News and notes from Reston (tm).

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

At RTC, Your Paid Parking Dollar$ At Work

Despite a few small bumps in the road, paid parking at our favorite ersatz downtown "stressful city-like shopping center" appears to be doing just swimmingly, thanks for asking. But now that everyone has learned to stop worrying and love the ParkRTC app and the elite crisis managers have moved on to their next Enron-level PR disaster and all the whining about revenues falling by 40 to 50 percent have died down to a dull roar, where is all that sweeeeeeet parking moneys that were promised to be used to "enhance the RTC experience" going?

If you said nonsensical uncrowded Instagram frames and improving the overall elite vibe, you'd be wrong, silly rabbits! True to their the crisis managers' word, the busy elves at Reston Town Center have been hard at work enhancing the paid parking experience to ensure that it's not only a convenient form of revenue enhancement, but a colorful one to boot! Check out this awesome chart in the garages making it crystal clear exactly how fun and easy it is to have your parking cheerfully validated by various retailers and eateries:

That's a little... overwhelming. Let's take a closer look:

You might think that this is the result of blurry cellular telephone photography, and not because RTC management simply pushed the enlarge button on whatever cheap color copier they had lying around the office to produce an amateurish, difficult to read piece of public signage. You might think.

But we digress. Alls you have to do is park, walk down the stairs to the garage exit and check this helpful chart to confirm that you probably parked in the wrong freaking garage to validate at your midscale chain eatery of choice, giving you the awesome opportunity of reparking your Ford Focus or cursing under your breath as you head off for some midscale chain fare. Unless, of course, you had the foresight to have picked the one eatery which hired decent lawyers read its lease:

It might not matter anyway, since some of our favorite retailers are either jumping ship -- or being pushed. Here's what the owner of Red Velvet -- a vocal opponent of paid parking -- said he was allegedly told when discussing renewing his lease:

"Basically they told us that for all intents and purposes, they're looking for newer, younger, and hipper brands, and if we wait until the end of the year, they might consider us."
Hipper than a cupcakery? Unless BXP can find a midscale chain eatery that specializes in serving locally grown cage-free salad on top of avocado toast inside poke bowls out of the back of a food truck, we think that's about as hip as Reston gets.

One of Boston Properties' other big promises about paid parking was that it would provide opportunities to enhance the safety of RTC for its visitors customers. And if you thought that was a cynical piece of PR crisis management, you'd just be a hater. Here's the photographic proof that they're taking this promise very seriously:

We feel safer already, the end.

6 comments:

  1. I'm still trying to figure out where the 'X' in the Boston Properties logo came from.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BXP is the NYSE symbol.

      Delete
    2. And BP was already taken by an even worse company!

      But honestly, if using your stock ticker for your logo is such a great idea, why isn't Apple's logo AAPL or another company that seemingly has a clue doing it? Heck, no other REITs are even doing it.

      Delete
  2. I needed to quickly run into the Apple store. I found a space on Library St., by South Moon Under, activated my parking so I could get my "free" hour. I was gone 8 mins, if that, when I stopped my parking. I was charged $3! I was HOT & of course there isn't one of the parking monitors around. I go to the website and find out there is no free parking on the street! I'm hotter. Leaving the spot, I then see a sign that says "RTC Park, Quick Visit--15 min parking FREE" OK, I go to RTC Park website again & there is NO MENTION of this nor any mention of how to contact someone at RTC Park. I couldn't fight it if I wanted, they give no contact info. I am so done with RTC.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lorriane, I was going to out to dinner with my family and once I saw the hassle and confusion on the street we packed up and left. Not worth the trouble. What a joke Reston has become.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Are you still taking comments? I am late to the party but I have been working the last few days at the RTC as a temp employee, making $12 per hour. I had to pay for parking on Wed. and Thursday. I had a loaner car so I had to input my new license plate. Today, I didn't come in until 11:30 and when I went to activate the parking it told me it was free today...whoopie! After work I wanted to "run" into Talbots but it was so cold I didn't want to walk. I drove up near the shop, found a space and almost hit the stupid pole which is 4 inches from the curb, which makes parallel parking difficult. Found out my quick trip into Talbots costs m3 $3. I have had it with this place. It will be Fairfax Corner for me from now on.

    ReplyDelete

(If you don't see comments for some reason, click here).