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Kelowna  

Sh*t Parkers of Kelowna

Sh*t Parkers of Kelowna and YLW's Worst Parking are part of a new trend in social media, outing the worst parkers around and shaming them into parking appropriately.

The accounts are following trends in other cities to show just how bad parking can be in our city.

Sh*t Parkers of Kelowna created their Facebook page on May 21, 2014 and it already has over 1,800 likes. The page creator, who asked to be called Dom as he must remain anonymous for professional and personal reasons, says they are getting so many submissions that they can't keep up.

Sh*t Parkers of Vernon is also gaining steam with 139 likes and Dom says Sh*t Parkers of Kamloops is in the works with the possibility of Sh*t Parkers of Penticton close behind.

“We have had a few posts in the last little while in Kelowna that have gone pretty wild. The latest one happened this morning of a radio station's vehicle that is a reoccurring visitor on our site and they are getting hammered now. I almost feel bad for them, but if you park in a handicap spot, you are free game,” says Dom.

The Facebook page started with only 100 likes and now has over 1800, expecting to break 2000 by the end of the day.

Dom's friend started Sh*t Parkers of Victoria and at first it didn't take off, but with the addition of Sh*t Parkers of Greater Vancouver, Kelowna and Vernon the concept is gaining a lot of traction. In fact, Sh*t Parkers of Victoria now has over 13,000 likes and shows no signs of slowing down.

“We noticed we have some extremely bad parking here and it is not just bad, the behaviour of most motorists nowadays is so blase in regards to other people you just cannot believe it!”

Initially Dom says they drove around and snapped photos for the page's gallery, including the cover photo which is still one of his favourites. 

“I mean it just floored me, it was our starting picture because I couldn't believe how bad that parking job was. I mean wrong side of the street, not angle parking, it's parallel parking, it is not a handicap vehicle, you have got to be joking!!”

Now in Kelowna they are getting 30-40 photo submissions a day, with 5-6 received daily in Vernon, meaning Dom is very busy trying to post them all.

He says one unexpected side of creating the Kelowna site was the cries for help from those most affected.

“That is one of those things that threw me for a loop. A Kelowna mother with a disabled child could not park in the disabled stall because someone was parked across two stalls. She asked for help and I said don't you worry, Sh*t Parking Karma coming up and I'll tell you, that post got mass attraction.”

He also heard from a woman who was 8-months pregnant with twins and was yelled at by a man parked in the 'parent expecting stall' because he felt he should be parked closer to the store. He ended up seeing himself on the page and apparently had second thoughts on his decision, according to Dom.

“We see it mostly for disabled parking and it is so sad. You see that blue square with the wheelchair on it that is for someone that is worse off than you.”

Another common thread, according to Dom, is those with very expensive cars who, according to him, feel the rules don't apply to them.

“They have no regard for anyone else,” says Dom. “They say I have an expensive car why should I care; or I have a Lamborghini and the deductible is $10,000. Well you bought a car like that and should expect to pay that once in awhile, it is just one of those things.

Just because you drive a million dollar car doesn’t mean you can be a million dollar ass,” says Dom.

They have had some concerns and worries over the page encouraging or inciting vandalism or retribution and anyone spouting those sort of comments will be blocked. However, Dom says there is a group coining themselves the Sh*t Parker Avengers that make him laugh.

“They park their car as close as they possibly can to the driver at fault's passenger door. It is a harmless revenge, which makes me happy because we are adamant against any form of vandalism.”

The 'Sh*t Parkers' company is now branching out with plans to release cards to place on car windshields reminding certain drivers of proper parking etiquette.

The cards will be available on sh*tparkers.com in the next 24-48 hours where you can download 'Sh*t Parking Tickets' that people can either print themselves or get printed.

“Some will be a little friendlier, like please park better next time or, you can leave one as rude as you want,” laughs Dom who says they are trying to give people a harmless outlet to vent their frustrations.  

YLW's Worst Parking twitter account, created by an Edmonton man who also created a very popular Edmonton account, has 100 followers.

Creator Brian LeBelle says once they realized how popular the twitter accounts were in Edmonton and Calgary they decided to go country wide, including Vancouver and Kelowna.

“Hopefully it gives people an opportunity to vent and not do anything stupid to people's vehicles,” says LeBelle. “Bad parking is a sense of entitlement that pisses people off and people like seeing it outed I think."

Unlike Dom, LeBelle has publicized his name but he says he is not too worried about it.

“I have got some nasty messages on Facebook but that is probably as far as it is going to go,” says LeBelle.

The public is invited to send pictures to the Sh*t Parkers Facebook page and tweets to YLW twitter account to 'out' bad parkers in our area.



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