{"id":271646,"date":"2026-08-25T02:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/271646\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T02:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:44:08","slug":"meet-the-first-10-contestants-in-phillys-first-parallel-parking-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/271646\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the first 10 contestants in Philly’s first parallel parking competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The first-ever competition<\/a> to find Philadelphia’s best parallel parker is on.<\/p>\n

Twenty of the city’s best will go head-to-head, sure to be a thrilling, nail-biting, quintessentially Philly face-off.<\/p>\n

Meet the first batch of contestants.<\/p>\n

“You got a tight spot?” asks Missy Parks Good. “I’m your gal! I’m a parallel parker to my core.”<\/p>\n

“We received just about 900 applications from all over Philadelphia,” says Adam Wodka, commissioner of the PPPA, the Philadelphia Parallel Parking Association.<\/p>\n

And the first 10 have been revealed.<\/p>\n

“I mean, you gotta get in where you can fit in,” says a finalist who goes by Tizzy.<\/p>\n

“I park crazy in a good way,” says Mary Zheng.<\/p>\n

It’s turning into a bit of a throwdown.<\/p>\n

“You name the neighborhood, you name the spot, and I will get this car in it,” boasts One-Shot Mar.<\/p>\n

Pirate One Shot proclaims, “I am the best parallel parker here in Philadelphia.”<\/p>\n

A man who goes by Cokomo Joe says: “I’ve been parallel parking since I was 8 years old.”<\/p>\n

“We have Dark Transit, a SEPTA bus driver,” says Wodka.<\/p>\n

“I consider myself one of the best because I parallel park this bus every day,” says Dark Transit.<\/p>\n

“We also have Grandmom Jackie,” says Wodka.<\/p>\n

“I’m 90 years old,” she says. “I never had an accident, and I parallel park perfectly.”<\/p>\n

Prizes include “bragging rights, a trophy, a piece of the curb,” says Wodka. “And $76 to pay for your potential next parking ticket.”<\/p>\n

Confidence is high.<\/p>\n

“As long as I have a few inches of clearance, I’m A-OK,” says Charlton Banks.<\/p>\n

But contestants should know, no backup cameras are allowed in the competition.<\/p>\n

“Everything old school,” says Wodka. “We think that’s the right way to do this.”<\/p>\n

That’s OK with a contestant named Juelz.<\/p>\n

“Every day I park cars like I’m playing Tetris on the car lot,” she says.<\/p>\n

The final batch of contestants will be voted on by the people of Philadelphia, by neighborhood.<\/p>\n

This week it’s the northwest.<\/p>\n

“We’re just looking for it to be a celebration of parallel parking and a celebration of Philly,” says Wodka.<\/p>\n

The inaugural Parallel Parking Association Championship is Saturday, October 3 at Headhouse Plaza. Click here <\/a>to learn more.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The first-ever competition to find Philadelphia’s best parallel parker is on. Twenty of the city’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[114399,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-271646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-114399","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}