I don't know who else caught it, but I was struck this morning by an op-ed in this morning's Oregonian about the towing industry. Here's the excerpt explaining a "horror story":

A recent incident highlights the problem with this kind of regulation: A young woman's assigned parking space was occupied when she returned from the store one night with her small child and groceries. Her only option was to park and walk two blocks to her apartment, a logistical and safety nightmare for her and her child.

It's a little hard to think that that was her only option (what about double-parking to unload, and then parking her car? etc.), but presuming it was, what sort of society do we live in that walking two blocks is a "logistical and safety nightmare"?

I don't know the particulars of the neighborhood, how many groceries this woman had, and so forth, but it shouldn't be a seen as a nightmare to walk two blocks. Our neighborhoods should be safe enough, our sidewalks and streets easy to cross, and ourselves fit enough that walking two blocks is not a problem.

Indeed, most people walk more than a couple blocks to their car when they shop at the mall. It's hard that doing the same from the car to one's home is seen as a nightmare.
Perhaps in this case it's overblown rhetoric. But clearly, we have a lot of work to do to make walking as easy, safe, and convenient as driving.

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