Parking Troubles

So today I had some crotchety old guy telling me I cant park in front of his house.

Let me explain a little bit so this will make more sense.  Parking here on campus sucks.  Picture the campus as a big square and inside that square there is no parking for students.  You can pay for a pass to park in some of the parking garages or the football stadium parking lot which is on the edge of of this square.  Outside of the square you will find public streets that are marked as "2 hour parking".  If you go farther out you get into streets that aren't marked at all. 

So every Monday morning I have class followed by work from 9:30-1:30.  I dont have a parking pass and that is well over the 2 hour limit so I go out to the streets that are not marked.  Its a little over a half mile away from campus and I don't mind the walk.  I would like to note that on average, there is around 20 other cars parked there too.

I return to my car today after work and as I get in, someone pulls up along side of me.  I expect they want the spot but instead he lines up his window with mine.  I notice its an older man and now I am expecting him to ask me to not park in front of his sidewalk leading from the front of the house because this has happened before with a different house.  He rolls down the window and the conversation goes like this..(this is from memory so it will be a bit off)

Crotchety Man - "This is my house you are parked in front of.  Would you mind if you park somewhere else?"

Me - "I dont have a pass to park anywhere else and there are no signs saying I cant park here."

Crotchety Man - "Look, I'm trying to ask you nicely to not park in front of my house.  How would you like it if you lived in this house and all these cars parked here every day"  (His tone starts to get a little angry)

Me - "Well there are no signs or markings saying I cant park here and there's nothing you can do about it"

Crotchety Man - "We'll see about that!"  (Tone is no longer a little angry and he is upset by this)

He pulls forward into his neighbors driveway and I pull out into the street.  I pull into the driveway across the street to turn around and he gets out of the car with a piece of paper and a pen.  He runs towards the back of my car and I assume he was writing down my license plate number.

I'm not worried about this at all because I have parked on that street every Monday since August.  A grad student actually let me know about the street last year and he has parked there for the past 3 years. However, I was wondering what you guys thought the Crotchety Man's intentions are with my license plate number.

EDIT - I will still park there next Monday.


Edited by pntbl freak - 22 November 2010 at 2:22pm

As a fellow Crotchety Old Man, I agree with him. Buy a pass and quit parking in front of his house. I know it sucks to be him, but have a little empathy. If you decide to ignore his request, don't be surprised to find your tires slit or "a..hole" drawn out on your hood in brake fluid.

Edited by oldpbnoob - 22 November 2010 at 3:17pm

Doesn't really seem like a crotchety old man to me. Just some guy who would like to park in front of his house. If he doesn't like you there, just park in front of someone else's house. I don't see the big deal.

I dont really have any other option for parking and I only park there on Monday.  Parking garages require a pass and the pass is $250 per semester.

If you live off campus on the north side, you most likely come into campus on one main street.  Where I park is on a street that is perpendicular with this main road.  On the other side of the main road is the football and basketball stadiums.  When you enter into the street I park on there is a fraternity house sitting on the corner.  On weekend nights, the street is full of people from the fraternity.  When there is a home football or basketball game there street is again full.

I wasn't trying to be rude and was going to offer that I try to not park in front of his house next time.  But his tone changed and I was becoming impatient.  I wasn't the only car parked in front of his house either.  There is a line of cars parks on this street daily.

He also has his own 2 car garage and a fairly huge driveway.  So he wasn't trying to park on the street.


Edited by pntbl freak - 22 November 2010 at 3:57pm

His tone changed when I first said that I park here because I don't have a pass and have to go to work.  There's no signs saying I cant. 

SSOK wrote:   Morally, you are wrong. You wont go to hell for parking your car in front of his house, but if someone were to politely ask for me to not park there I would attempt to park somehwere else or park there less often.

I agree completely.  But like today there wasn't any other spots. 

I want to clarify that when I said I will park there next Monday, I meant Ill park on that street. If there is another spot open Ill park there, but if I have to park in front of his house I will.

the street in front of his house is city/state property, he can't say squat.

People park in front of my house constantly, because I live down the street from an elementary school.  Also for some strange reason my neighbors like to park their car under one of our trees.  Never quite figured that one out.

Either way, neither myself or my family has ever been bothered by it.  It's a street.  If they were blocking the driveway, or parking on my lawn, it'd be a different story.  If you can't share a street, tough luck.

is the parking pass cheaper than your time walking 1/2 mile back and forth every day + the cost of a new set of tires?

my neighbor was parking infront of my house... i blocked them in one day and it was a while before they did it again... now the neighbors kids bf is parking infront of my house so im gonna line that side of the house with vehicles :D

merc wrote: is the parking pass cheaper than your time walking 1/2 mile back and forth every day + the cost of a new set of tires? my neighbor was parking infront of my house... i blocked them in one day and it was a while before they did it again... now the neighbors kids bf is parking infront of my house so im gonna line that side of the house with vehicles :D

Nice.  We have a rental next door that usually has younger singles in it and they have lots of friends over on a regular basis.  I really don't care where they park, but it would be nice to have my pickup near my house (garage is already full, driveway is to the alley and too short to park on).  Asking nicely that they leave a spot didn't work so I put all three cars out front for a couple of days and they got the hint.