Street Parking

Now I know that anyone, and I repeat anyone, can park in the street. And I know that I do not own the curb in front of my house despite having to pay taxes to maintain the sidewalk and the upkeep of the curbside. If I held that belief I was disabused of that when I moved to my new home a year and a half ago. While waiting for our concrete slab to cure for our motorhome, we parked said motorhome in front of our house. One of our new, most friendly, neighbors called the city to complain about the motorhome being parked in front of our house. This is in the same place commercial vehicles had been parked for the previous 10-12 months, but that is not the issue apparently. We were given a citation to move the motorhome within 3 days. Thus I know that we do not own the area in front of our home.

Now that I have said that, let me still lodge a complaint. Why is it that people buy homes that do not have sufficient parking for their own vehicles? We have quite a few such neighbors in our neighborhood. This is mainly caused by the new and improved 2 story houses on postage stamp lots where there is a two-car garage and an entrance that takes up most of the width of the lot. If, like most people, they use the garage as storage, the can park two cars max in their driveway. In many cases they do not even have sufficient room to park another car in front of their house, let alone a fourth car. And I assure you, many people have three and four vehicles. The had that many before they moved in. Thus the sidewalks are plugged with neighbor’s vehicles. Rue the day if someone with curb space has a visitor as they almost think it is the right to park in front of someone else’s house as close to their house as possible.

Once again, the Selfish American raises it ugly head.