Trapped in the St. Louis City Hall Parking Lot

For the last few days, our family has been hit hard with the stomach flu. It got so bad for my son that we ended up at our children’s hospital for dehydration. So when my husband was offered tickets to the St. Louis Blues game for tonight {Center Ice, 13 rows back!}, I jumped at the chance to get out of my house and away from the sickness. After saying goodbye to Grandma and the kids, we left the house as soon as my husband arrived home from work and headed to the Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis. Since we were running a little behind, we pulled into the St. Louis City Hall parking lot instead of waiting to get into the garage. We paid our $20 cash to the person at the entrance and I noticed there was another person taking money for the next lane, plus two additional employees in the guard booth. We parked and then quickly hurried into the game, making it just in time.

Before the 1st period was over though, the stomach flu finally claimed the last person in my family – my husband. It hit him like a truck and after leaving the bathroom, we headed to our car. I’ve parked there before a few times but always during the day. The lighting isn’t the best and there’s actually a part of the parking lot that is complete darkness, so I felt a little uneasy as we got into our car. But we were quickly in our car and headed to one of the exits – there are 4 – but the barrier wouldn’t lift. Since this exit didn’t have a guard booth, I backed up and went to an exit that is directly across from the Scottrade Center. Again, the barrier didn’t lift and there was no one in the guard booth. I got out of the car to see if it would lift – nope. I looked around hoping to find an employee who could tell me how to get out. I then got back into my car to look at our parking ticket, hoping there was a phone number to call. Again, nothing.

I drove and tried the two other exits in the parking lot but again, none of the barriers would lift and the guard booths were completely dark. It baffled me that less than an hour earlier, there were 5 people at one guard booth and I assume the same amount at the other, yet now there was no one. On the outside of the main guard booth {pictured below}, there was a sticker that said “How are we doing? Call the boss at 314-622-4414”. I called the number and an answering machine picked up stating that it was Joe Ryan and I had reached the City of St. Louis Customer Service Parking line. I realize it was after hours, but I started leaving a message. Halfway through my message, I got cut off and was informed my message was canceled. Was this a joke?

Photo Source: Google Street View

Unaware that the St. Louis City Police Headquarters had moved a few months ago, I walked across the street to see if I could get an officer to help me when I discovered they were no longer in the building across the street. I decided to get back into my car and head over to the part of the parking lot closest to Scottrade Center so I could run back in there and find someone.

Before I could do that though, another car was trying to get out of the parking lot also. I decided to get behind them in hopes of MAYBE I was doing something wrong. But the barrier wouldn’t work for them and no one answered the customer service line. The next thing I knew, the passenger of the vehicle in front of us broke the barrier into pieces and jumped in the car. Sorry, I didn’t get the license plate, I just got in my car and finally left too – after 35 minutes of trying to get out. But you know what? I don’t blame him.

I live in St. Louis County so I’m the first to admit that I don’t pay attention to a lot of the happenings in St. Louis City. But What. The. Heck. I’m glad that I paid $20 to park my car in a secure lot. In fact, it’s SO secure that I couldn’t get out. I kept thinking, what if one of my kids were REALLY sick and I needed to get home? What if I was a doctor on call who had to get to a patient? But instead, I was trapped in a car with a sick husband and no way to get out.

Here’s a few things that I think need to happen. And maybe I’m crazy. But when I’m paying $20 for parking, I think someone needs to be guarding the parking lot – in the 2 guard booths that are there. The lighting isn’t the best and after all, armed robbery in downtown St. Louis is up 68 percent and that doesn’t include the fact that there are almost more murders in St. Louis City in 2014 than 2013 – and there’s still 2 months left of the year.

If no one is going to be guarding the parking lot, you need to have someone answer the customer service line. Or there has to be an emergency button to let cars out. You can’t just trap cars in the parking lot, especially at night. According to Parkopedia, this parking lot is manned. But it wasn’t for at least 35 minutes tonight. And for me, that’s 35 minutes too long. I’m just thankful for the guy that was way less patient than me.

Le me know if I’m overreacting. Is this the norm for parking lots during sporting events? As someone who attends several St. Louis Cardinals games a year and parks in different parking lots, I’ve never had this happen to me and not sure if it was because it was a city parking lot.