You be the jury: Is Dori a selfish jerk for keeping parking spot?

It was a crowded weekend day
when Dori headed for one of his infrequent forays to the
Alderwood Mall. Somehow, he scored a primo parking spot
right outside Nordstrom. As he returned to his car after
shopping, he got a call he had to take (it was a college
basketball coach Dori was wooing for a scholarship for one
of the players on his high school team.)

“Ordinarily, I am the fastest vacate-er of a parking
spot you will ever see. I will get in, start it up, pull
out before I even put my seat belt on. I’ll put my seat
belt on as I’m pulling away because I like vacating the
parking stall as quickly as possible. I’m the most
courteous person you can imagine,” Dori says.

But, he doesn’t have a hands-free device and didn’t
want to take the call on speaker, so he sat and talked.
Much to the chagrin of a guy who pulled up and thought
Dori was leaving. After a few minutes, the guy started
honking. Dori signaled he was on the phone, and after
another round of honking the guy angrily sped off.

“If there was a spot where I could pull out and pull up
to a curb somewhere and finish the conversation, I would
have done that,” Dori says.

Suffice it to say, Dori’s explanation isn’t sitting
well with producer Jake.

“That’s kind of a jerky move,” Jake says. “You are
obligated to vacate that spot. You’re loitering.”

“If that guy wanted the spot, he should have gotten
there 45 minutes earlier when I got there,” Dori responds.

“People like you will justify it every time and you
will go to your parking spot and you will sit in your car
and you will talk to your high power college coach
friends. I’m sitting back there in my crappy car; I’m just
trying to get a spot and get into Williams-Sonoma and get
my pans and get home,” Jake counters.

With no resolution in sight, there is but one logical
way to settle the dispute: You be the jury.

“You definitely did not need to leave that spot. It’s
your spot until you leave. Plenty of people go to their
cars, they go to change a kid or put stuff in the car or
just go to the car to sit,” says Antoine in Bothell.

Ryan in Mercer Island disagreed.

“If the parking lot is full then I say you need to move
and be courteous to other people. If there’s spots then I
say you can sit there.”

“It’s the parker’s spot UNTIL he/she moves. A gesture
of ‘I’m not leaving/keep looking’ like Dori did is
entirely appropriate, but the parker owes nothing more.
You’re the next sign that The End is Near, fergodsake,”
says Sean in Kent.

Crissy in Port Townsend writes, “I think you have the
right to sit in your car as long as you want. I used to
sit in my car to breastfeed my kids. I appreciate that you
don’t talk and drive and people need to find more patience
in parking lots.”

After taking the pulse of the people, the jury has
spoken loud and clear. In the case of the parking spot,
you the people rule in favor of the defendant, Dori.

-Josh Kerns/My Northwest.com