Pretentious parking

[01rangerxl]

I live in a downtown urban area and my building has limited parking in a back lot in the alley. Basically there is just enough for the residents, and that's including the available street parking out front and "stealing" spots from the businesses next door when they are closed. There is also a strip of dirt that some of us who don't give a [censored] use.

I got home from work late tonight and found a Mercedes GLK350 double parked in the main lot for the building. Really? This isn't Wal-Mart. You can't just go parking your blingy cute ute all over the place.

There were still a couple open spots, so it wasn't a big deal this time, but the ONLY reason there were any open spots at all is because some people are away for Christmas. Any other day and they would have [censored] someone out of a parking spot. Not cool in my book, not when you can get towed parking in the alternatives if the lot is full.

When someone takes up a couple spots at the back of a big parking lot, I really don't care. As long as everyone else can park too, that's totally fine. But to pull into a lot where it's plainly obvious parking is limited, and then help yourself to two spaces, just seems over the top pretentious to me. It's not like this was a really cool exotic vehicle either, it's a freaking GLK, just a cute ute with a Benz emblem on it. Yet they still apparently thought "f these other people, I'll just take two spots."

If this is a new resident of the building, this won't last long. The first time the lot is full they are going to get either blocked in, someone will find a way to park way close, or someone will complain to the landlord and the tow truck driver that comes will put more scratches in their paint than all of the residents of the building combined.

By the way, even when I park in the unmarked dirt area, I make sure to leave enough room for the other people I know are likely to park there, and they generally do the same. I have to give props to the Wrangler owner who makes an extra effort to shoehorn it into the places nobody else can use, even when the lot isn't full.

I thought about putting a note on their windsheild, but decided to let it go. They obviously don't give a flip about others anyway.

/endrant

 

[Dave Hess]

Down here that Benz would be towed away within an hour.

Do you live in a townhouse or apartment complex ?

 

[01rangerxl]

It's a single six story apartment building. It was built in the 1920s, so it's in an old part of the city where many of the parking lots are small and in alleys. There are signs stating it's for residents only and all others will be towed, but there are no hang tags or stickers, so it's on an as needed basis. The property manager lives here and knows everyone's vehicle, and that's really the extent of the parking enforcement. It works 99% of the time though.

 

[widman]

In college I had a BugEye Sprite. I could arrive at the last minute and put it between the cars that parked that way It fit easily in the 1/2 parking space. Usually parked within the first 20 ft of the walkway to classes.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

That's life in the city-when you live in that environment with that many people sardined into an area you have to expect it. I see people taking up two parking spaces on the occasion when I go to town, and just have to chuckle at it-they don't realize that it just makes them look ignorant.

 

[Kruse]

If the person is a new resident, a note under the windshield would be nice. If that doesn't do it I suspect somebody will vent their anger on it.

 

[sir1900]

Call A&E. They'll have a tow truck out there and a filming crew for the next episode of Parking Wars.

 

[VicVinegar]

On the flip side, I have an issue with a large truck in my townhouse neighborhood.

We don't have assigned spots, and there is usually parking available, but every house also has either a 2 car garage, a 1 car garage and driveway, or a 2 car garage and driveway.

There is a guy with a F-450 work truck that he feels the need to bring home sometimes, and then he'll park it so that it takes up 3 spots on the street. The other day he had a trailer on it too. The trailer was sticking halfway into the street. A rig like that is probably too big to even tow, but we aren't quite like condos or apartments where this is a tow company on demand to take away parking scofflaws.

By the way, he has a driveway. If he cared about being a decent neighbor, the truck and trailer could go in the driveway and he could park his Yukon in a parking spot on the street. These people also leave their cars parked for extended periods right at the somewhat blind entrance of the neighborhood in a no-parking area in front of a hydrant. Fortunately there is a For Sale sign back up at this house, but last time they listed it, they were in la-la land and asking about $70k more than the market.

This is also a house that will own a ML63 AMG for two months, trade it in on a Jeep Wrangler they'll keep for two months, then have a S63 AMG for two months and trade it in for the Yukon Hybrid they have now. Very strange car ownership pattern, and I think they had about 5 cars this year including a Honda Odyssey. Seems like you'd waste a lot of money.

 

[The_Jeff]

Originally Posted By: VicVinegar

There is a guy with a F-450 work truck that he feels the need to bring home sometimes, and then he'll park it so that it takes up 3 spots on the street. The other day he had a trailer on it too. The trailer was sticking halfway into the street...

By the way, he has a driveway. If he cared about being a decent neighbor, the truck and trailer could go in the driveway and he could park his Yukon in a parking spot on the street.


When you pay for license plates you get the right to park on the street, within the on-street parking laws, obviously. This sounds like the tension of too many people in too small a space-- it could also be loud music or the smell of curry cooking.

He could have a logistical reason for parking the trailer on the street, simple as not backing it up. There's a guy in california with dozens of old clunkers that he "collects" (hoards?) and he keeps the registrations current. Town was after him for not moving the cars so he goes out and rolls them a few inches a week.

http://jalopnik.com/5679463/car-hoarder-parks-48-junkers-on-california-street

 

[fauxchemist]

if its that big of a problem move. we dont have those kind of problems in the south were I live. We look out for one another. Can not stand when people concern them selves with other peoples business.Such as their car purchasing patterns, what are you a cop. I have enough going with my life,work,interest,hobbies, that I dont have time to concern myself with other peoples business.

 

[HyundaiGuy]

Originally Posted By: widman
In college I had a BugEye Sprite. I could arrive at the last minute and put it between the cars that parked that way It fit easily in the 1/2 parking space. Usually parked within the first 20 ft of the walkway to classes.


We do that with our Fiats all the time. One place I go for lunch during the week has a narrow "non spot" all the way on the right. I can park there no problem.

 

[mrsilv04]

Next time, complain to your landlord or the property management firm. That car wasn't parked that way by accident.

 

[Donald]

Glad I live in the sticks. My parking is only limited by the amount of cleared land in my 26 acres.

 

[Trajan]

Public streets are for everyone. You have no exclusive right to parking, (between handicap signs too. Anyone with the hang tag/plate can use it.)

That includes those who think, that by digging their car out after a snow storm, they can keep that spot for themselves.
I've seen the police remove chairs, cones, etc from those spots.

As for "strange car ownership patterns?" So what? Sounds like envy.

 

[urrlord]

I have taped a full size sheet of paper to the driver side window of a double parked vehicle in front of a friends business on a busy friday night.In large marker I wrote-if you can't park it,should not have bought it.I used a lot of tape.

 

[saberz]

There is a site for these types of people.

its called "Youparklikean*******.com" (masking it for proper etiquette"

Basically lets you print out pages with a variety of chechboxes pointing out what said "explicative" did wrong and you slip it under their wiper blade.

Funny stuff, heck I got one while I was moving(plenty of spaces but I had to double park to ensure I could get the moving truck off the property that way(raised curb, aprtment complex). Otherwise that truck would be stuck there until two cars adjacent to one another could move.

 

[gathermewool]

I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt. After all, who's to say they didn't park perfectly normally next to some one else who parked between spots, but were left looking like the jerk when the other carw as moved?

For this reason I never parker super close "to teach them a lesson," because they'll either damage my car out of spite or simply leave and then my car is left there, parked all jacked up.

On the flipside, I do tend to leave notes to warn people of hazards - I left a note letting some one at the mall know his/her rear left tire was completely flat. I even thought about leaving my # I case they needed help, but immediately thought of all the ways that gesture could be regrettable.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Maybe their soccermom bus was too big for them to properly control. Next time park right behind them and block them in.

 

[stang5]

thats just asking for your to be keyed.

 

[JimPghPA]

There is a good chance it is someone visiting for the holiday, and they don't have a clue what is going on. Could even be someone left it there for the holidays while they went off with someone who lives there to some other holiday location.

A note with a curious beginning and ending might work.

Years ago someone parked in front of a 4 car garage that was 2 wide and 2 deep. The people who use that garage just got out some of the floor jacks and jacked it up and roiled it to an area out of the way.

Back in the steel mill days of Pittsburgh there were big lots that the employees parked in. There were a couple of stories about people who parked improperly. Such as pushing a vehicle with a truck until it was out of the lot and illegally parked in a street where it received tickets. Or the truck with the high lift kit who got pinned in one too many times and decided to drive over the cars.

One time at a company I worked for, we used metal bands to tie wood crates for shipping. One summer employee (college kid) had a project he had to finish on his last day of work. Everyone trusted him and knew he would be the last person leaving, so he was told to lock the door when he left. His car was old with rust and faded paint, so I got together some of the employees and we put those steel bands over the roof, over the doors and under the car, pulled them tight and crimped them.

We knew that when he left he would lock the door, so there would be no way for him to get back in to get something to cut those steel bands. Everyone hid below the crest of a hill and watched.
After he saw the car and it sunk in that he could not get back in, we all walked towards him with a cutter to cut the bands.