A neighbor wrote to tell us about a disturbing experience she had on Friday evening. I’ll let her tell the story (posted anonymously by her request):
Today I was arriving home from work shortly before 5pm, heading north on 14th Ave (near Atlantic). I noticed an available street parking spot near our house, on the right side of the street, so I slowed down and pulled into it. A car in the southbound lane was stopped with a left blinker on, presumably turning into a driveway. When I pulled into the parking spot, I could hear yelling from the guy in the turning car. I didn’t really figure out why until he turned into the driveway directly behind me, turned around and drove off. Apparently he wanted that parking spot and was trying to claim it. I recognized his car from seeing it parked in the vicinity, including when it was parked in a street spot for 5 straight days and eventually got towed.
Later on this evening, one of our neighbors knocked on our door to tell us they noticed someone had dumped trash onto the hood of my car. I went out to see for myself, and sure enough, there was gross garbage strewn all over my car — including compost waste and diapers. Lovely. I can only imagine he brought this garbage from his home, since our garbage pick up happened yesterday morning and most people’s cans aren’t on the sidewalks.
I attached a picture I took of my car with the garbage surprise. I’m hoping you post this anonymously, but wanted to send fair warning to my other neighbors about our sociopathic neighbor, and to tell others to keep an eye out for any foul play going on.
This is Beacon Hill, not Capitol Hill. Are any parking spots really that hard to come by?
So passive aggressive. What a wiener! Be a man, get out of your car, explain you we’re waiting for the space. If she doesn’t move then you correct her right there.
Teresa Michelle O liked this on Facebook.
A*M* Carpet Cleaning liked this on Facebook.
Dumping trash on someone’s car is a pretty childish way to vent your anger, but stealing a parking space is also a dick move. If it went down the way described, the garbagee should have apologized and moved her car.
Melissa Jonas liked this on Facebook.
I don’t think I’d ever get mad enough to do the garbage dump but parking is really getting to be a pain in the neighborhood lately and it’s only going to get worse.
Playing devil’s advocate: Do you think she should have realized the guy wanted the spot at all, when he was facing the wrong direction on a reasonably busy arterial? If I saw someone on the wrong side of the street, facing the wrong direction, with a signal on, I probably wouldn’t have assumed he wanted the spot either. I would have wondered what the heck he was doing, unless there was a driveway there. (Was he planning a U-turn?)
street….parking lot. let’s say I was entering the Costco parking lot looking for parking. if i saw someone in the opposite traffic flow but had their turn signal on indicating they might be turning into my side of the lot, yes, I would presume they have an eye on a parking slot near me. as such, i would concede the spot to them.
in a street situation I would anticipate that their intentions would be similar even though the traditional method of parking (legally) would be for them to perform a u-turn maneuver, then proceed to parallel park.
unfortunately instead of a teaching moment for all, this resulted in a confrontational situation. mature communication might have resulted in a horn toot and polite hand gestures clarified intentions…with civility and mutual respect prevailing.
well, i guess we know what to look out for in the future, eh?
Jairus Colyer liked this on Facebook.
Walter, a parking lot is different. In a parking lot I think there would be no question the guy was signaling for the space. But on an arterial with only parallel parking? It’s not that strange she didn’t realize what he was doing. As you said, the normal way would be a U-turn, then signaling for the space.
Anyway, it doesn’t really matter whether she was in the right, because the reaction was unreasonable either way.
you’re simply saying what you would do, how you would interpret under similar circumstances. i would synthesize differently given my experience. you would be misreading, if you’re suggesting that I’m passing judgment on the OP