You go get you some.
Yes, this is indeed the correct way to approach this. And is, in fact what we did a year ago or so. It worked out very well.
Good thing we did not have Loach parking in front of our house for weeks. Otherwise the conversation might have gone like this:
Reasonable person: Say, neighbor, I notice that you’re parking your old car in front of my house, when you have space in front of yours, and an completely empty driveway. Any particular reason for this?
Loach: It’s a public street and I can park wherever I Goddamn well please. It’s completely legal so if you don’t like it then fuck off.
There’s not enough overhead space for everyone to stow their stuff above their own seat, especially when some people bring twice as much as they’re allowed. But that’s a topic for another thread.
I don't think anyone has said it could *never *be rude- certainly it would be rude of your neighbor to refuse a request to move a car to an available spot because you need the space for a moving truck or sick Uncle Pete , or because your garbage won't be picked up or your mail delivered if there is a car parked there *. What we are saying is it is not *automatically* rude for them to park there if you never mentioned the moving truck or sick Uncle Pete.
- although I find it a little odd that garbage won’t be picked up or mail delivered if a car is parked legally. I mean , there a perfectly good way for the city , town etc to avoid that- post signs prohibiting parking during the day and times of garbage collection and in front of the mailbox. It certainly works for street cleaning in NY.
Yes, of course DD, thats the reasonable thing to do, but … Ive explained that the fact that the neighbors park their cars/trucks LONG TERM in front of my house and are “not home” when someone goes to their houses to ask them politely to move them is the issue with me.
The jerktard who parked in front of my house when I was trying to move in had been parked there for “days” the other neighbors told me when I went to everyone’s doors asking about who owned the truck. In fact, I learned, he “always” parks there. And was “out of town” at the time. Seems odd, since he has 3 empty parking spaces and a long driveway with garage at his own house. 6 spaces, another garage, and another long driveway if you count the rentals he owns next to him.
Maybe I should get my own hooptie complete with oil leak and rusty fenders and park it in front of my house on the off chance I might need the space sometime. 
I could care, truly. I’ll put my stuff under my seat if need be, if it will keep you from stroking out over ‘your’ turf being violated, gladly. I honestly do not believe a single person I know would bother to miffed over such a silly thing.
Life is too damn short to lose an iota of time or energy worrying or caring about stupid crap like this. How tightly are you freaking wound anyway? I think you should definitely join the board of the local HOA, you sound like a perfect fit!
It’s been implied repeatedly in this thread.
I’m not sure what you mean by “we.” I certainly agree that it’s not automatically rude to park in front of your neighbor’s house.
Well fine, that’s analogous to the situation where streets get filled up with parked cars. In such a situation, there’s nothing rude at all about parking in front of your neighbor’s house.
It appears you were whooshed.
He has never, ever been home? You have never been able totalk to him?
It may come to that. I think I’m the only one with the garbage issue in the thread, so in my case the problem was that the neighbors would put two cars in the space in front of our house, leaving no room to put the trash cans out on the curb on garbage day. Except in our driveway, which isn’t exactly convenient for getting cars out.
OTOH, garbage pickup takes all day here, because we have separate trucks for for garbage, recycle and garden trash, so I cannot imagine how some of these people with more cars than garage/driveway would be able to keep them off the street all day.
Why yes, that’s exactly what he said. Quite astute of you to pick up on that.
I’m confused. If he was out of town, how did he complain to you that the van had messed up his weedpatch of a lawn?
Places I’ve lived with limits on parking without moving the vehicle were designed to stop people from using the street to house non-running junkers.
He said that he couldn’t get him to move the car because no one was home at the time he needed the car moved. But that doesn’t preclude him from talking to the neighbor at some other time to find out why he parks the car there and asking politely that he doesn’t do so. If you treat this as an emergency situation only then it’s going to be endlessly frustrating; if you treat this as a neighborhood relationship issue it might go smoothly.
And places with those limits don’t usually distinguish between parking in front of your own house or someone else’s.
When he came back home??
Thank you, you took what I said and made it more understandable. Exactly right.
If it was a one time problem, well it’s over. But since it appears to occur more often, the neighbor MUST be home some time to discuss this.
Neighbors do agree to not block the shared driveway, but this lasts about 2 minutes. So back we go to having to ask them to please move (again) and waiting for them to do this at their own … glacial … pace.
As far as parking in front of our house, we are reduced to having to plan well ahead of time for using the space in front of our house and planning with them to not park there. And hoping they “remember”. Even tho spaces are empty in front of their own houses! What am I missing here?
There could easily be four cars at the house: three to fill the garage and then a fourth. Car #4 shouldn’t park behind any of the other three unless they can be sure that their owners don’t need to leave for a while. If it is a little obnoxious to park in the street when you don’t have to, it’s way less than blocking someone else in.