Don't block me in!

The BBQ Pit
1

I live in Providence, RI. For those of you who know the area, I live in the Fox Point section. Kinda East Side, but not the upscale side. Our apartment building is a 3 story house with 3 apartments. We are lucky enough to have off-street parking–a huge boon in this area because there’s no overnight on-street parking allowed.

Our driveway is a wide stretch of pavement. It’s wide enough for 3-4 cars to be parked next to each other, and our spot is the one closest to the house. My roommate and I park one behind the other, and we move each others’ cars as necessary when one of us needs to get out.

The entrance to the driveway is not the same width as the driveway. It’s just a narrow opening. To get into and out of our spot (unless the 2nd floor neighbors’ car isn’t there), we have to drive over the curb. Not a big deal, though my new car (which I crashed 2 days after getting it, but that’s another story) is a Chevy Cavalier and kinda low to the ground and I scrape the bumper… anyway. Not the point.

The point. Ignorant, not paying attention dumblefuck visitors on the weekends. There’s a large soccer field/sports area across the street from us. On Sundays, there’s some soccer league that has games from like 8 am till late Sunday night. I kinda like it, it gives a neat festival atmosphere to the neighborhood. There’s all sorts of international music and whistles blowing and cheering and stuff.

But it also means there a GAZILLION CARS ON EVERY SINGLE SIDE STREET WITHIN A 5 MILE RADIUS OF MY HOUSE.

Our house is on the corner of the main road and a side street. There’s enough curb for 2 cars to park behind each other, then there’s the entry to our driveway. But… when 2 cars park behind each other, this means one is parked DIRECTLY behind our cars in the parking lot.

If my roommate or I need to go anywhere, we’re stuck. Or, if we’re lucky enough to not have anyone behind us and dare to leave the driveway, we come home and can’t get into the lot because there’s a car parked right there. And because of the gazillion cars, there’s nowhere to park within a reasonable distance.

We’ve thought of getting cones and putting them on the street directly behind our cars, so people don’t park there. Judging by what we’ve seen from the others that have tried this, they’d just get moved/driven over. We’ve thought of moving our cars before the games start, but we’d have to get up at o’dark thirty on our day off just to put the cars on the street, when we have a perfectly good parking lot! We’ve thought of asking the landlord what he suggests. We’ve thought of ramming our cars into the cars parked behind us and yelling “OOPS!” (cuz if you say oops it makes it an accident, right?) …

Parking woes seem to follow me… my last apartment I had visitors who would park IN my garage, that I paid good money for, or parked behind my car, which was IN the garage. When there were perfectly emtpy parking spots clearly visible that did not have a car in them to block.

Is my car a block-in magnet? Is it me? Do I smell bad?

I dunno but if I can’t get my car out this Sunday, soccer heads are gonna start to roll.

2

I feel your pain, Rasa.
When I lived in a condo, my garage was closest to our walkway. Suffice it to say, even though there was a very large parking lot not far away and “NO PARKING” signage everywhere, many people parked right in front of my garage.

Methods I used to combat these asshats?

Banging on the vehicle, in hopes there was an alarm. Honking my car horn, yelling “MOVE YOUR CAR, LAZY ASS!”. Sitting on the hood or trunk of their car, smoking, reading. OH! You want me to move my can off your car? In a sec, I’m at a good part. While you’re waiting, read the signs and thank me for not calling the cops. However, once I did call the cops after being blocked in for over an hour. Car was towed. I was happy.

3

I don’t understand why you’re blaming the soccer people for this. It sounds like the problem is that your parking spot is blocked from the driveway entrance by your neighbors’ cars. Why on earth would you expect someone not to take an open spot on the street so that you can drive over the curb so your apartment building can cram more cars into the parking area than fit? I’d be pissed at your landlord for advertising off-street parking which actually means off-street car storage.

4

The area around the driveway on either side (where those of us that park on the end have to drive over the curb) is painted in universal “No Parking” yellow, like you see in front of fire hydrants, etc. While it doesn’t say “No Parking”, yellow curb = no parking. Though I guess people who don’t live in the area we live in wouldn’t know that. All Providence dwellers know yellow curb = no parking.

We all fit (there are usually 4 cars parked abreast in the driveway and room to spare on either end) and the only time it’s a problem is when it’s soccer season. I’d rather drive over the curb to get to my parking spot than pay upwards of $100 for a parking spot! I guess I just don’t understand the lack of… thought process that goes into parking behind someone’s car and blocking them in.

5

Nope, I agree with you now. If they’re parking in front of a yellow curb, they’re bastards. Call the cops and have them towed.

6

…but it’s so much more productive, bitching on a messageboard! :wink:

We’re gonna try the cone thing this weekend I think, and see how that goes. If it don’t work, next time it happens I’ll call the cops. I feel bad having “unsuspecting” peoples’ cars towed but my brain boggles at NOT NOTICING you’re blocking someone in! No mercy for the unobservant!

7

There’s a song parody somewhere in the OP…

8

If I were more creatively minded (or not at work…) I’d write one up, but yeah that kept going through my head too!

9

If they continue, you have to call the police. That’s the only deterrent. Have you called the city/county/whatever and asked them to put up a sign? They just might, you know!

10

::Holds thumb up to eye::

Oh, you said don’t block you in…

You live in RI? Didn’t you live in Florida, and/or California, or am I thinking of someone totally different?

11

…or they’ll laugh and point at us, or give US a ticket for… something!

Nah, you’re right, I may try that if our other sneaky methods fail.

12

I did live in CA (San Jose, to be exact!) from December-August 2001. Good memory! RI is home, been back here since my beloved company there in CA closed.

Never had no parking problems in CA…

Well, except for the time three of my tires got slashed.

13

Marry me.
Hell, I don’t even drive.
I remove my hat to you :slight_smile: You are very cool.

14

Not to be rude, but if you “feel bad” about having people’s cars towed for 1) violating the law and therefore 2) inconveniencing you, then you have no room to gripe. The law is the law, and everyone with a license should be aware that parking somewhere that you obviously should not be parking (whether it be in front of a yellow curb, a “No Parking” sign or IN FRONT of a driveway) can result in being towed.

I would’ve called for towing after the first incident.

15

Yeah you’re right, caphis… I guess I should put up or shut up, eh? I’m gonna try to first use the cones option, and if that doesn’t work, towing it is.

Parking stupidity seems to follow me, so I just wanted to gripe.

16

While having the car towed will probably work as a short term fix it won’t stop others who haven’t learned their lesson. I’d start first with a nice, printed sign that says:

“If you block me in your car WILL be towed”

It used to get pretty bad at the Ohio State University parking lot in the mornings back when I went to school there. One time we got a row of assholes parking at the top of the asile effectively blocking in all the cars in the middle. There’s no way you could do it by accident, these people were just assholes in the extreme. Well I wound up being one of the middle cars. I sat and fumed for about 10 minutes and then let the air out of car’s tires that was keeping me there, all 4. Just after I had finished the guy opposite me (legally parked) moved and I got out of there. I was actually looking forward to the confrontation so I could ask the idiot what he was thinking when he blocked me in. I also would have enjoyed the person’s reaction when he/she noticed 4 flat tires and realized they’d be inconvienced just like me.

17 
  I just want to point out that the yellow curb=no parking thing may not have any legal significance.  I live in NYC, where fire hydrants and bus stops are generally painted yellow. If I were to pave my front yard, and paint the curb yellow so I could drive onto the front yard to park, calling the police about the car blocking the yellow, uncut curb would probably do no more than get me a ticket for painting the curb yellow.  Even if I had a legal cut curb, painted yellow, I might get a ticket for the paint. But a towing a car just because it's parked in front of an uncut curb painted yellow? Won't happen here. If the curb isn't cut, it's not a driveway, painted yellow or not. And I can't legally have a cut curb without a permit.
  Although I certainly would try to avoid blocking a car parked like yours if there were other available spots, I don't understand the thought process that goes " People can't park in my driveway. My driveway is X feet wide . If I paint the driveway + some extra space on each side yellow, I can prohibit people from parking next to the entire yellow painted curb, even though I'm only (paying additional taxes for, have a permit for, whatever) a driveway x feet wide"
18

Did Rasa paint the curb herself? That seems to be what you’re assuming, doreen. I’m confused.

19

Obviously, I didn’t paint it myself. It’s common practice: the city itself does this. Yellow = no parking. The curb’s uncut, but as is the curb on 90% of the driveways on this street; all have the city-painted yellow indicating it’s a no parking zone.

20

I’m not making an assumption either way- just pointing out that it’s not safe to assume that just because the curb is painted yellow automatically means that parking is illegal. If it did, then anyone could reserve a parking space simply by painting the curb. Rasa would know better than I would if she painted the curb herself, but I don’t think she did . She may know that the city painted it, and not her landlord or she may not know who painted it. My bet is that she doesn’t know-she really can’t unless she either saw a city crew paint it or has done some research that she didn’t mention. It may be common practice- but it’s common practice here too, and when homeowners were ticketed for it , it made the news. (That’s the only reason I know it’s illegal here) It might make a big difference- around here, the police don’t tow cars from private driveways- the owner of the driveway has to call a private towing company , which collects its fee from the car owner when the car is picked up. I suspect I would end up paying if I somehow got a towing company to tow a car from a space my landlord painted yellow, which wasn’t in fact a legal driveway.

But I might be confused- see rasa refers to it as the “area around the driveway”, and refers to not being able to get in or out through the “driveway entrance”. I’m wondering what’s the difference between the “driveway entrance” and the curb rasa drives over to leave- I had been assuming that the driveway entrance was a cut curb and that was the difference, but I could have been wrong.