You fuck with me today, you will regret it.

The BBQ Pit
41

I think it would be interesting to compare the people who are supporting the OP and the people who are going against the OP- who lives in/grew up in a large city vs who grew up in more of the atmosphere Little Bird is writing about.

Where I live seems to be a lot like Little Bird’s neighborhood- lots and lots and lots of parking. Everybody parks in front of their own homes or, if they are going to have a party or something, neighbors are notified that they may have people parking in front of their homes.

Although it might be ok, it would be tremendously rude to park my car in front of my neighbor’s house. It would be even more rude if I left it so they couldn’t park in front of their house.

Now, people who are from large cities might see this in a totally different light because parking is a premium, first come, first serve sort of thing. Troy from tightly parallel parked, bumper to bumper San Francisco (not trying to single you out, I just know you are from San Francisco) might view this whole parking thing a whole lot different than me and anyone else from my big, spread out city.

Anyway, I feel for ya’, Little Bird. We had a neighbor park his car in front of our house for 4 months straight. We asked him, politely to move it a few times (during the first two months), but he refused. After we asked the third time, he stuck a club on the car and parked it right in front of our house.

Our city has a “leave it 4 days and it is abandoned” rule, so we called the cops. He was told by the cops to move it.

He came over and cussed me out (mind you, he had been dealing with my father- I’m just a 5’3, 19 year old girl). I pointed out that the law is the law and we tried to be reasonable. I told him we wouldn’t have minded him parking on the side of the house (we live on a corner), but the front is terrible inconvenient as it blocks our view coming out of our drive way. Anyway, long story short, he moved his car eventually. Of course, now I get death glares when he sees me.

42

Well, this is just something I’m apparently unable to wrap my head around, and unless anyone wants to keep going, I should just bow out of this thread.

I honestly think the idea of expecting people to forego an obvious, convenient solution so you may enjoy that convenience, and then calling them an asshole if they don’t is utterly ludicrous, immature, and petty, and if anyone were to indicate that a given ten-foot stretch of public curb was off-limits to me, I’d politely tell them to shove it, and probably Pit them, too.

43

Well, of course you’re not. Because, legally, they didn’t do anything wrong. It would make you look silly.

Listen, I’m with you here on the "it’s courteous to leave your neighbor a free spot in front of her house, provided there are other spots available. But complaining about it, without having the advantage of a friendly relationship, backfired on you.

As a rule, your first interaction with your new neighbor should never be a complaint. Your first interaction should be a friendly “Welcome to the neighborhood” over a tray of brownies. Wave and smile when you see them. It does wonders for establishing good will. Once you establish that good will, then you can diplomatically approach little aggravations like the parking situation. To do otherwise risks many eggs on your car.

44

Correct. You have the legal right to park there. It doesn’t mean you’re not being an asshole, though.

45

What Troy McClure said.

And for the record, I live in a “suburban city,” so-to-speak. Parking isn’t at a premium, as there’s plenty of it at all times on either side of our street. But the houses on the downhill side of us are “singles” and have no garages, necessitating parking on the street, so everything from our house down to the corner is always taken, though cars rotate in and out regularly. The homes up the hill from us and across the street are several thousand square foot mansions with garages, so the owners have ample garage parking, leaving lots of room in front of their houses.

And yet, again, it would never occur to me to ask my down-the-hill neighbors to make their friends park across the street or further up the hill instead of in front of my house. If there’s a car in front of my house when I get home, then I park across the street or up the hill. I just don’t get this sense of entitlement people have about the curb in front of their house. Sure, it would be nice if I could always claim that spot, but I don’t expect to, and I certainly wouldn’t ask anyone to accomodate me like that.

Now, an abandoned car that is never, ever moved is another ball of wax entirely. In that case I, too, would ask for it to be moved and call the police and have it towed if it wasn’t.

46

Troy, leaving aside the obvious difference in the city/suburbs culture, there is a big difference between
[list=a]
[li]“Expecting” people to do something and calling them an asshole if they dont, and [/li][li]Making a polite and reasonable request and being upset that your property was vandalized for making said request.[/li][/list]

47

What I should have made clear earlier is that under no circumstances is egging a car or any of the other harassment acceptable, and I apologize to Little Bird for that, and I sincerely hope the little bastards learn how to be a part of society. Considering most of the discussion I’ve been a part of has been solely about one’s claim to the spot in front of the house, I assumed this was a given, but I should have said so.

FatBaldGuy, I have a problem with part of your B, in the general sense. I do not think it is a reasonable request to ask someone to not use any given spot on a given public street. This seems to be the fundamental disconnect I have with most of the people in this thread.

48

Well, Troy, you live in San Francisco and Little Bird is in Iowa. The rules (if not the law) are different in each location. The neighbor’s son did nothing legally wrong in parking in front of LB’s house but I don’t feel like it was wrong of her to ask them to not park there every night. And the way she went about it doesn’t seem unreasonable. She never called them any names or threatened them.

I lived in Oklahoma City for 20 years and there, the area in front of your house is considered, informally, to be your spot. Of course, other people can park there but generally don’t make a habit out of it.

I live in L.A. now, and while not as densely packed as SF, the parking spaces are at a premium compared to OKC. If someone here or in SF asked me to not park in front of their residence, I would be put-out to say the least. But in OKC, there’s usually no good reason to park in front of someone else’s home except on the rare occasion.

In smaller towns and cities, it is not an unreasonable request to ask someone to not park in front of your home on a regular basis. It’s just the way it is.

49

Believe it or not, but in the suburb I grew up in, there was actually legislation on the books saying that the only people who could park in front of a house were the owners or guests of people in said house.

50

Because Troy, it’s not their front door. I asked if the neighbor’s son’s friends could please not take all the spots in front of my house. That is why.

I believe I should open a thread in IMHO about whether this request was, in fact, rude. Hopefully people, myself included, will be able to discuss things there with a cooler head. I may do that tomorrow, if I get the chance. But if someone else would like to open it sooner, I would be grateful.