Milwaukee’s a great city, but like any large city, there are some parking regulations, and the one we have to deal with is “alternate-side parking overnight” which means that people who park on the street overnight have to all park on just one side of the street. Usually overnight parking doesn’t affect us that much, as we’ve got a small lot near the alley for about a dozen cars, but for public nights, or any other nights we have things going on, we need to try to park on the OTHER SIDE of the street as the residents do, as a courtesy to them, leaving them space to park.

Ron wrote up a nice wiki page explaining the parking, and our old pal reMMinderbot will also let you know where to park on a Tuesday or Thursday night, but like anything else at the makerspace, unless it’s over-engineered, it’s not done!

So I therefore present to you, makers and guests… MM Park! MM Park is a mobile-friendly web site you can view on your iOS or Android device. You can launch it when you pull up to the space and determine where you should park.

Just fire up the browser on your mobile device, and go to the handy short URL mkemake.us/park

You’ll see SAME or OPPOSITE. If it says SAME you park on the SAME side of the street as Milwaukee Makerspace. If it says OPPOSITE you park on the OPPOSITE side of the street as Milwaukee Makerspace. This works for Lenox Street and Otjen Street.

If you want to get all fancy, add an icon to your home screen so you can launch the app quickly and easily every time you pull up to the space at night.

What could be easier!? Will the wonders of technology ever cease?

(Note: Thanks to Shane for the awesome logo, and to Audrey for piloting Lil’ Driver. This is an alpha release, and while fully functional at this time, the words and/or images used may change in the future. Check the project page for updates.)