Mark Dvorak is driving up and down the car-lined streets of Eureka Valley. All he wants is a spot to park. But this is San Francisco, where space for cars is so tight that ice cream melts through grocery bags as drivers circle the block, where diners unable to find parking forfeit restaurant reservations, drive home famished and order in. In fact, San Franciscans tolerate inconveniences bordering on the absurd. One town house has a first-floor garage with six spaces.
Owners stack their cars one in front of another in two rows.
Which results in elaborate, Rubik's Cube-type maneuvers whenever any car not parked next to the door needs to break free. He rounds the corner of the building and confronts a gaping hole in the wall. Using a circular saw with a diamond-tipped blade, a worker slices through the foundation wall. Then the crew joins in with jackhammers to punch an opening for the garage door. More precisely, it's Dvorak and Bishop's future parking space.