With the amount of structures popping up left and right, one would expect some sort of coherent planning to develop along with them, but, alas, that is never the way it happens, especially when the location is Addis Abeba. The lack of any form of reasoned planning being painfully obvious, looking over the skyline of the metropolis is like looking at the first attempt at an adult painting that a child has drawn.

But without having to analyze all of a gazillion problems (lack of water, electric, phone lines, sufficient green areas, roads, land, construction control) when it comes to the urban planning of the metropolis, there is a particular one that I would like to speak on. That is the issue of parking. Of all the number of planning failures that can be spoken of, particularly in recent years, this is one that has gone above and beyond.

With a boom in construction and the availability of just about everything in these new commercial centres that have popped up left and right, Addis is now playing host to demanding visitors and residents alike. But while all the things are readily available, finding a parking spot is like searching for the Holy Grail when trying to get to them. But this does not seem to bother anybody, least of all the management of the buildings that are facing this problem, and the security guards that have been assigned to handle what little parking these buildings do make available.

Now before I go into my tirade, I would like to first acknowledge that the blame does not rest squarely on the shoulders of commercial building owners when it comes to parking. City planners along land development and lease agencies also deserve to have a finger pointed their way. In the rush to give out plots to 'investors' the space allotted to each gargantuan building is less than the number of office spaces that they have available. The pertinent planning bodies have done nothing to make parking space a necessity, or to make additional plots available in more congested areas that could be used as central parking areas. Oh, and actually constructing multi-level parking arenas instead of, say, hideous sculptures at roundabouts is a dream.

I am sure, that it would be quite difficult, both as a driver and a pedestrian, to look past the double parking that takes place in front of the larger buildings in town. This is most obvious on Africa Avenue (Bole Road) where it is commonplace for customers to double park and give their mobile numbers to the security guards so they can call when it is time to move the car. I suppose that you could say this is making the best out of a bad situation.

Now I bring this up because I was confronted by quite an amusing parking scandal earlier this week.  I was at one of these buildings, double parked, and was not able to come down when the security guards called me because I happened to be in a meeting. I came down half an hour later, and two of my tyres were flat. I was pissed. And I was stuck there for two hours, while the security guards and the head of the crew stood there in amusement at a woman in a skirt changing tyres. 

Of course, the security guards denied having anything to do with it. I, for one, was positive that it was sabotage because I had the air in my tyres checked three days earlier. During the two hours that I was forced to stay there, I took up four parking spots, making an already awkward parking situation even worse. Fuming, I leave saying that I would handle the matter with their superiors the following day.

I go to the office of the management the next day, wanting to report the faux pas on the part of their security personnel. I ask to have the name of the guards so that I can take legal action, and guess what, the woman behind the desk says to me: “Well you know the reason why we let the air out of people's tyres is because . . .”

I did not even listen to what else she had to say, I lost it.

How dare they? Because I was not able to come down when they called me, then they were entitled to destroying private property? Did it make more convenient that they were stuck with a pissed off me who closed off four parking spaces in my anger?

I found out this is a policy of that particular building. If the person who is not double parked is not there immediately, then they flatten, or even remove, their tyres.

Understandably, it is annoying to the person blocked in to have to wait or have to squeeze out using the two adjacent parking spots, but deliberately letting the air out of a person's tyres? And then, not even one but two tyres?

BY Lulit Amdemariam