[announcements] Parking Policy Update

Brian Klug <##@hackerdojo.com>Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 9:51 AM

Reply-To: discussions@hackerdojo.com
To: announcements <announcements@hackerdojo.com>

The Board of Directors is updating our parking policy to add the following:

With limited parking available, the Dojo is not a campground nor a car storage facility. No vehicle may remain in the Dojo parking lot for more than 24 hours or it is liable to be towed. No sleeping in cars or RVs overnight is permitted. While we do not tow vehicles parked on Fairchild Drive, we reserve the right to deny access to our building for anyone using the street parking in a way that would violate this policy if it occurred in our parking lot.

The new policy takes effect today.  (The change has been made in response an increase in persons essentially doing the opposite of the above.)

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How much of a story is this? Do we have social responsibility here? I mean, some have probably noticed changes in me recently and it’s because I fell into the insane work trap and just of snapped out of it. A decade of reading Slashdot / Digg / TechCruch / Mashable / HN from my bedroom in the Midwest and dreaming of startups warped my perception of reality, it seems!

I’ve never slept in my car for work; I’ve slept at the office maybe once or twice… and that pales to what these lovely and dedicated folks are doing. I feel like this trend in general is unhealthy. I talked to a number of recruiters and candidates at HackerFair who really knew where I was coming from when I asked for contract/rest-of-the-country-part-time work. I of course met others who raised their eyebrows and walked away. I met a lifestyle company who really sympathized; we should have more of those!

We’re in a great place—geographically, socially, you name it—where we can really enjoy everything from nature to night life all year ‘round. There are plenty of other places to set up shop without paying the paradise tax, where one can easily afford an extra bedroom for an office, and get a free backyard and time to use it while they’re at it.

We’re in an industry that will probably never stop growing, until we make it so good it doesn’t need us anymore. I applaud the commitment and pass no judgement, but I must ask: why sleep in a car outside of a warehouse in paradise?