I'm that guy who called parking enforcement on his neighbor

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
11/17/2014 at 17:21 • Filed to: None

So Oppo, after your suggestions in my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , I decided to take action. I called my landlord, and they're sorting things out.

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You can see the details in the link, but basically, in my row of 6 townhouses where we each have a 1-car garage, and 6 outdoor spaces (7 including a handicap space) available on a first-come, first serve basis, this fucker has 3 cars and a box trailer. Plus he has 2 boats on trailers out on the street.

My concern was, he'd be eating up too many of the outdoor parking spaces, so my gf and I might have to park one of our cars on the street, but the city of Madison has alternate-side parking rules, where his damned boats might take up all the street parking on days where we're only allowed to park on that side of the street.

So I called the landlord, who was very helpful. They're going to stick a notice on the trailer that it needs to be moved, and if neighbor doesn't move it, they'll contact my neighbor directly, and tell them that someone in the building (but not who exactly) complained about the trailer. Fine by me.

As for the boats, since they're on the street, the landlord doesn't control who parks on the street. But she pointed me toward !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! where you can report parking issues to the city of Madison.

We remain anonymous, neighbor dude gets ticketed/towed until he moves his shit, all is right with the world.

DISCUSSION (14)

JGrabowMSt > Textured Soy Protein
11/17/2014 at 17:28

Kinja'd!!!

I approve of your actions. I might have called the non-emergency police and described them as having been parked for so long you think they're abandoned.

Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Textured Soy Protein
11/17/2014 at 17:31

Hopefully your landlord does in fact say only "someone in the building" and not a thing more. I've been in that situation where the landlord tells the other tenant I complained about that it was me, and it was an uncomfortable few months before their lease was up and they moved out (which they were planning to do anyway).

Textured Soy Protein > Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
11/17/2014 at 17:34

I'm pretty confident the landlord will keep me anonymous. I made sure to say we wanted to remain anonymous, and she said she would never reveal who made a complaint.

Textured Soy Protein > JGrabowMSt
11/17/2014 at 17:38

The boats have been parked in the same spot since the middle of September. They weren't really an issue until now, because there's more than enough street parking. But now that alternate side parking kicked in on November 15, they're taking up a significant chunk of the available street parking on the nights where street parking has to be on that side of the street.

It's entirely possible he's already gotten a couple of alternate side parking tickets in the couple days since that started, so I'm going to wait a few more days and see if the boats get moved. If not, I'm submitting a complaint with the city through that form.

Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Textured Soy Protein
11/17/2014 at 17:52

Odds are she will, our case was just that the landlord was a complete idiot who though not naming us but giving our apartment number equated to keeping us anonymous.

thebigbossyboss > Textured Soy Protein
11/17/2014 at 17:56

I do not approve.

McMike > Textured Soy Protein
11/17/2014 at 17:57

Just make sure when you run into him again after he moves his stuff that you say something like, "Hey, did you sell your boats or something?" Just so it appears you don't know why they are no longer there anymore.

Textured Soy Protein > McMike
11/17/2014 at 17:58

I don't actually talk to him, it's more like I see him. The only time I've ever talked to him is when he left the lights on his shitty van on and I knocked on his door to let him know.

Textured Soy Protein > thebigbossyboss
11/17/2014 at 18:00

I looked at it this way: while there was a chance that talking to him directly would've solved the problem, there was a bigger chance that it wouldn't, because he's taking up all this space and running a business out of his garage in a rental unit when he shouldn't. So if he didn't respond to being approached directly, then I'd still have to go to the landlord, and he'd know exactly who called the landlord.

Textured Soy Protein > Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
11/17/2014 at 18:01

Wow, that's pretty damn stupid of her.

thebigbossyboss > Textured Soy Protein
11/17/2014 at 18:03

Yeah that's true. It's just that I always view parking enforcement as the nuclear option.

I am kind of wondering if he has that much crap why he doesn't just live in the countryside somewhere. Surely it's going to be a pain in the ass to move the trailers to the other side of the street each day. He should pony up for a real storage spot for the winter I think.

Textured Soy Protein > thebigbossyboss
11/17/2014 at 18:07

I dunno what he's thinking. Everyone here in Madison knows about alternate side parking rules because the city goes out of its way to enforce the rules. Pretty much everyone including myself has a story about getting a parking ticket in front of their own damn house. I can't imagine he thought he'd be able to just leave boats sitting on the street all winter.

Scary__goongala! > Textured Soy Protein
11/17/2014 at 18:09

You should still poop in his sock drawer....

PRBot II > Textured Soy Protein
11/17/2014 at 19:45

It's not fair of your neighbor to put you in a situation like this. You did the right thing.