To Meter Or Not to Meter
What Would Miki Do?
Of late, the nature of automobile parking has initiated bitter and divisive debate in fair Venice. In the last twelve months or so, it's been whether to institute parking permits, the year before--metering in the alley between Abbot Kinney Blvd.
This gem on the subject, a story as told by the late great Miki Dora, might shed a little light as to what he'd do regarding the latter. Many thanks to writers C.R. Stecyk III and Drew Kampion for including it in the book: The Authorized Story of Miki Dora. Elegantly published, if we may say, by T. Adler Books, Santa Barbara.
"Gard Chapin [Dora's stepfather] was a relentless individualist with whom no holds were barred and all the moves were unconventional. Once, in the middle of the night, he came into my bedroom and woke me up.
'Hey kid, you've to come with me to see something.' Then he dragged me down to Hollywood Boulevard. 'Look around… what do you see that's wrong here?'
Then he opened the trunk on his car and took out a sledgehammer and walked me over to the curb. 'Miki, these bastards want to control everything. Now they want to make us pay money to park on the street.'
Chapin then smashed the head off every brand new parking meter that the city had just installed. It was the first day they had been put out, and he creamed every one of them for several blocks. His anger and the point of it were something that you could never forget seeing. When he was finished he suddenly became very calm, and he climbed up the sign pole on the corner.
'Here’s a souvenir.'
He handed me the street sign from Hollywood and Vine. I kept it for years until it was lost when they auctioned off all my stuff in Gisborne, New Zealand."--Miklos Sandor Dora
Given the ease of appropriation in the internet age, we checked with Mr. Stecyk prior to posting the above.
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