parking spaces & snow (buying a house, buying, living in)

[ihatenj]

Did anyone hear of the new law that they want to pass in Darby,Pa.?They want to pass a law that you can not put a trash can,chair,etc in your parking spot after you dug out your car from a snowstorm.A fine will be $300!If this law gets passed,it will create many problems I think.I'm sure a lot of us have done this many times,(with the exception of those who have driveways),after digging your car out,then leaving,coming back home,then to find someone else in it is very ignorant.There will be fights in the streets,car windows smashed,tires slashed,etc.if this law gets passed!

[bumpus7]

.
You do not own or control (who, where, why, when, or how long )
anyone parks on a public street.

You leave and you may lose your
parking spot ( snow or no snow )
.

[ihatenj]

that is very true indeed,but wouldn't that tick you off if someone parked in your spot that you dug out?

[ocnjgirl]

I'd be PO'd if I spent 3 hours digging out my car and couldn't get my spot back, too. I'm guessing though that there have been problems, fights, maybe threats of violence, etc, so this is the town's attempts to solve it. My mother is 78 and lives in NE Philly, she has the same problem. After her neighbor dug her car out after the last snow, she was in a panic to get home from anywhere she needed to go by 2pm before the commuters started coming home from work. I don't how people live with never knowing if you can park anywhere near your house, but I guess it's one of the drawbacks of the choice to live in a city. Heck, my parking spot says "reserved" on it and I still come home to find a car in it at least a half dozen times over the summer. Quite frustrating, I agree, but then again my choice to live here.

[frankgn87]

Great idea!!!!! Thats was one of the horrors of living in the city. We had neighbors who saved the spots they dug out for weeks AFTER the snow was gone.. If you tried to move the chairs they would get violent .. Sick..

[GoPhils]

Originally Posted by ihatenj

that is very true indeed,but wouldn't that tick you off if someone parked in your spot that you dug out?

But chances are the person that parked in that spot dug their car out from another spot. Even if they didn't, what if they were out of town, are they not allowed to park on that street?

I think more fights were caused by people that put chairs out and then wouldn't let anyone else park there.

And I think they actually did have a law like this which they tried to enforce in Baltimore last year, but I have no idea how you can enforce it. Say a cop waits by the chair until someone comes back to move it...they can just say it wasn't their chair.

[NJGOAT]

Having grown up in a house that didn't have a driveway on a block where everyone else had one, I can understand the frustration over having someone take your spot after you've spent hours digging it out. We never had to resort to cones or chairs, but there were at least a few less than courteous people on our block who would temporarily use our spots when we left. I don't think anyone has a right to claim a spot on a public street, but some common decency should come into play. The only real solution is to assign a spot to each house on the block, but that isn't always possible in many places.

[GoPhils]

Originally Posted by NJGOAT

Having grown up in a house that didn't have a driveway on a block where everyone else had one, I can understand the frustration over having someone take your spot after you've spent hours digging it out. We never had to resort to cones or chairs, but there were at least a few less than courteous people on our block who would temporarily use our spots when we left. I don't think anyone has a right to claim a spot on a public street, but some common decency should come into play. The only real solution is to assign a spot to each house on the block, but that isn't always possible in many places.

Although no one owns the street, I can understand wanting to park in front of your own house, especially in your situation where you're the only one on your block that doesn't have a driveway. But because you don't own the street, what if someone else had parked in front of your house before it snowed, and then dug themselves out. Would you not park there?

[NJGOAT]

Originally Posted by GoPhils

Although no one owns the street, I can understand wanting to park in front of your own house, especially in your situation where you're the only one on your block that doesn't have a driveway. But because you don't own the street, what if someone else had parked in front of your house before it snowed, and then dug themselves out. Would you not park there?

Of course I would. I have a driveway now, so it's not an issue (funny because having grown up without one it was one of my top priorities when buying a house, lol), but I was simply trying to state that it's annoying. In most cases, I've found that blocks that have that issue usually team up to dig out or are courteous of each others spots. For instance, no one takes old Mrs. Smith's spot. It all comes down to common courtesy, which is unfortunately not all that common.

[GoPhils]

Originally Posted by NJGOAT

Of course I would. I have a driveway now, so it's not an issue (funny because having grown up without one it was one of my top priorities when buying a house, lol), but I was simply trying to state that it's annoying. In most cases, I've found that blocks that have that issue usually team up to dig out or are courteous of each others spots. For instance, no one takes old Mrs. Smith's spot. It all comes down to common courtesy, which is unfortunately not all that common.

But wouldn't it be common courtesy to let the person park in the spot they dug out? I think both saving spots with a chair and getting mad when someone parks on the street in front of your house is stupid, but IMO, someone that digs their car out of the spot has more "right" to the spot than someone whose house happens to be even with that spot.