Everything had been planned to perfection—the babysitter was lined up, both my wife and I had left work early, and all we needed to do was get to our dinner reservation on time.

Like a finely tuned symphony, the parts were being conducted masterfully, and the grand finale would culminate with us arriving at a concert just in time. We appeared by all accounts to be headed for a fantastic date night.

What came next should have been accounted for in my plans but was somehow overlooked. Parking downtown is never easy, and I quickly realized it was going to be a challenge as we began circling the restaurant.

Twenty minutes later, I knew we could kiss our perfect date night goodbye. By the time we found a spot, we were running late for dinner, and this set off a chain of events that led to us missing our show entirely.

Anyone who's ever been on a tight schedule in downtown Austin can surely relate to such a night. Parking can be a challenge, and it sometimes seems to only be getting worse. Reporter Peter McCrady's Page 1 story this month takes a look at this very issue to find out what the city has done until now as well as some new things the city is trying to help alleviate parking woes in the future.

We've included a map that shows where much of the on-street parking is and where some of the parking garages are located if all those spots are full. After reading this, I hope your next night out goes much smoother than my most recent one.

Travis Baker, General Manager, Southwest Austin, [email protected]