Street parking spaces etiquette
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Anonymous
You are missing the point and you obviously have some pent up resentment towards SAHMs, of which I am not one - not that I THINK there's anything wrong with that. Sorry to burst your bubble, PP, but I actually work full time and live in south arlington and by no means are considered wealthy. And I only highlighted three kids because God only gave my two hands so herding them into the car can sometimes be a challenge, one I prefer not to take at the side of the road. Your issues indicate that you should start your own thread. |
Anonymous
+2000 OP, I have seen this at all different levels. Yes, it is inconsiderate. Yes, they will pretend it is not "because it is a public street". Whatever. Do they have sidewalks, or curbs at least, in your jurisdiction? For example, at least they are not destroying the grass area in front of your house out of thinly veiled jealousy, whatever their issues are? I ask because sometimes, if a neighbor is really off kilter, sneaky, and/or passive aggressive, if they find out it bothers you, they will do it more. This being the D.C. area and all, surely this is not hard to believe. Good luck with this. I hope they don't have too much time on their hands, such that they escalate the smallest rational idea into an all out feud a la "Hatfield and McCoy" - which tells you more than you want to know about their upbringing  Does proud to be raised in a barn mean anything to you? Hopefully this is not the case!
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Anonymous
Do they have sidewalks? Curbs? Dude. This is an urban county. A public street with *tons* of street parked cars. |
Anonymous
OP already mentioned this is North Arlington, not West Virginia. |
Anonymous
Ok, the SAHM snark was uncalled for; we are just jealous b/c we would love to SAHM and have three kids but can't swing it in any part of arlington. Even having three kids is quite an indulgence! But So Arlington is considerably more dense than no. arlington (in the residential SFH regions), so this is really not surprising. I'm surprised as WOHM parent with three young kids you have time to notice if a car is parked in front or not. I certainly have no clue. If the issue is truly the trash pickup, I'm assuming you are putting it in the wrong spot (ie needs to be in the street). |
Anonymous
Oh, three kid parent is not OP. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
One of my biggest complaints about this area is the random lack of sidewalks and curbs in residential neighborhoods. PP was not incorrect to ask about that. I don't know if that is a problem in Arlington, but it certain is in neighborhoods I've seen in Bethesda, Potomac, and Rockville at least. There was no need for the snark. |
Anonymous
oh the irony... |
Anonymous
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OP, I can sympathize. In my neighborhood it's just an unspoken courtesy that the street space directly in front of one's house is "yours." (I know this because my neighbors have told me.) I think it's a generally accepted social convention in many neighborhoods to let people park in front of their own houses.
I would assume they are parking there so they don't have to turn around to drive to work, or because they come home that way and they are too lazy to u-turn and park in front of their house. Talk to them about the trash thing or leave your trash cans in front of their house every trash day. that's what I'd do. |
Anonymous
| Our neighborhood has the same custom. We were gently told by a neighbor when we moved in, and we have welcomed others to the neighborhood and told them the custom as well. It might sound nuts, but it kind of works on our street. We also have a space behind our house that we can use in a pinch, but most people like to park in front of their houses. This is in DC. |
Anonymous
| OP, have you tried talking to the neighbor about it? She probably has no clue that it bothers you. I dealt with a similar issue in my NE DC home. My next door neighbors who had a home based business with lots of visitors/guests would constantly take up parking in front of my house. I would then have to look for parking on adjacent streets. I tried complaining to them and they would stop for a while, then continue. I reached out to the police office in charge of my district and he said that if it wasn't illegal, there wasn't much he could do. He then offered to have an officer talk to them to be more neighborly. He did and though they haven't completely stopped, the incidents are few and far between. |
Anonymous
Ooh boy. I am the original "geez" PP and I was not the one you just went back and forth with. I didn't imply that you ALWAYS need to park there in order to get her to stop, but you figure in 8 years of it obviously bothering you, you would park there once or twice and she would eventually get the message and stop doing so. Unrelated, my biggest complaint on my particular street is not people parking in front of my house (because this only happens when neighbors have a lot of people over and their own driveway/spots in front of their house are full) but people parking on the wrong side of the street. Meaning, your passenger side should always be to the curb. But, people don't want to turn around and so we have a mish-mosh of wrong-facing cars on our street. Which I'm pretty sure is actually illegal. It just bugs me.. turn your car around! 
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Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
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I hate this kind of stuff with neighbors. I don't care how urban your street is. If everyone has a driveway and street parking in front of their house, PARK THERE! There is no reason to regularly park in front of someone else's house if the street is wide open. Anyone who is justifying why this is ok is an asshole. Just because I can talk in the movies, doesn't mean I should. Common courtesy is so dead around here.
On my block, there are six houses. Ours is the only one with a driveway. Everyone parks directly in front of their house. 4 of the 6 houses have 1 car. We are one of the 2 car families. My across the street neighbor parks her car directly opposite my driveway. The space she parks in is not directly in front of her house. She actually has to walk farther by parking in this way. My driveway is steeply sloped, as is our street. Every time it ices or snows, I fear that my car will slide down the driveway and crash into her car. On icy days, I've had to ask her to move her car because I don't want to hit her and she gets pissed. Why are some people such assholes? |