Why get upset if someone parks in front of your house?

In My Humble Opinion
121

Just to add to the collection of stories in this thread:

It’s illegal to talk on a cell phone and drive at the same time, where I live. I got a call that was important and that I had to pay attention to, so I parked my car in front of someone else’s house, in a suburban neighbourhood. A woman from the house immediately opened her curtains. I don’t have tinted windows, so she must have seen me on my cell-phone. Every 30 seconds she peeked out. Eventually she came and opened the front door. At this point I can’t imagine her not seeing me on my cell. She stood in the doorway, giving me an evil stare, while her arms were crossed in a disapproving manner. I made eye-contact, but continued talking. I talked for 10 minutes, and she stood and stared me down for the whole duration. I thought she was being very weird and creepy. I was tempted to just stay put and have a stare-down match, but alas that stopped being fun after the age of 7, and so I just pulled away and left after my call. She walked to the curb and watched me leave her street, while she talked on a cell phone, to make sure I left her neighbourhood I suppose. Creeeepy.

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[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:111, topic:597874”]

I understand the winter/shoveling thing. But I don’t get this whole attitude when there’s no snow.

If I’m visiting a residential neighborhood, then anywhere I park is going to be in front of somebody’s house. If you don’t want people parking in a legal parking place on a public street in front of your home, then where are they supposed to park? Residents are only allowed to invite as many people to a party as can park in front of their home? If you show up to visit Grandma and someone is already parked in front of her house, then you can’t stay and visit?

This makes no sense to me at all.
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No, it’s when they are visiting someone across the street and park in front of your house even when there’s room over there that you go :confused:. shrug It still isn’t a big deal, just a little but weird.

And I totally don’t mind when there’s a whole bunch of cars. Actually that makes me feel fine - they are clearly having some kind of party, I have room, sure go ahead and park there. But if there’s no reason…weird and a tiny bit creepy.

To make it perfectly clear, I have never ever called the cops on anyone parking in front of my house. Good heavens. I’ve only called the cops maybe three times in my whole life.

And we don’t have to "peer through our drapes ". Where I sit in the living room, I hardly even have to turn my head to see if someone is parked in front of my house. I note it, and move on with my life. I mean, I don’t understand people who apparently, even when I don’t have to try at all, think I should not notice anything that goes in front of my house!

Why is there never an excluded middle in these threads anyway? It’s always “completely ignore everything” or you are a pearl-clutching suburbia freak. Why can’t we notice a little and ignore a little? And why does it always have to devolve into implied insults about our state of fear or whatever?

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I live in a quiet semi-rural cul-de-sac. We have so few cars pull into our neighborhood that are not from our neighbors, and most people park in their driveway, that I would also be really perplexed by an unknown car parked in front of our house. Even if the driver was on the cell phone, it would be so unusual to be noteworthy. Most neighborhood watch groups emphasize keeping an eye out for unusual activity- delivery trucks parked in driveways when people are away, unknown cars lingering in front of houses etc. It doesn’t mean every case is criminal, or you should live your life in fear of strangers, but the out of the ordinary is worth noticing. So while you knew you weren’t doing anything wrong, just because you were on your cell phone doesn’t mean she knew it was all harmless. So while the homeowner may have gone a bit far, I can absolutely see why it drew her attention in the first place and why she reacted how she did.

You may think it’s silly, but perhaps you can see it from her side and not think it’s so unusual a reaction.

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I grew up in the suburbs and would probably have noticed a car parked in front of my parent’s house because it would have been an unusual situation. Most people could park in the garage and driveway of the house. It was fairly uncommon to see people parked long term on the street.

Where I live in the city, I don’t really noticed if someone is parked in front of my house. The street I live on used to be no parking until last year. You can park there now, but no parking is allowed from 7am to 9 am on weekdays so we dont’ get cars parked long term. We have parking in the back so I don’t really pay attention. I’ve noticed we get people from the suburbs who look for parking in my neighborhood who are going to the restaurants, and bars that have opened up nearby. I suspect that it is going to be busier, and I feel sorry for my neighbors who don’t have parking in the back of their lots.

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I grew up in the suburbs too, and I never got the concern over parking in front of the house then, either. We had a neighbor who would sometimes park in front of our house and walk across the street to his house if it meant that he could park facing his direction of travel. We had two cars in our driveway and did not need the street parking. My parents would have fits when our neighbor did this and I never understood why.

126

No, sorry. If it’s that unusual you can peek out at the car every few minutes or something. Going outside and giving the driver, who is clearly on the phone, the stink-eye is fucking crazy. That lady needs to get a life.

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The thing is, I pulled off a major 6-lane road onto her suburban street. In 10 minutes there must have been 20 cars that drove past me, and at least a handful of people who walked by on the sidewalk. Her behaviour struck me as very odd considering the neighbourhood. I initially thought maybe she was expecting someone and thought I was that someone… I dunno. But I’ve seen my fair share of territoriality over public property that I find somewhat hostile and threatening, like this example. If she really cared, she could have just approached me and asked.

Of course, this is not representative of the majority of people who live in the suburbs. I’ve passed by the front of thousands of houses in the suburbs over the years, and the number of times something like this has happened I can count on 1 hand… but it’s so unusual and weird that it sticks in one’s memory.

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Which is why I clearly said her behavior went a bit too far, but the underlying idea is not so odd.

Yeah, weird, indeed.

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Yeah, sort of in the same way as the fact that there’s nothing wrong with washing your hands just because. But if you do it forty times a day, then it’s a neurosis.

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If a car was parked in front of my house long enough (say, three or four days), I would call bylaw services to report an abandoned vehicle. A daily use car gets moved; a stolen car doesn’t. And if my neighbours think that they can park a car that they don’t intend to use in front of my house indefinitely, well, we have laws to cover that abuse of city on-street parking. :slight_smile:

Agreed. I don’t like it, but I don’t do anything about it (well, in winter, I might pile a little snow up around the vehicle that’s getting in my way as I shovel).

ETA: Borzo, that lady does indeed seem weird, but she might have been the victim of a break-in recently or something. I was almost hit crossing the street twice this summer, and you can bet I give cars the stink-eye as I’m crossing now. Or she’s just nuts. :slight_smile:

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Well, not quite. More like, washing hands is fine, but during cold and flu season using hand sanitizer every hour is going a bit too far, but I can see why you might think it’s a good idea.

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It’s funny; I don’t think of parking territoriality as a particularly suburban thing. In the suburbs I’m thinking of, people usually have big garages and parking on the street is pretty rare anyways.

Now people who live on a residential side street near a busy facility (e.g. a hospital, a sports arena, a university, etc.) – those are the people I think of as territorial.

By the way, I’ve been the person parking in front of some random dude’s house on a side street near a hospital. Shame on me…

133

Makes a note not to park near Cat Whisperer’s house

I’ve been leaving my car parked for days and weeks at a time: I commute by train, for the whole week…

134

That’s like the beginning of a Stephen King novel.

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In front of someone else’s house? And do you move it at any point?

It really depends on whether the space is needed or not. On my street, if someone left their car parked for weeks in front of their own house, I’d probably never ever notice since there is so much room. I don’t know how i could not notice it in front of my own house; I’d have to see it every single day as I went to my car.

In my previous apartment, well there wasn’t much room on the streets, and the city would tow any car that wasn’t moved periodically. I mean, they were fairly generous, so even if you just moved your car once a week you’d be OK.

All of this is for street legal cars, of course. If you don’t have plates and you park your car on a public road the cops can tow it right away if they want.

136

There is definitely an urban / suburban divide, I think.

If you live in the urban core, and there is available parking, at the curb, in front of your place, you have to accept that there is likely to be a steady flow of cars, coming and going. You won’t know any of them, of if they have a ‘reason’ to be there. For people living in such environs it seems childish to care about it, because it’s something that they just accepted as a given, like every other adult on the street. They just don’t give it a thought.

I would never have guessed people would have such a reaction to something, so seemingly innocent, as a car, legally parked, on the street. That they would consider it rude, weird, mildly creepy, truly does amaze me to learn, as I’ve never known anyone to take issue with such a thing. Cultural/community differences, no doubt.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m glad I don’t live with such ‘unwritten codes’, as they seem to cause so much conflict and ill feeling.

137

Much like Curlcoat, my leafy suburban residential street is composed of bungalows and ranches with long driveways and two-car garages. There should be plenty of parking so nobody has to permanently park in the street, but most use their garages for storage and apparently hate to park more than one car in the driveway. Presumably this is because they don’t want to jockey cars around.

I never cared much if people parked in front of my house for a few hours or a day or two. People visiting me just use my driveway or park further down the street if the ones in front of my house are taken.

The only time there was a problem was when a new family moved in across the street a few years ago. Husband, wife, 2 pre-teen girls and a young son. The girls did not drive. This couple owned 5 (five) new to newish cars. Their driveway did not extend to the garage. (Yes, there was a short driveway, then grass, then garage door, looking to the back of their lot from the street). This meant that 4 of their 5 cars were scattered around the neighborhood, because they NEVER parked in front of their own home.

I ignored it until fall came and our city street sweepers cruised down the street sucking up leaves and had to swerve around the front of my house, because the neighbors cars were planted there. The same thing happened in winter, when the snowplows came down the street. Swerving to avoid hitting my neighbors’ cars, meant I had huge pileups of snow at the foot of my driveway, extending across the front of my house. I was paying taxes for street cleaning services that I did not receive. I didn’t complain or say anything to them, but it was annoying.

Needless to say, I was delighted and gratified when a big rental truck rolled up in front of their house, they filled it, and slunk away in the night. They’d defaulted on their mortgage. Speculation around the neighborhood was that all those SUV and pickup truck payments left them nothing for their mortgage.

The new owners moved in last year and use their driveway. They are considerate neighbors.

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So you say there is an urban/suburban divide yet you still think we’re somehow wrong for feeling it. Well, I’ll say quite frankly, in suburbia it is very rare to have someone park in front of your house without need, so it is a different culture and idea.

I’m really glad I don’t live in the city. I made a choice to live in one of the suburbs of Albany because I could afford it. I like this lifestyle and hate inner-city living. Yet I somehow manage not to make personal comments about those who like it.

Funny, that.

139

Er, um, I don’t think I did say this:

..at all?

I said I was surprised to learn people felt this way, that it seems childish to those urban dwellers who never give such things a thought, that it was a cultural/community difference, no doubt. That I am surprised, you feel the way your do, is a different thing from thinking it’s wrong.

You seem somewhat oversensitive to more than just a parked car, now.

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Well, you can park in front of my house. :slight_smile:

Abandoned car law in Calgary:

Your local laws may vary, of course.