Parking at The Mall

So, parking at the Mall of America....

It's an event.

If you've never been to MOA, there's West Coast Parking and East Coast Parking.

I kid you not.

Though their definition of West Coast Parking is, well...Texas isn't in the west at all.  But I guess I can give them a break since there really are only 5 west coast states, including Hawaii and Alaska.  But they kind of missed Washington and Oregon...

But, setting the geography problem aside, the parking structure tiers feed into only three levels of the mall, so some of the tiers have stairs up and down to the mall entrances.  In fact, only the bottom and the 6th floor have no stairs involved- the 6th floor only has direct access through Macy's...so, that's not open during all store hours.  Now, MOA thought through some of this and they do have two smoky, filthy elevators on each parking structure....though, even when they are in service, it's not a place I want to take my baby daughter.

When I moved to Minnesota, my family and I first parked in Hawaii (no, not California- we had had enough of that).  But, just like most people, once you select a parking space, that's pretty much where you park every time.  It's true about parking spots and about seats in a classroom (it was kind of funny to watch this in my college classes- one class I tried to play spoiler and moved around....that's a different story).

Anyway, Hawaii.

Well, Hawaii is on the 3rd floor, West Coast Parking.  You have to navigate down some stairs  to get from the parking tier to the mall, so once I had my baby, that was out.  We had to start parking on the bottom floor...ugh, Texas.

Now, it's not that I dislike parking in Texas just because I don't like country music, or cowboy boots, or the Texas way of doing things.  I've been there on multiple occasions and it's frankly a scary place- like out of some KKK horror film.  I guess I'm just too much of a Yankee to really want to park in Texas.

And then there's the whole problem with GETTING to the mall from the Texas level.

1. The lights are the dimmest on this level than any other level.  
2. There an active street with just a stop sign to control traffic that you have to run across to get to the mall.  
3. Then, there's no handicapped door plate for entering the mall at this level.  

This is find particularly egregious since, again, this is the only level that does not have stairs between the parking ramp and the mall.  Even if you are the take the elevator, you have to take it all the way down to the street level to enter the mall because the elevators don't line you up with the mall entrance- just the parking tiers.  I honestly find it quite a sick joke that the mall put handicapped parking on each tier of the parking structure, only to make them take the broken, smelly, filthy elevators down to the street level, cross the busy street, and have to maneuver into the mall double doors without the handicapped plate.

Yeah, great "handicapped" parking.  Completely accessible.

And I'm just trying to get my baby and her stroller into the mall.

Finally, I can't overlook the "Family Parking" at the Eden Prairie mall.  Well, "Eden Prairie Center".  Honestly, "Center"?  

The Family Parking accounts for 4 slots on the backside of the mall next to the Von Maur store.  These 4 slots are at the very front of the parking aisles- just like the handicapped parking.  However, UNLIKE the handicapped parking, these 4 slots are completely uncovered by the parking ramp.  There are only 4 slots that aren't covered and they chose these 4 slots to be "Family Parking"...because obviously, I'd want to park in one of these spots in the rain and snow while trying to get my kid out of the car and into her stroller instead of parking in the parking ramp.

Who plans these things!?