The parking spots are assigned by apartment number, and when we moved into our apartment, we had the good fortune of being awarded THE ideal parking spot. It's the spot closest to our apartment building, and it's on the end so you can just pull forward out of the spot instead of backing up like everyone else. Which is good, because backing up is not one of my strong points in driving. Neither is parallel parking or making unprotected left hand turns, but that's besides the point.
The parking spot is so ideal that I even spent 15 minutes constructing a fairly accurate diagram of our parking lot and apartment building:
See what I mean? Perfect. (The rest of the parking spaces in that row are also numbered, but I didn't include them because, erm, I can't remember which numbers are next to ours. I assume they're in the 20s, but you never do know. At the back of the parking lot, we have a row of unnumbered spaces for visitors.)
Now lately, a Big Mean White SUV has been parking in our parking spot while Jacob has been at work. The owner of said Big Mean White car (or BMW car) is clearly a visitor of one of our neighbors, as our neighbors do an excellent job of parking in their own spaces. If they had an award for proper parking, my neighbors would all get gold stars. But when Jacob comes home and our parking spot is taken, he's forced to park in -- gasp!-- one of the unnumbered spaces a whole 30 feet away!
This means that when Jacob tumbles into bed and doesn't mention that he parked somewhere else, I get a mild panic attack when I look out the window some time later (and see the now-empty parking spot, as BMW car has left since then) and naturally assume our car has been stolen.
All in all, this isn't the worst situation to be in. But it's our parking spot! Have they no sense of common decency?
Tonight I was tempted to leave a note on their windshield, informing them that they were parked in a reserved parking spot -- and could they be so kind as to park in one of the unnumbered spots in the future, instead? But I didn't know how to phrase it without sounding either completely pretentious or like a jerk. Suggestions?
(And as it turned out, the car left 15 minutes after I first saw it, so maybe the owner could just sense the negative vibes coming from me and decided to hightail it outta there. Problem solved?)
Get it towed next time...they won't park there again.
ReplyDeleteRemember how people would park their cars in front of "the other" girls' building while they picked someone up/ran in their groceries/for no good reason at all?
ReplyDeleteOnce, a car parked right there (pretty much blocking the handicapped spot in the corner, along with two other spots) and, after a half hour, we finally wrote a note. Honestly, if they're going to park in your spot, you're allowed to sound a *little* snooty--you're paying rent and they're not.
Just refrain from calling them inconsiderate and/or jerky and you'll be fine.
I lived at Windsor Park for a few months before Clay and I got married. I didn't really pay the full rent for the room, since Clay was managing 8 of the condos at the complex for his aunt. However, the space came as part of the rent. Only two of the three rooms in each condo got a spot. Since the spot was "paid for" I kept notes in my car to put on the windshields of offensive parkers.
ReplyDeleteThey said something to the effect of:
Hello. This is my parking spot. I pay for this parking spot as part of my rent. If you would like to pay me to rent for this parking spot for an hourly rate, we can work something out. If not, it is 00:00 right now (whatever time it was) and if your car isn't moved within the next hour, the tow truck service that is also included in my rent will come and take your car with them. Thank you!
I lived there from July until the first half of December of 2006 and I probably had 4-5 cars towed. It wasn't my favorite thing to do, but guest parking was even further away and there was no overnight parking in the guest spots, so my car would have been towed if I stayed there!