dear sirs:

if you hate words/reading, let me give you the cliffs notes in bold here: all my neighbors park in my lot to use the pool instead of just walking 5 minutes. but i have a couple hours to kill so this is getting typed out. i am inviting other bored people to read this and discuss either this or similar situations.

let me set this up. i live in what i guess they call a "townhouse complex" - each building is two stories and long, made up by 3-4 two story units in a row. this townhouse complex has a pool that is very popular (thank god you can't access it without a key)

all our parking spaces are right in front of our units, and labeled by number. all the guest spaces are the leftover spaces that aren't in front of any particular unit, and they're labeled guest. each parking lot is bordered by 4 buildings, 2 per side.. and on each side, there's a decent amount of space between the actual buildings. so there are like 5-6 guest spots on each side, 10-12 per lot.

my unit happens to be on the far end of my building (only share a wall on one side). and my building happens to be the closest building to the pool. so that means my 2 spaces are DIRECTLY beside the 5-6 guest spaces closest to the pool. it only takes 10 minutes to walk TOTALLY across the longest way through the hood. so it takes a max of 5 minutes to walk to the pool from anywhere.

so all summer long, especially on saturdays, my lot is full of cars, and full of traffic coming and going, checking for open spaces, parking beside me, and worst of all using my other space (unless i park diagonally like a douche, which i do sometimes). all this instead of walking 5 minutes.

if it was the size of like gorman crossings, or would take even 12-15 minutes to walk, i'd MAYBE understand... but the average walk is 2 minutes, the maximum is 5. it's a small neighborhood. as for resolving the problem.... a few times when my spare space was full, i've walked down to the pool asking for the owner of X car and then told them that its not cool. i have also had a "please remember to use guest spaces" thing added to the HOA newsletter... so my personal space rarely gets violated now... but its still shitty to have to make actual guests park on the street and WALK. hahaha. luckily, i have an extra space and all. i'd be livid if i had a girlfriend who lived here or something.

what would you guys do, petition the neighbors in my lot and all go together to a meeting? i know its not against any rule to be a lazy ass, but it just sucks. so far i havent been passive-aggressive or childish, and i plan on keeping it that way. but if anyone ever hit my car out there and it turned out to be a pool person, i'd flip out, i know it. hahaha IDEAS PLEASE

thank you for reading my essay, and you can't get mad cause i told you the one sentence version at the beginning.

thanks,
jackleg

7/12/2008 3:38:10 PM

get some metal signs made and put them on posts in front of each of the guest spaces and your extra space

saying "DO NOT PARK HERE IF YOU ARE USING THE POOL, THX"

7/12/2008 3:43:02 PM

similar story:

at my apartment complex in atlanta, parking is very tight (they built this complex around a 150 year old graveyard)...just enough space for two cars to pass. as a result, there are tons of curbing and it is all painted red. there are not that many spaces in front of the building i used to be in so people would park on red curbs

holy shit, i was fucking livid because there are two two-level parking decks in my complex and one was through a breezeway where people could walk to their buildings from the parking deck

so me and my former roommates started complaining. i would go in person and one other roommate would call when he got off work (~12 am). well after about 6 months it finally paid off because the complex thought that there were a shit ton of people complaining (im pretty sure it was just us) and they started to have the dekalb county pd come out and write $75.00 parking violations. every time there were people parked on the red curb, there were 2x as many spaces available in the parking deck.

i confronted a few people about it in a nice way. i justified this because if there was a fire, there was no way a firetruck could get through with people on the red curb. i saw one that had to back up and go around the complex one time because there wasnt enough space.

the handicapped spaces got the same treatment from someone else. i think some people got $250 or $500 tickets for those

the biggest thing that pissed me off was the safety aspect, then the fact that people couldnt walk an extra 50 feet

[Edited on July 12, 2008 at 3:53 PM. Reason : 

7/12/2008 3:51:35 PM

words

7/12/2008 4:03:29 PM

http://www.blogger.com

7/12/2008 4:04:26 PM

This is similar to dicks to park in the fire lane outside of grocery stores.

7/12/2008 4:21:27 PM

GRUMPY OLD MAN

7/12/2008 4:49:09 PM

You've been to my place, leg and know the guest spots are exactly like yours.

I have them towed - immediately.

7/12/2008 4:52:47 PM

Quote :

"words"

if you bothered to skim past the first 2 words and hit the second line, you'd see that i gave the whole point of the thread there.... in the bold font weight!!!1

eh, i never understood people taking the time to not read words, yet take the time to post about it. if i were in that much of a hurry to tww, i sure wouldn't be replying to threads i didn't care about

Quote :

"http://www.blogger.com"

is that the one that i can use my gmail account to login and sign up a blog? i kinda want a new blog, my old one about living 2500+ miles from NC, that one was lots of fun. and a good way for grandma to keep up with what i'm doing!

let me know, and thanks for the link!

Quote :

"You've been to my place, leg and know the guest spots are exactly like yours. I have them towed - immediately"

yeah, you have the exact same building layouts and parking layouts. i forget where your pool is, and where in relation to your building. but yes, i have the EXACT thing where all the guests park by my unit (and car). i even live on the same end, same building, and same side as you. if i told you to come to my lot and go to the equivalent of your house, you'd find mine right away.

as far as towing them immediately, i wouldn't do that unless it was a repeat offender like 3 times.

first time, benefit of the doubt. second time, i give it again because i know hoe forgetful i am. third time, no way they don't know. honestly, it's really like "first time, and there's no way they don't know" -- i mean the space has my number on it.... and since they live there too, they know exactly what that means, their parking space at home has their number on it.

but i guess really that is the main thing, they are my neighbors. if it were college kids trespassing on my pool, they'd be towed before they hit the water. does that make any difference to you?

7/12/2008 6:43:50 PM

you try walking 5 minutes while carrying an empty cooler full of ice, towels, all your girlfriends gear, and smoke a cigarette after drinking at the pool



christ jackleg, its time to grow down.


youre not the man i fell in love with all those years ago

7/12/2008 6:47:00 PM

my guess is that the ones driving do not live there?

or are they confirmed residents?

7/12/2008 6:50:34 PM

^^ fuck the person that pays for the spaces to be there, me not having to carry/walk my lazy ass 100 yards is most important thing

7/12/2008 6:57:55 PM

Quote :

"you try walking 5 minutes while carrying an empty cooler full of ice, towels, all your girlfriends gear, and smoke a cigarette after drinking at the pool christ jackleg, its time to grow down. youre not the man i fell in love with all those years ago"

yea yea i see all the normal reasons why they WOULD, and thats why i don't come right out and get them towed. the only reason i'm even considering towing anyone would mean that they are

a) in my (non-guest) space AND not responsive to my asking them to stop
b) not due-paying residents, "stockholders" in the pool

there's technically NOTHING at all i can do about legit neighborhood people driving over and parking in those spaces.... but let's tackle your situation. we will pretend you live here

you live, at the very very very most, a 5 minute walk away. but that's a 10% chance... if you live in the farthest lot, otherwise 90% chance you're within 3 minutes. 50% chance you're in the heart of the complex, and you're a 2-3 minute walk away.

you could smoke before you leave, or have the girl carry something, or you could leave her there with half the shit, walk back with half and smoke on the way... drop it off, walk back, and walk back with her and the rest of the goods.

still a 10 minute maximum walk, including all the round trips and shit.

you'd really DRIVE to the next parking lot over? just seems odd to me

ps - grow down? hahaha its like like im super no fun guy, it just sucks when you cant have spots for the guests because your neighbors want to take a 30 second drive instead of a 5 minute walk. haha

Quote :

"my guess is that the ones driving do not live there? or are they confirmed residents?"

just saw this one... they are all residents, you need a key to get in, and the security company focuses like 90% of their force and time on the pool during the open season. they all pay money and have every right to use the pool, and they all have every right to use those parking spaces. it's just shitty of them in my opinion, since half the neighborhood lives basically within 2 buildings of the 4 in my quad

7/12/2008 10:04:33 PM

Quote :

"^^ fuck the person that pays for the spaces to be there, me not having to carry/walk my lazy ass 100 yards is most important thing"

im glad you seem to agree with me on this, but technically any neighborhood parking space without a specific unit number on it (ie, guest spots) are owned by HOA... just like the little park... and HOA is financed equally by everyone here...

residents aren't guests, but i guess in a sense, residents from the other side are guests to this particular lot. haha. the only rule that i know of is that theres a maximum amount of time a BROKEN car can stay in a space,

7/12/2008 10:27:07 PM

Quote :

"but i guess really that is the main thing, they are my neighbors. if it were college kids trespassing on my pool, they'd be towed before they hit the water. does that make any difference to you?"

If it was my neighbors, and that has happened before, I put a note on their car.

Every other time, save that one instance, it was college kids and they got towed immediately.

Basically, if I don't recognize the car... tow truck is on the way. Yeah, I'm a bastard.

7/12/2008 10:29:27 PM

hahaha yes you are

well, my pool is so close, i could step out front and throw a rock into it with medium force behind it... so its a 30 second walk for me. so if someone ends up in my spare space, i just walk down there and get it taken care of.

my reasoning... besides the fact that i try hard not to be an asshole these days -- just that little bit of action draws awareness from everyone. if you call them out in front of everyone, everyone kinda gets the idea. if you call and the truck sneaks in and steals the car, no ever hears about it

7/12/2008 10:33:37 PM

hahahah.... i guess i could just have them tow it across the lot into a guest space. but that wouldnt work either cause they dont end up in my number unless thosse are full

7/12/2008 10:35:05 PM