I like to take walks around my neighborhood. The sidewalks are generally pretty nice, and the scenery is pretty nice. I usually set off in one of the three directions where the street continues. Today, I set off down the fourth direction, down a straight with a DEAD END sign. I was hoping to find a public sidewalk extending away from there since it would be a nice walk. Finding none, I start walking back from the dead end, and a young man, presumably a resident of the last house on the block, yelled to me. I turned around.
Bigot: Can I help you with something?
Boris: No.
Bigot: Can I help you find something?
Boris: No.
Bigot: You a cap?
Boris: No.
Bigot: You a cap?
Boris (by now I had stopped walking away from him since his bizarre suburban accent wasn’t easy to understand over the nearby freeway): I’m sorry, I can’t hear you.
Bigot: Are you a OFFICER OF THE LAWWW?
Boris: No.
Bigot: Then leave. Private property.
At no point had I stepped off the sidewalk. The street is marked DEAD END, not “private drive”. There is a mailbox on the street, which I had assumed meant it was a public street (usually I see all the mailboxes collected at the very begining of a private drive). My question is, is there any chance I actually was on private property? Do people ever own the sidewalk? (It runs down, unbroken, in front of another house and to the end of the block.)
I don’t particularly like being yelled at to leave public property one block away from my home in broad daylight, but if I were on his property he would have the legal right to shoo me away. (Why he chose to yell at me when I had already begun leaving the vicinity is beyond me.)
If it had said “private drive”, he’d be in the right. But the “dead end” sign only means there’s no other exit.
He may have been the only house down that dead end, but it doesn’t make it his private domain. If the public works department paved the street and made the sidewalk, it’s public.
I remember a similar circumstance in my hometown, where someone was the only residence down a very short dead end street. He parked all sorts of vehicles, many disabled, down it. The cops would put tickets on them, but they went ignored. Finally one day, the cops came and towed every vehilce away that had ever been ticketed there. Boy, was that guy pissed. :D:D
Ha! I’m laughing evilly at your disabled vehicle guy. There’s a car on a flatbed in front of this guy’s place. I wonder how long it can sit there without officially becoming an abandoned vehicle? further evil laughter
Yeah, there’s a street sign on the corner, which just says the names of the two streets (his street is the same as mine, which runs right through the center of town). The whole area seems just as public as anywhere.
Signs, of course, can be wrong. So, the only way to know for sure would be to check the assessor’s records and/or the titles. (I’m imperialistically assuming you’re in the United States).
Another idea would be to politely ask the person what he will do if you refuse to leave.
In any event, if you own property that people might think is public, the wise thing to do is to mark it somehow. If you let people get away with trespassing regularly, a “prescriptive easement” might be created. In other words, you may lose the legal right to prevent people from tresspassing. My favorite example of this principle occurs in New York City, where, because of certain setback rules, part of what seems to be a sidewalk is in fact private property. Instead of erecting a “no tresspassing” sign, etc., the owner embeds a sign in the sidewalk that says something like “private property - license to pass granted.” This (hopefully) makes it so that people’s use is not “adverse” (not tresspassing) and thus makes it less likely for a “prescriptive easement” to be created.
For what it’s worth, I think the guy was lying - otherwise, why not put up a “no tresspassing” sign?
Pet peeve: people who think they’ve come to own common or public property. Has happened with a printer at work and a parking spot in my complex . . .
Someone that concerned sounds like he might have some illegal goings-on inside his house that he should be concerned with people seeing…
I suggest you make a call to the police and have them pay a visit to see why he is trying to shoo people off of public property. When they visit, they might just find that secret hydroponic Marijuana farm he’s got growing inside.
The city defines public from private property. Visit your city building department, they have the maps that can define things for you. Also check the sidewalks for little one inch round property markers.
Yeah, you guys are right. I’m thinking about visiting the County Assessor’s office, or a buildings office. At least I’ll learn something.
It’s funny to think of him as a possible criminal. I was just thinking of him thinking of me as a criminal, which is why my feathers were ruffled.
I’ve decided to throw a huge party for all of my friends who have large cars, and telling them to park down his block. “There aren’t any NO PARKING signs there - nobody will mind!” Then they’d all be pissed at me when they found their tires were slashed. Okay, onto Plan B. I’ll petition the city to paint a Public Arts mural on the sidewalk in front of his house, and walk by every day to admire it.
