A child’s curiosity and natural desire to learn are like a tiny flame, easily extinguished unless it’s protected and given fuel. This book will help you as a parent both protect that flame of curiosity and supply it with the fuel necessary to make it burn bright throughout your child’s life. Let’s ignite our children’s natural love of learning!
January 24th, 2007
Parking Problem
When I took the bus this morning, I left my car parked on a nearby road in front of somebody’s house. When I returned to my car after work, I had the following note on my windshield:
Click to enlarge.
I mentally put myself in this family’s shoes to understand how annoying it must be to live by a bus stop and have people frequently park in front of their house. I do find it funny, however, that the author made reference to what they thought my religion must be in an attempt to induce guilt for my alleged wrongdoing against them. The spirit of the letter, in my mind, could be responded to with a similar question of religious affiliation.
My question is: consideration and kindness aside, is it legal for me to park in front of somebody’s house? Am I in violation of some obtuse city statute by parking on a public road in front of somebody’s home?
I googled around and couldn’t find anything helpful. Anybody know?
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23 Responses to “Parking Problem”
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January 26, 2007
[…] I’ve been highly entertained by Connor’s parking woes. It brings back semi-sweet memories of my time at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC). […]
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All I know is that the Church specifically asks that Conference Center attendees not park in the neighborhoods. I think that is more a courtesy than anything. I’ll be interesting to see if someone knows about that.
And, you are right, that note wasn’t very kind. 🙂 Interesting.
On a neighborhood street?
You shouldn’t have a problem unless your city or community has a law that differs from every other part of America. Unless there is a sign prohibiting/time-limiting parking or a red line…you’re golden!
They are writing as if it is reasonable to assume that you know the intimate details of this family’s unique situation and that you deliberately chose to park their anyway. That’s more than just a little bit absurd.
It seems the person/people who composed this message are a bit on the cranky/nutty side. Better to just forget about them and move on.
Connor, please print this out and stick it on their door:
So, you think I should know all about your family situation before I parked here, regardless of my own time and interests? What religion do you belong to? Must be nice, expecting everyone to know all about you and serve you without question.
These parking places are in *front* of your home, and are public property. Everyone in town has children with cars, and mothers who are old.
There is ample housing in southern Utah.
I CAN PARK HERE.
Your mother might suggest you go to bed earlier so you don’t annoy people with your spurious claims on public property, or maybe she’ll just suggest you move a few miles out of the city.
I had a very similar note stuck to my car when I went out with the missionaries one day.
Hmm. Or this:
Dear honored resident,
My name is Connor Boyack, and I live in Madagascar. I’m a disabled refugee visiting the country to see my dying fiancee. I sold my belongings, and plan to work as an indentured servant for an Arab nomad for 12 years in order to make this trip. The civil wars in my country have settled just long enough for me to sneak away, and I will make this trip and return to die with my countrymen.
I want to apologize for my absolute lack of respect and consideration for your situation. Having lost all my fourteen children (from a previous, arranged marriage) to wild animals living around my shelter, I empathize with you. Buying vehicles for each your kids and not having a place within 100 feet to park must be profoundly horrific.
That, combined with the nightmare of moving all of your invalid mothers all the time past inconsiderate parkers such as myself would drive me to insanity. All eight of my invalid mothers wanted to be up and down all day too. I hated parking my own personal vehicle up to 43 feet away so we could unload them in the driveway. The cost to my own personal well-being was, to say the least, catastrophic.
Having spoken to my mother as you suggest, I have resolved to make sure and knock on all the doors surrounding the areas I have parked in. I have also crafted some detailed forms I can use to collect and organize the personal histories and backgrounds from persons I interview. Armed with these tools, I feel confident I will not make the same fatal mistake when I parked on your personal street.
Eternal apologies,
Connor.
P.S. – You asked, and I must tell you that I am Buddhist. My actions surely reflect on all my fellow Buddhists, and for that I am sorry.
If it was me, I would park there again tomorrow. And the next day. What are they going to do? It’s public property.
But I’m kind of a jerk that way.
John! That was delightful sarcasm! Connor, I really hope you take up John on his beautiful prose.
Oh, wow, that was truly comical. It’s amazing how some people over-react and feel the whole world is out to get them. I wish I could find such entertainment in my daily life, but all my neighbors are saints 😀
Man, I seem to be on a roll lately. Tonight the parking lot at the UVSC institute building was packed, and after driving around for a while I decided to park next to the end stall (still leaving plenty of room for cars to drive in the loop around my car).
I returned to my car after institute to find this:
Click to enlarge.
So they demand payment (on a timed scale, thus appearing as a benevolent master by “letting you off the hook” a little) yet also state that the citation is my first warning?
I don’t attend UVSC, so I’ll be throwing this piece of garbage away where it belongs.
uh, Connor, I don’t think not being a UVSC student is the point, is it? Isn’t that just, um, illegal to park in a spot that isn’t a parking spot? I guess I just envision the officer taking down your license plate and…. Twenty bucks might be worth the hassle that could come along if you don’t pay, ya know? 🙂
Conner, your mother might suggest you get up a little earlier so you don’t have to inconvenience others and give yourself a little exercise and walk a few more feet. 😛
Seriously though, I think Michelle is right. If UVSC is anything like SLCC, they are in cahoots with the “real” authorities and they do keep a record if you don’t pay.
As I understood it, the bottom of the back ticket suggests that they can enforce the ticket for UVSC students (by putting a hold on their registration), whereas for all others it simply serves as “a first warning”…
Maybe if you didn’t white out your citation number & lp# someone could have gone online to pay it for you 😀
Gosh, I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with your ticket… It seems that they may still come after you. Check out points 500.00, 500.01, & 1900.00 on their parking regulations.
Despite all the bravado on their regulations page, I’m curious why they would state that it’s a warning. That seems highly contradictory. Perhaps I’ll call them today to inquire.
A warning before they put you in jail? 🙂 🙂
As for your initial question about parking on a public street, I got a $30-something ticket when I was in college at SUU for parking on a public street. I had missed the “Parking on this street by permit only sign” on both sides of the block. It was close to my class, and I was late. It was the only street with that restriction near campus, and the only one I’ve ever seen.
Turns out that most of the English majors at SUU got a similar ticket at least once.
BTW, I like Steve M.’s idea. I’d park there everyday.
Oh my. Wow. I love that they assume malicious intent on your part. Because, you got up in the morning and decided, “I’m going to put these people out. I’ll show them!”
People have a hard time just being decent to each other nowadays. Sad.
But, in better news, people can be pretty cool. I left my MP3 player in the clubhouse exercise room on Saturday, and it was awaiting me when I returned tonight. I hadn’t even realized I’d left it. People have been there since, but no one filched it. Excellent.
I just got off the phone w/ a girl from the UVSC parking services. Here’s the run down:
Me: Hi, I got a citation the other day. I’m not a UVSC student and was visiting the campus. I’m confused because the back of the citation says that it will serve as my first warning.
Her: So you’re not a UVSC student?
Me: No.
Her: Are you ever going to be?
Me: No.
Her: Well, our citations never go to collections, they’re just internal to UVSC, so you don’t need to pay it then.
Me: Awesome!
Her (with a smile in her voice): Don’t tell anybody, okay?
Me: Thank you very much!
—
Does blogging about the conversation count as telling somebody? 🙂
::: crumples up the citation and throws a three pointer into the garbage can :::
Cool! Next time I need somewhere to park in Utah county, I’ll go create my own space at UVSC 😛
Lol. I think I still owe $3 on a parking ticket at Weber State University from about 2 years ago… meh. 😉