Wake up, Little Susie!

I read in the Sun-Times today that the Gary city clerk Suzette Raggs just had to run into the mall for a minute. Just a minute, for cryin' out loud. No big deal.

And do please note that she did NOT park in any handicapped spots. She certainly wouldn't do anything of THAT sort---we all know that's not legal. No, she parked in the "stripy bits" between handicapped spots....in her official car with the official (police) plates.....

Handicapped van owner (and the local cop he called) only had to wait an hour for her to come out, so that the van's doors could be opened and the ramp extended. How is that an inconvenience to anybody?

You know, there are few things that will concentrate your attention on how folks park in handicapped areas quite as much as having handicapped plates or placard yourself. And I've noticed a great upsurge in this lately---the idea that it doesn't count as parking in a handicapped spot if you stay out of the marked spaces and only park in the "stripy bits".

Am I the only person in this country who vaguely remembers that at some point in her upbringing, she was taught "if asphalt is painted with parallel diagonal yellow stripes, it means NO PARKING"? It's beginning to seem that way.

This event happened at Westfield's Southlake Mall on route 30, over on the edge between Merrillville and Hobart. For those of you who have never been there, I have to say I'm really surprised that she managed to do this.

Surprised because Southlake seems to have had a policy for the last three or four years of "repurposing" many of their handicapped parking spaces. Going there for a quick run into Build-A-Bear, I scope the parking lot---the area where handicapped parking usually is near a mall entrance.

You can see by the lot paint that they USED to have handicapped parking here. Apparently, however, it attracted handicapped people, and I'm guessing that might not be the heaviest shopping/biggest spending demographic out there.

It's been "fixed." Half of it is "Kid's Club Parking" (Yes, we're a nation with an obese child problem. Best way to fix it? Under no circumstances make a kid walk further than 20 yards from their car into a mall!), the other half is "Pregnant Women Only Parking" (marked as "brought to you" by a maternity shop in the mall.)

If you're handicapped and need to run into Build-A-Bear, the Correct Solution is to park somewhere else, by some other entrance, and walk the length of the mall to get to your store---that the reason you have a handicapped card is that you have a demonstrated *need* not to walk long distances only applies to car-to-mall, apparently. Intra-mall mileage on your tootsies doesn't count.

That's the Correct Solution by way of Mall Management Think. It's not the Piggie Solution.

There is no official status to "Pregnant Women Only Parking."

There is no Gummint Agency in charge of handing out nice pink Pregnant Placards.

Piggie parks in the preggers spaces. Piggie is, after all Demonstrably Female.......if visibly presumably post-menopausal. But look at all those news stories of older women and babies........how can you know for sure?

If questioned by mall personnel, they get only my name, rank and serial number. I ain't peeing in the cup. That said, exactly how are they going to prove I'm *not* pregnant? :)