I’ve lived in the Great White North for more than 20 years, and I’ve never lived in an apartment complex that didn’t plow the lots, or where people had to shovel their own spaces. You need to move to a different building.
TECHNICALLY and On Paper: You clear an unassigned spot, but someone can come and just park in it, even though they didn’t do anything with their spot except power out of it. They can. Nothing technically wrong with it. Study laws, rules of the complex, make a federal case of it, etc and, on paper, it’s not wrong.
REALISTICALLY: Well, it’s wrong, because there happens to be the very realistic issue of common courtesy, respect, and just overall application of soft skills. There are certain abstract things that make places better, and make courtesy what it is.
**In a society, we need to transcend what is technically and legally correct.
**
It’s rude to do many things that are not against the law.
.
So let’s say I clean a spot and park in it. According to the OP, it’s “mine” per manners and such.
Now let’s say I take off from home to work and I’m gone for 8 hours. In the meantime a big snowstorm blows in and in those hours, it drops a foot of snow. Another tenant comes home, cleans off the same parking spot that was previously “mine” from the foot of snow.
Whose parking spot is it now?
So help me understand, who’s the douche in the above analogy, and how’s it any different?
And what if there was an unassigned lot at your job? After you dug your car out, when you come back in the morning, and someone else is parked there, are they a douche? How is it any different? What about the public street?
What if I go to the park, and nicely rake a spot, for my blanket, to read my book, every other day. When I come along and say to you, “That’s my spot!”, who’s the douche?
At the mall, the beach, the park, your work, your residence it’s the same issue, you do not have an assigned space. To my mind deciding you do, because you swept it, is kind of douchey.
I’ll take your word you’ve heard of it in Canada, I never have. But then, in the province/cities I’ve resided in, if you want to put up a 20 unit building, the building code requires you to provide as many assigned spots, plus a specified number of dedicated guest spots.
I totally agree with transcending the petty. But, to me, the petty is believing you’re entitled to something you’re very clearly not. I truly have a hard time wrapping my head around this kind of entitled thinking.
I’m still curious why no one has addressed this question:
Replace “Great White North” with “Western New York” and you’ve got my reply exactly. I’ve lived in a bunch of different apartment complexes in my life and the idea that the lot would remain unplowed all day is ridiculous.
Every complex I ever lived in plowed out the lot itself in the early morning and then plowed out all the now empty spots at 10 AM after everyone went to work.
The OP needs to buy a low lying flatbed trailer he can easily drive his car up on/off. Put a chain gate on the back end of it if the neighbors are super douches.
The trailer gets to stay in one spot. He controls what goes or doesnt go on top of HIS trailer.
Problem solved.
See Post #7.
As I stare out of my window, of the 11 spaces in front of my apartment, 4 have cars in spaces where the cars have been driven since our latest storm, 2 haven’t been dug out yet and driven.
they’re evenly spaced in the lot, so the plow can’t go and properly clean out the empty spaces.
now, it’s sunny outside and shit is melting. it will re-freeze tonight. these cars, if and when they move, will not be followed out of their spot by the plow, since it would have been 3 days since there’s any snow.
all but one of these spaces with cars in them, the owner hasn’t done anything other than the bare minimum to get the car out - behind one car, for example the spot hasn’t been cleaned - the snow has just been displaced and the ruts of the tire are showing.
all of this uncleared snow will re freeze and create ice patches all over. the spots that the residents take time to clear are ice free.
does that help your understanding?
that’s 2 days, not 3.
This question has been addressed, several times in fact. In all of your examples above, you’re talking about PUBLIC spaces, where the PUBLIC has unlimited access. It’s first come, first served, and if you leave, you can’t expect to come back and pick up where you left off. The situation I’m talking about is a PRIVATE lot for the use of a discrete group of people, namely, the residents of the building. They all know that if a space has been shovelled, it’s one of their neighbours that has done the shovelling, and they’re being lazy and inconsiderate by taking that spot and not shovelling a space themselves. If the lot is not for residents only, it’s a different story.
It would be like having a bunch of roommates all using the same kitchen. One dude uses the dishes, but never ever washes any. Is he breaking the law? No. Is he within his rights not to wash the dishes? Yes, if there’s no express agreement to the contrary. Is he an inconsiderate jerk? I’m guessing from what you’ve posted here you’d say no, but I’d say yes.
It’s not strictly a public beach, it’s a beach that is designated for “open” use for the residents who live on the beachfront property. Since the property does not pay for beach cleanup, it is the responsibility of the residents who use the beach to clean it up.
So, yeah, you clean up a section of the beach after the kelpstorm, it’s monumentally rude for someone to take that section of the beach when you go in for lunch. Not because they took “your spot” but because they’re using the beach but not cleaning it up properly.
No, not really.
So what? It’s an unassigned spot, in an open lot.
Which, I’m pretty sure, you knew when you moved in. Meaning anyone can park anywhere, anytime. Clearly there are advantages and disadvantages to this, especially if you live where it snows. I can easily see how the other adults just assumed that you understood none of the spots was ‘yours’, and would park in the open, cleared, closest spot without a second thought to some petty nonsense about it being yours because you washed it, swept it, named it, whatever.
What if it’s a 200 car lot, outside a factory, and people park in a different place everyday? Are they supposed to remember, they cleared the spot, 4 rows up and 6 spaces in? That’s crazy. Those workers come out and clear their cars and drive home, never expecting to return in the morning to the spot they cleared. To expect so would be petty, in the extreme, in my opinion.
I mean, if you’re that particular, that you can’t share, like the other adults, and just accept that you are effectively taking your chances every time you drive off the lot, then pay the premium to live where there is assigned parking.
Expecting everyone else to be obligated to your expectations is a little over the top, in my opinion.
I like this idea 
Paint it like a T-Rex to impress the ladies during the summer!
ok. we know your opinion. you’ve said it about 15 times in this thread.
Clearly you’re going to just have to agree to disagree with basically everyone else who has posted in this thread. Repeating yourself over and over and coming up with more and more ridiculous comparisons isn’t making you any more convincing.
I think it’s more over the top to think that you don’t need to shovel out your lot because you can just use the lots others have spent an hour clearing out.
The people with entitlement issues here are not the people spending time and effort shoveling out parking lots.
I’d say he is doing a damn good job of convincing everyone he is an asshole.
My take on it would be this. If you live in snowy region where its every driver for themselves parking space wise, if you HAVENT properly cleared out one spot for any given day you decide to drive around, you are being a social freeloader.
Do tell. How the hell do they know you’re not gone for the day? How do they even know it’s not just a clear spot? And how does setting up, in the one clear spot, become “not cleaning it up properly”?
I see the distinction between public and private, surely you recognize what they have in common is the parking is not assigned. Public or private, doesn’t change the rules for unassigned parking. When you drive off the lot, you take your chances, on where you’ll be able to park when you return.
Think about a building with 200 units, you’d hardly ever be parked in the same spot, again and again. The spots closest to the building would be popular with people bringing in groceries. But it would still be unassigned parking, and the adults who rented there would understand the implications of that, and all be playing by the same rules. First guy back from work gets a close spot, guy who comes home late has to park way across the lot. It’s shared parking, that’s how it works. Which part did you not understand when you moved in? And if you did understand then how is it you think it should be different for you? Or that your behaviour obligates other to behave in a similar fashion? How is that not petty?
there’s no material difference in these spots, in terms of proximity to your apartment, though. the only difference in these spots is that some have been tended to, some of them haven’t - there’s no intrinsic difference to the spots that makes any one better or worse, as the case would be in your scenario. the analogy, like most of yours, are shit.
Will you stop hi-jacking threads to post this. We get you’re “Mr. Internet Why Can’t We All Get Along Guy.” It’s getting tiring.
Not only is it stupid to expect others not to use the empty spot you cleared out, it’s impractical.
All it takes is someone, somewhere to park into one of these spots, and the whole system collapses. What’s the guy who can’t park in “his” cleared spot supposed to do? He’s got no option but to turn around and do the same thing. And that guy then has no option but to to the same, etc, etc.