Ashley says the elevator in this downtown Columbus parking garage has been out of commission for over a week now, forcing those on the upper levels to (egads!) use the stairs.
“The stairwell is, admittedly, quite unpleasant, and is occasionally home to pools of urine,” Ashley says. “But as someone who has never used the elevator for the year that I have been parking there, it’s hard for me to muster sympathy for the writer’s supposed urine-soaked hems. Perhaps he or she should invest in a tailor?”
Meanwhile, the people who share this employee parking garage in Los Angeles seem to have become resigned to their fate.
As Candice explains, “There used to be a piece of tape holding the first floor button so it wouldn’t get stuck on random floors. After the city inspector come in, the tape disappeared and instead it was declared (indefinitely) ‘out of service.’”
related: Do your stairs think you’re fat?
28 responses so far ↓
#1
Sir Puke
The stairs are good for you…and the muggers, junkies, stray dogs, bats, rabid vermin and spiders.
May 8, 2012 at 8:26 pm rating: 18
#2
joshua
If the Buckeyes weren’t attracting such a wonderful student body they wouldn’t have this problem.
May 8, 2012 at 8:40 pm rating: 1
#3
Ele Vator
i’d catch the lift to the frist floor..
May 8, 2012 at 8:47 pm rating: 0
#4
SeeYouInTea
Someone has been leaving _cups_ of urine in the stairwell in my dorm. That takes a lot of work.
May 8, 2012 at 10:03 pm rating: 4
#5
Missbeans
I have to say that Ashley is kind of a jerk here. I totally get why people would be ticked off that the elevator doesn’t work. I can also totally understand why urine in the stairway would invoke the wrath of the letter writer. (Also, boys and girls, a properly hemmed cuff WILL drag the ground when climbing stairs.)
What I don’t get is why Ashley can’t “muster sympathy” for the note writer. Is she actually siding with the Stairway Pee-er? Is she the culprit? Or does she just have some really bizarre and unwarranted animosity toward people who use the elevator instead of the stairs?
By the way guys, just because someone isn’t in a wheelchair doesn’t mean they don’t have a disability. Many people with asthma, heart conditions, or arthritis, for example have problems with stairs. I have had arthritis since I was 16 which has caused me agonizing pain in my knees and ankles. It really sucks when I also get to be subjected to a speech about how “healthy young people” like myself should be taking the stairs. Don’t make assumptions.
May 8, 2012 at 11:33 pm rating: 78
#6
kermit
If this was a free public parking lot, I could muster up a tiny bit of sympathy here if we lived in a magical place where nobody had health issues.
But the fact is that downtown parking garages charge a pretty penny in monthly parking fees. For that kind of money, people have a right to be pissed when the management can’t be bothered to fix the elevators or clean the stairwells.
May 9, 2012 at 12:41 am rating: 48
#7
gladystopia
Does anyone else have the same ad I’m seeingon this page–the one with the headline “Pinch Me, I Must Be Streaming”??
Maybe THAT’S what the problem is in the stairwells…too much streaming, not enough pinching.
May 9, 2012 at 1:08 am rating: 15
#8
elangomatt
I wonder if there is anything in the ADA about parking garage elevators. I am not usually a proponent of the ADA when people are abusing it to get trivial things fixed but it seems to me that something could be in there.
May 9, 2012 at 8:30 am rating: 1
#9
Beatus Mongous
I choose to use the stairs where I work for several reasons. Health is my first reason, but also because I have frequently found all sorts of bodily substances in the elevators where I work. Along with those, many of us have been stuck in our elevators several times, and some have had to be rescued by the fire department on more than one occasion. Here’s the thing that gets me, though:
There are stairs to go up and down from any floor EXCEPT to go from floor 1 to floor 2. The only options to go from 1 to 2 are the elevator and an escalator that has been “broken” for three years. Yes, to me, a broken escalator is just stairs, but recently, the building management has blocked off the escalator with barricades and has asked security to keep people off of the escalator. The ONLY option now is the elevator.
It’s not so much that I don’t like the elevator, but I don’t like not having a choice. If I want to walk up the escalator, why can’t I? This note is the same thing. Due to the lack of responsiveness by management, there is a lack of choice.
May 9, 2012 at 12:17 pm rating: 8
#10
MH
In all seriousness, I manage facilities and one of my buildings in Phoenix is VERY similarly named. I had a small heart attack when I saw this and almost threw a fit with my parking and elevator contractors. Glad I saw that it’s actually in Ohio, but if that happened in my properties, someone’s head would roll for a) not fixing the elevator, and b) not maintaining the stairwells. If you do want results, call the building’s management company. If it doesn’t work, call the city, broken elevators and unkept stairwells are both ADA and fire code violations.
May 9, 2012 at 12:54 pm rating: 28
#11
This or That
I LOVE THIS NOTE.
I find it hilarious that Ashley says the stairwall is “OCCASIONALLY home to pools of urine.” Oh, just on occasion? Oh, well then that makes it all better. I mean, how many of us haven’t OCCASIONALLY been in the stairwell and realized we just couldn’t make it the rest of the way without peeing in the corner? Answer? Oh yeah. ALL OF US.
Ten bucks says Ashley is the pee-er.
May 9, 2012 at 1:43 pm rating: 19
#12
ziblue
Along with the issue of people who have mobility/health issues that make taking the stairs difficult to impossible…parking garages can be dicey safety-wise in general, but the stairwells? Especially at night? Yeah, unless I’m in a group, that’s not somewhere I feel good about being.
May 10, 2012 at 9:24 pm rating: 13
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