Recently I was approached by a local resident and questioned about parking in front of her house. Does the City require people to park in front of their own house and what happens with rental units full of college students?
She was very nice about our discussion, but I don’t think my response was exactly what she wanted. We do regulate some of the things you can park on city streets, but the fact is
that the City doesn’t regulate parking spots for residential property. Neighbors need to be aware of each other, and hopefully common courtesy and Minnesota nice will take care of things. I know that doesn’t happen all the time, but as a general rule, I think most people are good to their neighbors.
Here is my idea about how it should work. Everyone in a neighborhood should realize that there is a generally understood expectation that you can park in front of your house. This may include overnight parking, day parking, stopping in for your lunch break, or maybe even the occasional visitors or family members returning home. I try to stay away from my neighbors parking spots (no, they are not marked or designated) unless it is absolutely necessary and then only for a short period of time.
There are exceptions to my generally understood expectations. Garage sales come to the
top. Everyone knows that a garage sale in the neighborhood will pretty much disrupt parking for a numbers of hours, but the times for garage sales tend to be somewhat consistent and everyone knows they are temporary. Occasional birthday and other parties also fall into the exceptions. And of course holidays always mean additional parking issues. Again these are all temporary.
I encourage people to talk to their neighbors. College students don’t bite and probably aren’t aware they are causing you problems. This is particularly true if you have health issues and are handicapped. I’ve never had issues talking with my neighbors and certainly not college students.
In the winter, snow removal dictates some changes to parking in residential neighborhoods to include many people parking on their yards. This is acceptable and usually only happens in the winter.
The City tries its best to limit the amount of time people are restricted from parking on streets. A good rule of thumb is to stay off the road until maintenance is done,
but sometimes the plows come back to clean the streets again if it is still snowing during the first cleaning. This year has been surprisingly free from snow and snow removal. I think the plows have only been out once.
I hope we can learn to live with each other and understand that everyone probably needs some parking in front of their house. If you try to stay in front of your house as best as you can, everyone should be happy. Oh, and if you have an aunt and uncle that you visit, stay out of the driveway in front of their garage. Then he doesn’t have to have a chat with you.
