Best part of not owning a car: No parking tickets. So of course Pavement Paradise: American Parking Space, the current exhibit at the Center for Land Use Interpretation, piqued my interest.

Appropriately perhaps, I’d happened to rent a car for the weekend — meaning I drove over and nabbed free parking on Venice before ringing CLUI’s doorbell…

The exhibit itself’s pretty small, with the central visual piece being the mockup of a typical parking space, with wall text and info stands highlighting parking trivia.

A 12-min or so video called Parking Public gave a brief history of parking in the US — with a bit on a book called The High Cost of Free Parking by our LA-based parking expert Donald Shoup, which argues that free parking isn’t really free. We pay in indirect ways — more expensive living spaces, higher taxes, and general environmental degredation….

I left contemplative. Then I drove and parked free in Westwood Village for the LA Film Festival Green Day stuff, then drove and parked free at the Westside Pavilion to see a film with Nicky that had already sold out. I didn’t feel like waiting in the standby line, so I drove and parked free at 6th and Ogden to get to LACMA early, then saw the Dan Flavin retrospective with Michelle. Then I drove to Hollywood for Tony‘s barbeque, nabbing the perfect parking spot across from the apartment. Free, of course.

You’ll be glad to know I returned the car to Enterprise on Monday –

Pavement Paradise: American Parking Space. At the Center for Land Use Interpretation, 9331 Venice Blvd. Culver City. 310.839.5722. Open Fri, Sat, Sun noon – 5 pm or by appointment.

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