Finding the Sweet Spot - The Insider's Guide to Parking in San Francisco

by David LaBua, Terrapin (Editor)

Finding the Sweet Spot offers practical, creative, and insightful solutions to the most aggravating, frustrating, and intimidating aspect of the San Francisco urban PARKING! This indispensable guide, loaded with previously-unpublished information, takes a keep-it-simple approach and applies keen wit plus local wisdom to the problem that befuddles tourists and bedevils residents of the City by the Bay.

Genres: Reference

147 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2009

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was disappointing. I know I shouldn’t have expected any miracles but I was really hoping it would give me some tips on how to find parking spaces. However, there is no magic, and I can’t expect to find spaces where they don’t exist, such as near my apartment building during many days/times.

This is a mildly, to very occasionally moderately, amusing and entertaining book, but it’s mostly a humorous version of what one could read in the Department of Motor Vehicles handbook and other government publications. There are some tips but they’re not especially helpful. Most are common sense techniques I’ve already figured out for myself.

The author gives specific fines for various violations that will become obsolete very quickly, as fine amounts are raised fairly frequently; ditto re dated information about locations to buy the prepaid parking cards for parking meters and costs to park in lots/at meters, etc. etc. etc. (This 2009 edition is the second; the first edition was published in 2006.)

Otherwise, it’s a relatively good reference book, especially for foreign visitors, and for some out of town U.S. visitors. For San Francisco residents it would be useful mostly to how to deal with events that have never happened, such what to do after being towed.

I’ve never been towed. I get a parking ticket only about once every three years because I am careful. I’m a very considerate driver and parker, but I wasn’t wild about his ubiquitous Karma/Karmic comments, maybe because I don’t really believe in karma, but I found them only mildly entertaining.

I might recommend this for out of town visitors who plan to drive here, especially those not used to big cities. There’s an occasional bit of information that San Francisco residents just know that others would not: such as not being allowed to park in the same legal space for longer than 72 hours, even though there’s not a single sign in the city that informs drivers of this rule.

Some current and historical fun facts are included.

Helpful phone numbers and web sites are given. I will definitely keep this as a reference book.

[Linda M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finding the Sweet Spot is so many things rolled into one. It's funny, it's light-hearted, it's philosophically engaging, it's informative, and it's ridiculously helpful. I've lived in SF for 7 years now, and in the first 10 pages, I learned things that I thought I knew about this city and parking that I really didn't. Most of the 40 or 50 tips he gives are things I hadn't tried before. His thoughts about parking karma struck me in a way that actually shifted my perspective on karma, or at better yet helped me to clarify it. The end result is that I feel much more calm and knowledgeable about parking for sure. A nice surprise this was when I went in to buy a map, and came out with this book.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is interesting and funny right from the start. Even the copyright is funny. Parking in San Francisco is so insane, and stressful, and the author starts off by talking about how one can approach parking from a philosophical and perhaps even a spiritual perspective. He then discusses how to avoid getting a parking ticket, and also gives a host of strategies about how to find a parking place, and how to gain access to a secret list of free parking spots in the City. Lots of interesting rules are explained along the way, woven with a very wry and dry sense of humor that I find appealing. It's a good reference book to have handy, and also a great bathroom reader. It's a great synthesis of information that cannot be all be found in one place.

[Carolyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stupid-ass book. Save yourself the trouble and waste of time.