1270 Free Troll

Recently, some Olympia City Council members voted down a paid parking plan that has been 26 years in the making—26 years, and countless committee and staff hours.
Not to mention enough hand-wringing to qualify as an alternative energy source.
A couple of the voter-downers did so in the laudable but mistaken belief they were listening to the public.
They weren’t.
They were listening (because it’s hard not to hear a squeaky wheel) to a small group of chronic complainers who make an avocation of complaining. Much like the commenters you see whiling away each day commenting on everything from soup to nuts in the newspapers.
Most of them are trolls. Most of them don’t park downtown anyway.
They park in their mom’s basement.
The worry expressed was that creating pay parking in the current free parking core would be an onerous burden on people coming downtown. The proposed rate, by the way, is a dollar an hour.
But the truth is, pay parking is really about equitable access.
Consider this: We all hate Wall Street insiders, don’t we? Those who use inside access or information to cut the rest of us out of our fair share?
That’s precisely what certain unscrupulous downtown employees are like. They’re also trolls¾the free-toll trollers.
These trollers work the system. They move their cars from free spot to free spot every 90 minutes. They take a troll break, troll for a free cup of coffee at one of the banks, have a troll cigarette, and move their troll car.
And they hog the parking places of people who’d like to shop downtown. And rob the city of not just parking revenue, but sales tax revenue as well.
Paid Parking stops that. It levels the field. It’s a blow for the common person, an implementation of democracy.
Paid Parking is, essentially, an act of freedom.
Let’s keep Olympia Troll Free.
America, ya gotta love it.