The DMN has this report about some unhappy fairgoers who *thought* they were parking in official spots, only to find their cars towed from whence they were.
Personal Anecdote Alert: A similar but different thing happened about 30 years ago when the McGill family went to the fair. It was super early on the last day of the fair’s run, as that was the only day my dad would go. (It was the best way to beat the crowds, he argued. It was also the best way to make the fair a depressing experience for an eight year old: Nothing like seeing loser livestock being packed up and moved out to get you in the mood for Owens’ sausage biscuits.) Anyway, a guy with a wad of cash and a tattered flag waved our ‘77 Chevy Blazer onto a triangle patch of grass beneath a falling-apart billboard on the outskirts of Fair Park. All was good until we wanted to leave. The Flag Man, who had disappeared, did not have the best spatial relation skills. It took about an hour and 14 different swear-word combinations to navigate and extract ourselves from the logjam. If that billboard is still there, the only thing holding it up is the amount of paint we left on it.
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One of the main reasons we haven’t gone to the fair is the parking/transportation issue. The sooner they can get the train to run to fair park, the more likely we’ll be steady attenders.
I saw these poor people on the TV news, at about 2 hours into waiting in line at the tow company, from what I understood some had up to a 4+ hour wait.
I would love to know who owns the building they were towed from, any connections to the towing company? How could the building owners not realize that someone was setting up an all-day scam on their property? Are they considering firing their current towing company? Y’know kind of investigative-type journalist questions you’d hope to find in a story about this. Maybe they were too busy fact-checking their editorials.
Dallas Police, can you check back (on this lot) and make sure this isn’t a repeat crime? While the thieves only made off with a relatively small amount, the black-eye this gives our city costs everyone much more.
Amy S, why does it have to be a black-eye? Why not a white-eye?
One of the larger parking lots that vehicles were towed from was a church. The “attendants” were walking in and out of the church to make change. Once the lot was full, the pastor of the church magically appeared and said he needed the lot for a church service. Tow the vehicles. So they did.
South Dallas has run this troll on white people for generations. You are stupid to fall for it.
@Johnny P – Purple-eye would probably be more politically correct. I do not take kindly to slurs of the white-type, I prefer to see my light skin as “reflective”, not white.
You don’t have to wait on the train. There are any number of bus routes that go right past the front gate of the Fair — each about 20 times a day. One can park and catch them anywhere along their routes.
I have done it for years.
It’s true. You can either take the train to Union Station and catch a bus there that will drop you off in front of the main gate, or you can catch a bus at City Place that will do the same thing – at the cost of a regular $2.50 or whatever ticket, not the “shuttle” $5 ticket.
What angers me about this (aside from innocent people getting ripped off) is that the hours the victims stood in line could have been spent out at restaurants, stores and other legitimate businesses, generating sales tax revenue instead. Wasn’t that the justification behind the $57M renovations in the first place?
That’s why I would think the city would take a more aggressive approach in curbing this kind of nonsense.
I feel for these people – because it sucks to get ripped off. But at the same time (and maybe this makes me a bad person, I don’t know) I also thought, “Why would you pay $10 to park someplace else when you can park at the fair for that amount, or even take the train and bus there?”
I’m not blaming the victim, believe me. But perhaps next year the fair or the city can provide a list of good places to park – Fair-sanctioned parking. They could get special signs, and everything. If you don’t see the sign, you don’t park there.
@Bethany
The Cotton Bowl added something like 16,000 more seats. Even if those 16,000 people carpooled and took vans, there would still not be enough parking on the fairgrounds.
DART was on a Saturday schedule too. So even if you parked in Downtown near one of the transit centers, there was no promise of a ride on a bus. Driving through downtown Saturday morning, there were 30-40 people at each bus stop on Commerce and Main streets. I imagine alot of those people had to wait for a long time for a bus since many were full.
DART is ignorant of special events. They will maintain weekend schedules regardless of firework shows, concerts, New Years Eve bashes in Downtown.
I’ve ridden DART on the weekend to attend the fair, and have never had a problem. The special fair shuttles run more often, if you’re willing to pony up the $5. However, the weekend schedule is still much more convenient then waiting hours in line to pay $200 to get your car back.
Parking outside of the fair needs to be regulated. These people need to have a permit from the city and signs that indicate “official parking” spot for the State Fair… Either that or the city needs to shut these places down. They could easily put 5-10 cops on the beat to oversee this. But when in doubt, always park inside the fair!!!
Hmm, I’m not going to tell you my secret parking spots. I’m sure some of them would be too deliciously scary for Parkies.
I went to high school with some kids who lived right around there – Congo, Jerome, Gurley, Parry, Caldwell. We used to take neophytes to the fair and SMU games down the shotgun-shack lined Bank street and under the railroad bridge just to freak them out!
Hey Dave you can always take a taxi or get a ride. It’s not far to walk from Ellum or even the Baylor parking lots, either. But any excuse not to go to South Dallas is good enough for some.
My husband and I rode the DART shuttle buses that left from Pearl STreet downtown. It was an extremely efficient and easy (and cheap) way to go. the line wrapped around the block when we arrived at 10am but moved very quickly and our ride to Fair Park was great! We were in our seats, rooting on the Horns, way before kick off! The ride home was just as easy – well worth the $10 that you would have paid in someone’s lawn.
I park in a garage on Exposition… but then again, I have a clicker to get in.
@ Bethany – It’s always amusing to witness people’s argument endorsing DART when they don’t know how much the fare is. Ride much?
Brent, for a while, when my workplace and my home were both near DART stations, I road nearly every day.
When I responded yesterday, I was also in the middle of a couple of things, and didn’t remember what the fare increase was – hence the “$2.50 or whatever.”
Three dollars is still cheaper than $200, which was my original point. The DART fare and minor inconveniences you may face (like having to maybe ride standing up for a couple of stops if it’s crowded, etc.) is always going to be substantially less than getting your car out of an impound lot.