To the editor:

Back in March, the mayor’s office offered reserved spaces for pickup and carryout to every restaurant in the city.  For those who weren’t open for a while and may have forgotten, all you have to do is call the mayor’s office and they’ll make it happen.

I recently ordered from a restaurant on lower King Street, but when I arrived to pick up my order, the whole lower block was crammed with parked cars.

The restaurant told me people are ignoring the reserved-space notices and parking anyway, even when asked not to.  I had to double park, blocking traffic, while the hard-working young man ran my bags to my car, several feet farther down where I could pull over slightly. 

I called the police to alert them to this problem and was told they cannot take the complaint from me, even though it was I who was inconvenienced by it. They will only take it from the proprietor.

The result here is the city has offered a very nice situation for all of us, businesses and customers, to help our businesses stay in business.  But a few self-centered people ruin it for everyone else, and the police have other things to do. 

Please don’t park in front of restaurants, posted or not. You all know take-out is the only way they can stay in business. If you see someone doing it, give them a kind reminder and hope they will be community spirited. But don’t argue with them over it for sure.

-Pat Webb, Col. (ret.), Alexandria