By Nathan Gardener–
Last Monday morning as I was driving to campus, I began to whip my whip into its usual parking space only to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a new chain linked fence. I wondered how many returning commuters, like myself, had a miniature panic attack right there in the driver’s seat as I wondered where the hell I would park.
For the last several semesters, I, as well as quite a few other students, have utilized the student commandeered makeshift parking lot on the corner of Floyd Street and Cardinal Boulevard, otherwise known as, “The Janky Lot,” to avoid having to pay for a parking permit.
As I arrived on the first day of the fall semester, I had to park nearly three blocks from campus and walk my lazy butt to class, breathing heavily when I arrived.
As I sit here in disappointment that my beloved parking spot will never feel my truck tires again or that an unsuspecting “poor parker” will receive multiple notes on their windshield suggesting self-inflicted harm, I feel it is my duty to provide a proper farewell to the Janky Lot; a place where cheap, lazy, students could not so safely park their vehicle for free. The janky lot was one of the campuses best kept secrets, with just a short walk across the railroad bridge to campus. The only reason we haven’t mentioned this gem before is because half of The Louisville Cardinal staff benefitted from the Janky Lot, and we weren’t willing to publicly announce its awesomeness.
So, to the janky lot; we will miss you, and our tired legs will miss you (or our empty wallets if we decide to purchase a purple parking permit). We will miss the constant mud on our vehicles, or the time I slipped on the icy railroad tracks high above Cardinal Boulevard for everyone to see and busted a hole in my new Banana Republic jeans, or the risk of receiving death threats for a job not well done, all in the name of thriftiness and laziness.
Good-bye janky lot, you are gone, well not useful for us at least, but not forgotten.
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Photo: Nathan Gardener/The Louisville Cardinal
