Gotta Park 'Em All! Reston's Newest Smartphone App Is Way Cooler Than Pokemon Go, But You'll Have To Wait Until September To Pay--Er, Play

Less than a week after Pokemon Go made Reston lose its collective mind and filled Lake Anne Plaza with happy screen-obsessed flaneurs for the first time in recent memory that ukuleles weren't involved, Reston has an even cooler, more exciting, and -- dare we say it? -- more elite smartphone app to play with.

ParkRTC doesn't have, whazzitcalled, Pokeballs or anything, but it does grant you the right to continue parking at our gritty urban core shrine to elite midscale dining and retail offerings, plus the promise of exclusive discounts from participating merchants. Rad!

You know how you can tell ParkRTC is elite? Pokemon Go may have run into a little trouble with its privacy settings, but this app doesn't even have privacy settings! Give us some good blockquote, BFFs at Reston Now:

Left blank was the FAQs section and the privacy policy, which has been a source of concern for some would-be visitors.

Bah. Having all our personal information sifted through by some dude named Dimitry in Smolensk is a small price to pay -- certainly less than the $2 an hour that RTC will soon charge for access to its state-of-the-art automated parking garages -- to be able to get a primo space for our Starbucks runs.

We can't wait to claim the basement level of the parking garage for Team Mauve! But wait, what's this?

Paid parking at Reston Town Center will be pushed back to September, Boston Properties representatives have told store owners.

Reston Town Center was supposed to go to paid parking ($2 an hour) on weekdays beginning Aug. 1. Weekends and special events will remain free.

Boston Properties also told merchants “we are also working on another innovative element of our plan which will provide for an even safer place to live, work and shop – we are very excited about this element of our plan which we, unfortunately, are not able to discuss publicly at this time due to business disclosure issues.”

Some people are hoping the delay means that public opposition to the elite paid parking plan may prompt Boston to change -- or at least soften -- its plans to charge for parking. We're not holding our breath, but we're hoping they'll use the extra time to "gamify" the app even more. Instead of Pokeballs, maybe you'll be able to fling virtual, "Great" Falls-sized sacks of money towards corporate logos to "capture" various retail experiences. Perhaps you'll "battle" parking enforcement golf carts by getting back to your spot on level 5 before time runs out! Maybe you'll be able to pick which "team" you want to battle for (we're calling dibs on Team World of Beer.) We're almost certain there will be a way to virtually scorn all the teenagers, poors without smartphones and other non-elite visitors to RTC. We literally can't wait. Gotta park 'em all!