Hearing Concerning Festival Parking Reshuffle
Residents negotiated temporary parking reassignments during festival season; the negotiation has since become the event.
CHAIR: This hearing is convened regarding the festival parking reshuffle. The record will note that the reshuffle occurs annually and has not been formally approved by any building authority.
WITNESS: Correct. It happened once. Then it happened again. At some point it stopped being something that happened and became something that was done.
CHAIR: When did you first become aware of it as procedure?
WITNESS: When I arrived to park and adjusted my usual spot before I had consciously decided to. I had internalized it without a briefing.
CHAIR: Describe the original arrangement.
WITNESS: Residents renegotiate usual parking arrangements when decorations or gatherings temporarily occupy common space. Someone moves first. Others follow. The first person to move becomes, retroactively, the one who knew what to do.
CHAIR: And now?
WITNESS: Now someone makes one minor adjustment. The adjustment becomes part of the expected sequence and adds time to every repeat. Someone who does not adjust is seen as either uninformed or inconsiderate. The distinction between these two interpretations is not always made.
CHAIR: What happens when the festival ends?
WITNESS: The temporary arrangement remains for two to four days. Nobody explicitly reinstates it either. Eventually it dissolves.
CHAIR: Without discussion?
WITNESS: Without discussion. Exactly as it arrived.
CHAIR: The record will note that the behavior is minor enough to seem accidental, but repetition turns it into reliable local knowledge. Is that characterization accurate?
WITNESS: Yes. I would add that it is now local knowledge that cannot be taught because it has no formal content. You absorb it by watching.
CHAIR: And if someone proposed abolishing the informal system?
WITNESS: Correcting festival parking reshuffle requires more authority than repeating it. Nobody has that authority.
CHAIR: This hearing is adjourned. The reshuffle will continue.
Filed under: arrangements that precede any meeting called to discuss them.