Enshittification Meet Parking

Originally posted on tumblr

Every. Place. in Austin is. Now only. Paid “premium” (private) parking. Every. Fucking place. Free parking is dead.

Every public park. Mall parking lots. The tiny strip mall in my neighborhood. Hike and bike trail access points. Fucking coffee shops!!!!!

“Free” things to do no longer exists bc it alllllll costs w/ parking.

I do not live downtown. I do not live in a “tourist attraction” area. This is in very residential parts of the city. My fave movie theater where I have a subscription membership now makes me “””””pre authorize””””” $11.82 every time I go (3-4 times a week, movies are our thang.)

It all requires a smart phone and cell service for a QR code. If you don’t have a phone or a credit card fuck you, I guess.

They do validation at the movies at least but it takes like 5-10 mins to fill it all out (won’t save your info!), prepay, find a validation kiosk (which usually doesn’t register/scan the 1st few times you try) AND AND AND your phone doesn’t even have service in the garage. So you have to scan in the garage in order to pay the right money grabbing company, but then walk all the way into the theatre to be able to process their money grab.

It’s so dumb. I hate it so much.

You can’t really function in this city (state COUNTRY) without a car so they’ve found another way to extort us all for more and more and more $$$$$.

This is obscene. And it’s simply 1 tiny thing. I can’t handle life in 2026. I really can’t.