What would you do?

luvflyin

luvflyin

Touchdown! Greaser!
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May 8, 2015
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Santa Barbara, CA
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Luvflyin
Street parking in front of your house is not always available where I live. Typically you may have to go about 1/2 a block away and a block isn’t all that unusual. Guy across the street has decided he’s special and has started putting one of those orange traffic control things on the street in front of his place when he’s gone.
 
Innocently assume it's not his cone. Make an innocent call to the city or to the cops asking why they've placed a cone at that location and when they'll remove it.
 
Walboy said:

What would you do?​


mind my own business
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If it's preventing @luvflyin from parking near his home, it is his business. Of course, it's rather simple to remove a cone and park there anyway, assuming it wasn't placed there by someone with authority. Or just run over the cone.
 
Several years ago, the hotel I regularly used in Dallas was popular with construction contracting companies. The construction workers began using orange cones to block parking spaces when they were away, and I'd have to drive all over the place trying to find a place to park. Invariably I'd have to park far away from my suite.

So, one morning after getting to the office, I called the manager and asked when he expected to complete all the parking lot construction. "What do you mean? We're not doing any construction." "Well, I see orange traffic cones everywhere, and it's making it difficult to park. I assumed you were repaving or painting lines or something." "No, we're not. I'll look into it."

When I got back to the hotel after work that evening, none of the spaces were blocked and there was a large stack of cones next to a maintenance building. I never saw another cone in the lot.
 
Not sure, as I cannot even see my neighbors through the woods. There is a nice house for sale down the road from me though.

Young me would probably park on top of his cone with my 4x4 diesel, or possibly wing it onto his roof.
 
luvflyin said:
Street parking in front of your house is not always available where I live. Typically you may have to go about 1/2 a block away and a block isn’t all that unusual. Guy across the street has decided he’s special and has started putting one of those orange traffic control things on the street in front of his place when he’s gone.
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If you don't care much for your neighbor I'd just pick up the cone and fling it into his front yard.
If they're an OK guy minus the cone, I'd probably just leave a note saying: "sorry buddy, but you cant use a cone to reserve a parking space"

Only exceptions are if he's handicapped or shoveled a foot of snow to clear out the spot, in which case calling dibs is totally fine in my book.
 
If I lived where your location says you lived, I'd go here and make a phone call...

Street Parking

Downtown Parking manages all on-street parking in the City and is responsible for parking signs, colored curb restrictions, resident parking permits, and oversize vehicle permits. Downtown Parking works closely with Police Parking Enforcement to maintain state and municipal parking laws. To...
santabarbaraca.gov santabarbaraca.gov
 
I would ask him or her to please stop because it requires me to park even further when there is one less space for others to use. Escalate from there if needed.
 
I wouldn't do anything.... but I'd certainly be amazed that orange cones can walk away.... far far away
 
I was working as a staff engineer for a utility while I was going through the grad program at the university. When I had a class during the day, I would take the company car, complete with logo and lightbar, park it on the side of the street close to the classroom, set the cones out, do my class and drive away. I got away with that for about a year and a half until the parking police figured out what was going on.
 
In the old days sugar might find its way into his gas tank. Since he believes he’s entitled a confrontation is surely on the horizon
 
luvflyin said:
Street parking in front of your house is not always available where I live. Typically you may have to go about 1/2 a block away and a block isn’t all that unusual. Guy across the street has decided he’s special and has started putting one of those orange traffic control things on the street in front of his place when he’s gone.
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Had a similar experience when living ion Belmont Shore in KLGB. People would ignore the cone, toss it on the sidewalk and park in the spot anyway.

But, and there is always a but, make sure you neighbor does not have a handicap plate...
 
Move it, park in the spot, place the cone next to some utility pole, or mail box, or other public structural element.
 
Don’t take it or move it that could be construed as theft, and I’d be afraid somebody that was petty enough to do it to begin with may be petty enough to vandalize a car found parked in “their” spot. (Younger me would have been very tempted to use glue, lots of very strong glue, to make sure nobody else moved it either..)
 
MauleSkinner said:
He’s probably got it strategically placed so his doorbell cam can see it, so make sure you dress up as him.
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then we can start having some real fun...

imagine applying anti-porch pirate technology to the cone... so that when he moves it...

or otherwise making it, um, unpleasant to move the cone so that he can grab "his" spot.

but I recognize the pitfalls of getting into this... as much as I love practical jokes (and I REALLY love practical jokes), I avoid playing them because of the unavoidable temptation to play one-upmanship
 
Reminds me of a story when I was an instructor at Mather AFB and my squadron moved into a new building. We painted reserved parking spots for all the permanent party in the adjacent parking lot. All the parking spots but one or two in the far corner were "reserved." Worked out great until the Wing Commander visited the squadron and parked in one of the instructor's "reserved" spots. That instructor came into the building and in a loud voice asked who the &$%#### parked in his spot? All our reserved spots were gone by the end of the day.
 
When I was going to school I rented a place that only had street parking, because it was within walking distance of the college. More miserable in snow country because you typically have to move your car from side to side, sometimes every night when it snows. So after I got a job that let me afford it, I moved to an apartment that had off street parking. Decent parking is at the top of my must have list for any place to live.

So I don't think the problem is the neighbor. Life's too short to look for parking spaces on the way home.
 
As I told my kids many times, the Golden rule guides our own behavior, not others'. You can't control what other people do. So if you don't think putting out a cone is the right thing to do, don't do it.

And it seems like the neighbor putting out his cone isn't actually harming you since you have to look far away for a space anyway. So he's either found a brilliant hack, or he's an a******. Either way, life's too short to make it your problem.
 
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I'm glad I live where we can not only accommodate our 5 cars (don't ask) but probably a hundred more if we really wanted to. :cool: :rolleyes:
 
In east Boston, when it snowed, they might put a chair box, or other thing to mark the spot they shoveled on the street. And if you parked in their spot, either your car would disappear or be badly damaged. Most of the residents there had names that ended in vowels. And it sure smelled good if you took a walk on a Sunday afternoon. The pasta and fresh bread cooking,. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.
 
Mikey52 said:
In east Boston, when it snowed, they might put a chair box, or other thing to mark the spot they shoveled on the street. And if you parked in their spot, either your car would disappear or be badly damaged. Most of the residents there had names that ended in vowels. And it sure smelled good if you took a walk on a Sunday afternoon. The pasta and fresh bread cooking,. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.
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unfortunately, people went overboard with it... thinking they could reserve "their" spot in perpetuity
 
In my old neighborhood the cone would simply "disappear" one night. No words or confrontation - just gone.
 
luvflyin said:
Street parking in front of your house is not always available where I live. Typically you may have to go about 1/2 a block away and a block isn’t all that unusual. Guy across the street has decided he’s special and has started putting one of those orange traffic control things on the street in front of his place when he’s gone.
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I'd move and would mind my own business.
 
Have you considered setting out additional cones to 'cone-off' his cone? In a different color, if possible. Glue 'em to the ground?
 
when I got to the parking garage at work today the place was pretty full but there was an empty spot with a giant red cone in front of it lol. I was very tempted to just take the spot.
 
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