Just Another Reason I'll NEVER Live In Minneapolis Again! (St. Paul: apartments, rental)

[Doctor Z]

Reading this article in City Pages reminded me why I won't live in Minneapolis ever again:

Minneapolis will fine you for putting too many cars in your own driveway | City Pages

[Chester Burnett]

Yawn.

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by Chester Burnett

Yawn.

wonder what he said...not

[Atalanta]

Originally Posted by Doctor Z

Reading this article in City Pages reminded me why I won't live in Minneapolis ever again:

Minneapolis will fine you for putting too many cars in your own driveway | City Pages

Given the article if it is a correctly factual written one, it is silly that Minneapolis would fine this family.
The ordinance of only having 2 cars in a driveway on a regular basis is silly.
And being fined for moving their cars in the driveway during a snow emergency is stupid. Where else are they going to put their cars during plowing?

Minneapolis has its nice spots, but I believe they sure in the heck can spend their time and money on something else in the city. Like the increasing crime, gang activity.......

[Doctor Z]

The plain and simple fact is Minneapolis doesn't want you to own a car. The city wants all it's citizens on bicycles and trains and even sets the stop light timing to CREATE congestion on the streets to try and force people out of their automobiles.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Do I need to state the obvious that this is what garages are for? If you have a single family home with 5 cars then there is really no excuse to not have a 2 car garage with two of them parked there. 90+% of Minneapolis lots could accommodate this with no issue.

As a Minneapolis resident I am shocked at how few residents seem to use their garage for parking their vehicles.....should that not be the primary purpose of that structure?

[Doctor Z]

Originally Posted by Cruz Azul Guy

Do I need to state the obvious that this is what garages are for? If you have a single family home with 5 cars then there is really no excuse to not have a 2 car garage with two of them parked there. 90+% of Minneapolis lots could accommodate this with no issue.

As a Minneapolis resident I am shocked at how few residents seem to use their garage for parking their vehicles.....should that not be the primary purpose of that structure?

Your statement goes to show how much our culture has changed. Back in the days I lived in Minneapolis, everyone knew the garage was for the Race Car, only taken out on weekends to win drag races down on Lake Street, Central Avenue, or The Loop in St. Paul.

If you had a two-car garage, then it was the Race Car, and the Classic Car, with the "Daily Driver" and the Spouses car in the driveway. That worked until your kids got older, than you all had to find more parking arrangements, as with the family in the City Pages article.

[Brinson]

Originally Posted by Cruz Azul Guy

Do I need to state the obvious that this is what garages are for? If you have a single family home with 5 cars then there is really no excuse to not have a 2 car garage with two of them parked there. 90+% of Minneapolis lots could accommodate this with no issue.

As a Minneapolis resident I am shocked at how few residents seem to use their garage for parking their vehicles.....should that not be the primary purpose of that structure?

Building a garage on a lot costs somewhere around $40k, and many older houses don't have one. Houses under the 200k Mark in Minneapolis city limits alot of houses don't have a garage or it's very delapidated.

It I think these laws are an indirect attempt to "class up" the neighborhood and keep out shared rental houses which are often seen as undesirable.

[old fed]

Originally Posted by Doctor Z

Reading this article in City Pages reminded me why I won't live in Minneapolis ever again:

Minneapolis will fine you for putting too many cars in your own driveway | City Pages

ok

[TheGrandViking]

Originally Posted by Doctor Z

The plain and simple fact is Minneapolis doesn't want you to own a car. The city wants all it's citizens on bicycles and trains and even sets the stop light timing to CREATE congestion on the streets to try and force people out of their automobiles.

City Ordinances can cut both ways. My wife pointed that story out to me a while ago and I initially thought it was ridiculous. I think they should not be fined. However, when you realize the intent is to avoid the home mechanics setting up business, prevent the front yard as a driveway, and allowing the plows access to the street, it makes sense. I go to a Minneapolis house every weekend and the streets are loaded on both sides and my SUV barely fits by when faced with a car coming from the other direction (not sure how they are going to add more apartments to some of those areas like planned). Furthermore, If you ever been to Georgetown in DC, they wish they would have some sort of ordinance of that nature (maybe they do now).

I had to examine my city's ordinances because I was building something and you can always find some that are ridiculous or on the surface, seem that way. Where do you live because I can guarantee I can point out some zoning or regulation that comes off as draconian or ridiculous.