LA AUTO SHOW: Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters
Doug Stokes offers some plain talk about LA Auto Show parking and the perils of trying to save a few bucks.
By Doug Stokes
Wed, Nov 11, 2026 08:00 PM PST
Watercolor editorial based on a scene from D.A. Pennebaker's Subterranean Homesick Blues music video (Nakano)
Bob Dylan was not all that specific as to who it was that he warned not to follow when he made the above strangely mismatched suggestions in his 1965 “Subterranean Homesick Blues”.
What I can tell you is that his blunt caution about parking meters really rings true on the mean streets around the LA Convention Center.
To illustrate, take a short stroll on any adjacent street around that massive downtown LA emplacement, and look down in the gutter.
Yeah, right, Pilgrim, that’s precisely what you think it is: The gutters are loaded with a thick carpet of sparkly chunks of car window glass that goes on in all directions for blocks and blocks.
Over the past few years, I’ve seen two friends who thought they had found “great” street parking “only” a block or two from the LA Show...
...end up driving ransacked cars home in the cold night air with broken-out side windows, interiors trashed, and personal stuff gone.
I’m sure that you must understand that’s flat-out no fun, no way, no how.
So … I really don’t give a shrug about how damn close a damn parking spot that you’ve found out there on the city streets around the CC. Do yourself a solid: drive directly to the main parking structure, pay the person in the booth a pretty damn fair old chunk of change, and park in the (patrolled) indoor structure right at the show.
We’ll see you there! - DS
TUMBLING DICE
On the other hand...
Perhaps your daily driver is a beater? Or you’re driving a security vehicle? Or it’s a Tesla with Sentry mode engaged? Or maybe you just happen to have Vince Guaraldi or the James Gang playing “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” in your car sound system?
Or here’s another thought: You don’t mind taking the Metro (there’s a station stop just a block away from the LA Convention Center where the show is taking place).
If so, you can take a look at LA Car’s “Where, Oh Where to Park at the LA Auto Show?
About The Author
Doug has a long and wide-ranging history in the motoring business. He served five years as the Executive Director of the International Kart Federation, and was the PR guy for the Mickey Thompson's Off-Road Championship Gran Prix. He worked racing PR for both Honda and Suzuki and was a senior PR person on the first Los Angeles (Vintage) Grand Prix. He was also the first PR Manager for Perris Auto Speedway, and spent over 20 years as the VP of Communications at Irwindale Speedway. Stokes is the recipient of the American Autowriters and Broadcaster’s 2005 Chapman Award for Excellence in Public Relations and was honored in 2015 by the Motor Press Guild with their Dean Batchelor Lifetime Achievement Award. 2025 saw Stokes voted into the Go Kart Hall of Fame. “… I’ve also been reviewing automobiles and books for over 20 years, and really enjoy my LACar assignments.” he added.
