Cira South Garage — Local services in Philadelphia

Traumatized by a parking lot!!

I couldn’t find the exit!! I parked at 8:17PM. World Cafe is a 1 minute walk. I got there at 8:35PM.

TL;DR: go to Level 3 to exit the parking lot. No matter what level you park on, go to Level 3 to get out. At Level 3, stand with your back to the elevators, walk toward the opposite wall in front of you and eventually you will see the opening on to 30th street.

N.B. - When you pull into this lot, you don't get a ticket. Instead you drive up to the second machine and you insert a credit card or do a smartphone thing.

I entered this lot from 30th street and parked on level 4. I took the stairs down to exit. Or so I thought. I go down one flight, there's no signs and no exit door. I go down another flight, there's a padlocked gate. I can see through glass that there is an outdoors. I go down another level, it’s the last one, there is a gate that's slightly ajar, so I go through the gate. Now I am outside but I'm in an unlit area. Pitch black. I look and I see something that looks like a red traffic light several yards down, so I decide to walk to that light, maybe that’s an exit. I get to the traffic light, it’s not an exit. It’s...nothing. I’m in an eerily deserted dark place, looks like a place where The Closer finds dead bodies. I see traffic lights several yards further, but no, I’m not doing that, I’m going back to the car even though I still don’t know how to get out of here. This is a precarious situation. I start running to get back to the car. I realize I NEED HELP. Since I have no friends, I stop running and call 911. A female dispatcher answers, I tell her I parked, tried to get out of this lot, stepped into a Twilight Zone situation, can she have a police car do a drive by, maybe if I see the lights I’d get my bearings. Of course she can’t do that but she says she’ll stay on the line with me while I get back to the car. I thank her profusely, start scurrying back and suddenly this white car appears about 8 yards in front of me. I freeze, the car disappears. I tell the dispatcher “Oh, wait! I see a car! I’m going over there!” She says she’ll stay on the line. I get to where the car had been, it’s an opening to the street! I see pavements and city streets and real traffic lights about 20 yards away! HURRAH!

So I stay on the line until I reach the corner and civilization. I thank the dispatcher for her kindness.

When I return after the show, that’s when I notice the entry opening at 30th street is labeled Level 3. I walk to the elevator bank, walk up one flight of stairs and there’s my car. I drive down the exit ramps behind another vehicle. We both get to Level 1 only to see a sign saying we need to go to Level 3 to get out. So we both backtrack and by happenstance we follow another car and somehow luck into the exit. I did not see that exit when I was traversing down the exit ramps. I don’t know if I could find it again.

This parking lot is confusing. I was SO scared. Took me a days to recover, not sure it won’t...

We parked here after being directed from Amtrak’s app. We parked at 11 for an 11:25 am Amtrak train and nearly missed it because we couldn’t figure out how to leave the garage! The fourth floor elevator was out of service so we walked down the car ramp to the third floor. Took the elevator to the basement but the exit was padlocked. We went back up the ramp and ended up carrying our suitcases down the metal exterior stairs from the second floor to the loading dock. Absolutely terrible signage! None of the signs showed where to exit, just to pay on third floor. No humans anywhere on a Saturday to get help, so we had to walk around the entire block to get back to the Amtrak station and run to barely...

1/3 of the attendants was decent. The lady around the 4th floor had to admit she had not bothered checking full status but tried to caution she'd charge after 15 minutes of having to hunt, without any hint of what was actually open for them to ellicit business. The IRS campus is the campus they refer to being housed there, and that attendant is worse because he takes it upon himself to emphasize all he does not actually do. Also, when a public payor exits with the paid ticket, they don't offer a typed receipt. $21 is a fine garage charge for most of the day, but 1/3 is pretty...