Posted by sam at January 11th, 2005
I was looking through some old emails I had sent, and came across the email to the management of parkway crossings apartment complex. I thought it was pretty damn funny. I have edited it slightly, to make it appropriate for a wider audience, and deleted expletives.
SUBJECT: Parking at Parkway
Dear sir,
I would like to let you know I received a $50 boot while parked in VISITOR parking at your apartment complex. I have done this many times before without a problem, but now because of *a* new sign measuring roughly 10″x6″ at the far end of the parking lot I was faced with this problem as I was trying to leave. There is no reason for this other than your desire to [expletive deleted] people over and take their money. I hope word gets out about how you rape people for their money and I hope nobody wants to live there and that you guys go out of business.
Soon.
Serves you right for taking advantage of an already poor student population. The University parking guy who came out said residents had been notified, yet not a single one of the residents in the apartment I was visiting had heard anything about it. I’m glad that I could be treated so nicely as a Visitor to your [expletive]hole. This new policy is really going to start making friends - people will flock to live in a place where they can’t have friends come visit! Im surprised your not charging the people who live there with boots and extra fines - you already have them pinned down under contract!
I have summarized the reasons I would rather live in hell than parkway crossing in this neat, organized, bulleted list:
*management in hell loves it when you bring your friends
*Satan has no use for your money
*the heat of the furnaces of hell pale in comparison to the heat of my rage when I think about parkway crossing
*no byu standards in hell
*health benefits
Please make sure your overlord sees this email. Im sure he won’t bat an eye, as he has already has taken my money.
[expletive] you,
Sam Garfield
As you can see, I was pretty pissed. The guy from parkway crossing wrote back, and actually sounded like a cool kid.
SUBJECT: Your email
Hello Sam, In response to your email (which, by the way, was rather entertaining), I’d like to clarify a few points in an attempt to direct any further scathing emails to the correct channels. For example, Parkway Crossing does not–in fact CAN NOT (by law)–receive ANY money for booting, towing or other traffic citations issued on our property. That is why, under direction from Orem City officials in advisement to adhere to strict city parking ordinances and fire code, we use University Parking to enforce proper parking regulations. When I say “proper parking regulations,” I don’t mean let’s (in your words), ‘rape people for their money.’ I mean, by law we have to provide a certain amount of parking spaces for our tenants. Visitor parking is secondary.
However, we know visitor parking is important and have provided the highest percentage of visitor parking allowed on our real estate. In fact, we recently paved an optional parking lot to add more visitor spaces at the south end of the property - a huge expense to us since it will be torn up and relocated in the future. Obviously, our loyalty is to our TENANTS, making sure they have a place to park their car since they are paying to live here. Secondary to that, we understand that visitors are going to come here and we certainly encourage that. That is why EVERY TENANT has received a very encouraging message on multiple UTILITY BILLS to PLEASE CHECK WITH MIDNIGHT SECURITY BEFORE HAVING YOUR FRIENDS PARK IF THE VISITOR SPOTS ARE FULL SO THEY CAN HELP VISITORS FIND A SPOT, ISSUE A TEMPORARY PERMIT, OR INSTRUCT UNIVERSITY PARKING NOT TO BOOT OR TOW.
Now, I’m assuming the lights were still on at the apartment you visited, which means your friends have paid their utilities, which means they’ve seen the utility bills, as well as numerous fliers placed on their doors, exit doors, and bulletin boards around the property. Plus, you provided me with the measurements of our parking sign (which is not new) so I’m assuming you knew where it was and should have read it. Most students around here know parking is an issue at most complexes and rules are posted for a reason. Also, just because you parked in a non-visitor spot before and didn’t get in trouble doesn’t mean your always exempt. University Parking helps us when the lots get really full to, again, provide adequate parking for our tenants, as well as avoid breaking Orem City fire code. You may have been given a break before.
In a nutshell, if we had endless amounts of land, we would build endless visitor parking spots. But, just like the rest of the student housing complexes in Orem and Provo, we don’t. So we build as many as we can AFTER the needs of our tenants are met. Second, we don’t make a dime off booting or towing and have no desire to. In fact, we regularly meet with University Parking to make sure they’re doing their job in a fair, polite manner.
Third, we don’t rejoice in poor students getting booted or towed. That’s why we VOLUNTARILY pay our security guards to go above their main security duties to help people and their visitors find parking spots, as well as work with the parking company to avoid booting or towing those people (and their friends) who follow the parking guidelines properly.
So, in the event you decide to visit Parkway Crossing again and you can’t find a single visitor parking space, simply visit the management office or call Midnight Security (their number is posted all over) - even on that “new” sign out front. They’ll be happy to help you place your car in a safe place and will work with the parking company to avoid a boot or tow. And, you might want to take precautions should you visit other student housing developments in Orem and Provo since they are under the same provisions we are and many of them use University Parking as well. I know, because I’ve lived in three student housing developments and suffered the same parking dilemmas when it came to visitors. At least at Parkway Crossing we don¹t (yet) have street restrictions like Belmont and many other places that don’t even allow street parking around the area. Hopefully this can appease some of the obvious rage you feel towards Parkway Crossing. If not, I guess you can still desire to live in hell rather than here. Being BYU Approved, that might be wiser. 
Thanks for your input,
BillyBob[Name changed]
