007 at 11:48 am
Other than skateboarding, it could be referring to parking of boats, trailers, bicycles, etc. due to theft liabilities.
posted by audrey on 5-16-2007 at 11:53 am
in the billy wilder film “some like it hot”, ‘toothpick charlie’ and some other mobsters hold a card game in a parking garage (and are subsequently gunned down by a spats colombo’s men…). while i honestly doubt that this sign has anything to do with mobsters from the 20s, i will use any chance i have to bring up this brilliant, brilliant movie. (also, n2y2, can you please clone yourself and/or hold seminars for other men? i feel like you have a marketable commodity here…)
posted by kay on 5-16-2007 at 12:15 pm
sex. drugs. rock n’ roll.
living. peeing. skateboarding.
posted by kellie on 5-16-2007 at 12:24 pm
1st rule of Fight Club:
You do not talk about Fight Club
posted by Sophia on 5-16-2007 at 12:44 pm
I know that around Chicago, we often hold flea markets in parking garages.
posted by Keith on 5-16-2007 at 1:02 pm
Some garages do car wash / wax services in parking garages, that may be one thing.
posted by dan on 5-16-2007 at 1:04 pm
I’ve seen bands or drummers using parking garages to practice because they like the acoustics.
posted by lebetho on 5-16-2007 at 1:31 pm
kay:
Thanks for the kind words. When you are as handsome and rich as I am, you learn to impress in other ways. ;)
I can’t resist one more fun date idea (best for a group date): spread a plastic tablecloth on the ground. Everybody wears swimsuits. Put the messiest foods possible directly on the tablecloth; spaghetti, applesauce, pudding. Everybody digs in, no utensils allowed. Feeding your date is encouraged (so is the use of food service gloves). The really fun part is the clean up - Have a water fight.
posted by n2y2 on 5-16-2007 at 1:38 pm
I guess you’ve never seen, “All The President’s Men”…
posted by Just Al on 5-16-2007 at 4:11 pm
A group of us once played soccer in a parking garage because we were locked in and had nothing better to do. It was definitely more fun than just parking there.
posted by kmt on 5-16-2007 at 4:13 pm
Back when he was nobody Bruce Springsteen played on the top of a parking garage in Richmond VA. ‘74 or so?
I’ve gotten stoned in one.
posted by Bassman on 5-16-2007 at 4:38 pm
Haven’t any of you watched movies? The whole cliche where the attractive woman walks into the parking garage and ends up getting killed or kidnapped? Not quite as common as the little girls in the dark alleys, but still.
posted by Rosalie on 5-16-2007 at 5:20 pm
My friends and I used to skateboard down a ramp that went from the 4th to 1st floor. It actually quite fun.
posted by Karah! on 5-16-2007 at 10:39 pm
In my younger years (last semester), as a way to have some alcohol- and drug-free fun, we’d engage in launching things off the tops of parking garages…such as toilets, water balloons, and old Pentium II computers.
posted by Shosty on 5-17-2007 at 7:28 am
As a teenager I got arrested in a parking garage for underage drinking. Where else were we suppose to do it? At home?!
posted by Jacob on 5-17-2007 at 10:30 am
I don’t know if this is still done, but at one time in Austin, TX, the Dobie Theater showed movies on the top of the parking garage - sort of like a drive-in, but cars weren’t allowed - you had to bring your own lawn chairs.
posted by Kathy on 5-17-2007 at 10:41 am
Message seems appropriate when you consider the uses that some people can come up with for using a parking garage other than parking a car. Where I use to park my car they put in speed bumps because teenage kids would go to the top of the garage and use skateboards or bikes to race from the top to the bottom. There was the danger of a car traveling up the garage not seeing these kids and hitting one. They teens would also use the roof for urinating between cars or in the stairwell.
posted by Jamie on 5-17-2007 at 11:40 am
Stalking. Car chases. Meetings with Deep Throat.
In all seriousness, all sorts of nefarious things can happen in parking garages. Everyone’s pretty much mentioned all of them.
posted by Liz on 5-21-2007 at 2:39 pm
If you’ve ever been to a Jimmy Buffett concert, and parked in a garage nearby… you know exactly why they need to put these signs up. I think most people had a better time in the garage than they did at the show.
posted by Epimetheus on 5-24-2007 at 11:47 am