Last night I enjoyed what might be the single most magnificent concert experience of my lifetime. The Radiohead show at Superpages.com (formerly Starplex, formerly Smirnoff music center) was, in a word, brilliant. But since I’m guessing most Back Talk readers aren’t Radiohead fans (please correct me if I’m wrong here — I’d love to know otherwise), I’m going to reflect a bit on another aspect of the concert-going experience we can all relate to — parking. I’ve seen this before when I’ve attended the Texas State Fair or concerts at Starplex/Smirnoff/Superpages.com and it’s always intrigued me — homeowners selling parking spots on their driveways, streets and lawns.
I think about our resident-only parking near Greenville Ave’s hot spots, and “no parking” signs posted all along residential streets in Forest Hills or Old Lake Highlands near the lake where an eager runner or cyclist might be tempted to park his or her car. What if an amphitheater were to go up in our neighborhood? (One’s already slated in Lake Highlands at the future Town Center). We will surely fight tooth and nail to rid our streets of any concert-attending intruders trying to score a spot on our lots. Our neighborhood groups are pretty proactive when it comes to issues of crowding and parking, and we will no doubt hop on the resident-only parking bandwagon as needed, but what about these lower income homeowners or residents doomed to the dense, neverending flow of concert or fair goers? Well, looks as if they are far from helpless —the whole neighborhood is out there flagging down cars and raking in the cash. I guess they’ve embraced the adage, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”.
As for the Superpages.com venue, the parking (in the actual parking lot) was not bad, even at a sold-out event attended by more than 20,000 fans… and from my front and center seats — the view, the sound, the songs and the show was about as close to perfect as I’ve ever known.
