i've lived on the same street in town for 50 years. as i'm sure most of you have experienced in your neighborhoods, i've watched as many modest houses on my block were scraped away and replaced by larger homes w/3- or 4-car garages. and yet more and more cars are being parked on the street. . . all day long. some days my block looks like a berwyn street scene, with cars parked on both sides of the street.

as i drive though town this seems to be a trend, and i can't figure out why so many people are doing this. any theories out there? it's getting to be a real pain just driving through town.

Poor managment of the space or-

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Conspicuous consumption is a term used to describe the lavish spending on goods and services that are acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status.

Invidious consumption, a necessary corollary, is the term applied to consumption of goods and services for the deliberate purpose of inspiring envy in others.

My mom once wrote a poem and my favorite line from it still resonates with me:
"No one told me that more space,
Would cause my junk to breed."

I'll admit that our garage is filled with...crap (though we do not own a McMansion). Our home has little storage space due to the time it was built (early 1900's) and we are a camping/outdoors family (when we can find the time) so gear comes with that hobby. Plus, our house has been in varying stages of "re-development" for some time so the garage gets used as a holding area for the room that is being re-developed. Anyway, that's our excuse. But we don't park on the street, just in the driveway.

Our house is so close to FG that we can hear the bells during the day. Anyway what puzzles us is that the parking lot is not utilized after school hours or on weekends or during the breaks as overflow for our neighbors. When we meet new people and tell them where we live they automatically say, "Oh you are right next to the house with all the cars in the driveway." I have to say, "Yes that is us."
Why don't those neighborhoods use the parking lots that are in the neighborhood, such as churches and schools after hours?
I would also like an ordinance that states no more than 3 vehicles assigned to one address.
The neighbor I am referring to has 3 adults that live in the house with 5 cars and no garage. Very frustrating!
Thanks for letting me vent!
I am just as frustrated as you t.a.suprette and try to avoid certain streets during the day.

i should have mentioned: there 18 kids under the age of 10 on our block. these kids are all darting around the neighborhood like. . . well, like kids should be able to do in a small town. it's a blast to sit on the front porch and watch 'em (alas, mine our grown). yet at least 3-4 times a day one of 'em goes running across the street from between these cars without looking and very nearly has an encounter w/ a moving vehicle. as typical, many of the drivers coming down our street are not very attentive, what with those all text important messages that need immediate responses.

bottom line, i'm really concerned there will be an accident. i've mentioned my concern to the kids' parents, who, inexplicably, ARE THE ONES PARKING ON THE STREET. . . . i never get a straight answer. the typical response is too shrug, blush and say something like "like yeah, i know. thanks for looking out for the kids."

quote:

Originally posted by Yossarian:
Poor managment of the space or-

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Conspicuous consumption is a term used to describe the lavish spending on goods and services that are acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status.

Invidious consumption, a necessary corollary, is the term applied to consumption of goods and services for the deliberate purpose of inspiring envy in others.

i guess it could be this, yossarian (love your heller referenece). but more likely, it's a different, new suburban trend going on. i think it's because the houses are too large and the homeower has less space for the kids to play, so they compensate by parking in the street. i also beive that the home/car owners don't want the kids to scratch the cars as they squeeze their ways up and down the driveway.

i don't think it's vanity thing.

Yeah, I'm extremely frustrated with the landscapers that constantly park all over the Village non-parking streets, especially around the high school, during school season! Do they have permits to do that? Combined with garbage trucks on Mondays, I can usually tack on an extra 10 minute commute to work. The garbage trucks are just doing their jobs. This will go on until about November! An occasional moving van-ok, it's sporadic and believe it not some of them are quick! Brick layers-well... But these mowers -

It is also the in-home childcare providers and cleaning people that park on the streets in our neighborhood. Usually, they like to park directly across the street from each other - or nearly so. We can then practice our maueuvering skills as we drive down the street. Don't even get me started on the people who routinely block the sidewalks because they are unable to get cars on their driveways - never mind in their garages. Clueless or selfish - maybe both.

one idea: most streets have a 5 hour parking limit. Call the police and advise them. They will come and tag a car and ticket it if parked over 5 hours. Homeowners near the train need to do this when communters park on the public streets for 10 to 12 hours at a time. It does create a hazard when the streets are not bulit for continued on street parking.

quote:

Originally posted by Buggy24:
one idea: most streets have a 5 hour parking limit. Call the police and advise them. They will come and tag a car and ticket it if parked over 5 hours. Homeowners near the train need to do this when communters park on the public streets for 10 to 12 hours at a time. It does create a hazard when the streets are not bulit for continued on street parking.

having the cops enforce this law would help tremendously (plus help pay for cool stuff like civic center fountains), but doesn't work for a couple of reasons:

1) they're apathetic about it. our block is near GW, but on the wrong side of the tracks. once school starts the HSers start parking here, along with the neighbors who are doing it year-round. i've talked to the GEPD -- and the parking officer in particular -- many times about this problem. i always get the same "we're too busy working town and around the HS/lake" story. again, we're on the wrong side of the tracks. i've even beefed to higher in command types. . . same story. they'll occasionally come down and ticket, then take heat from my neighbors who are parking in the street. in truth, the GEPD doesn't REALLY want to enforce the 5-hour law when it comes to residents parking on their own block. at least not in my neighborhood.

2) who want's to call the cops on their neighbors? that'll only create bad blood.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing this up! For at least a year I have wanted to start a thread about this! We've lived here 18 years and back then there was never a problem getting from point A to point B in town. On some streets (Spring Ave. is my personal pet peeve) it's like being on an obstacle course. Between the landscape trucks, vehicles from a home under construction and the clueless residents who all park across from each other, it's a miracle that there isn't a head-on every other day!

But, this is going on all over town...I thought maybe any maintenance-lawn trucks should be required to park in the driveway of the house they're working on.

I grew up in the area of Lorraine & Hill Avenue and there was never any on street parking allowed. Now you can't get through the obstacle course due to all the cars that regularly park on Lorraine. When did this change???? Most of the streets around town are so narrow that if one car is parked on a side street, it would be impossible for a firetruck to get through.

quote:

Originally posted by agnes:
Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing this up! For at least a year I have wanted to start a thread about this! We've lived here 18 years and back then there was never a problem getting from point A to point B in town. On some streets (Spring Ave. is my personal pet peeve) it's like being on an obstacle course. Between the landscape trucks, vehicles from a home under construction and the clueless residents who all park across from each other, it's a miracle that there isn't a head-on every other day!

But, this is going on all over town...I thought maybe any maintenance-lawn trucks should be required to park in the driveway of the house they're working on.

the worst is trying to teach your kids to drive with all the on-street parking. spring avenue and lorraine road are doozies. bryant and duane are headaches. but most frustrating, take a look at the driveways of the houses the cars are parked in front of. . . completely vacant. these knotheads are simply parking in the street rather that their own driveways. at least they are on my street. the village could easlily pay for another service officer by simply ticketing vehicles parking over five hours on each street. it'll never happen though.

quote:

Originally posted by t.a. superette:

quote:

Originally posted by agnes:
Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing this up! For at least a year I have wanted to start a thread about this! We've lived here 18 years and back then there was never a problem getting from point A to point B in town. On some streets (Spring Ave. is my personal pet peeve) it's like being on an obstacle course. Between the landscape trucks, vehicles from a home under construction and the clueless residents who all park across from each other, it's a miracle that there isn't a head-on every other day!

But, this is going on all over town...I thought maybe any maintenance-lawn trucks should be required to park in the driveway of the house they're working on.

the worst is trying to teach your kids to drive with all the on-street parking. spring avenue and lorraine road are doozies. bryant and duane are headaches. but most frustrating, take a look at the driveways of the houses the cars are parked in front of. . . completely vacant. these knotheads are simply parking in the street rather that their own driveways. at least they are on my street. the village could easlily pay for another service officer by simply ticketing vehicles parking over five hours on each street. it'll never happen though.

I know for a fact that many residents on streets like Bryant park in the street to slow you *******s down...deal with it.

I've seen you drive, Fish. You may very well be part of the problem on that speedway. I never would have thought a minivan could go that fast or handle that well. Gotta hand it to the Japanese...they build better stuff than we do.

quote:

I know for a fact that many residents on streets like Bryant park in the street to slow you *******s down...deal with it.

Time to switch to Decaf.

quote:

Originally posted by Fish:

I know for a fact that many residents on streets like Bryant park in the street to slow you *******s down...deal with it.

Would it be an insult to Glen Ellyn residents if I put that little yellow man on the parkway that has a little flag -"SLOW DOWN"?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: lupechennel,

31G16rv4DAL__SS384_.jpg (10 Kb, 41 downloads) little man

quote:

Originally posted by lupechennel:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Fish:

Would it be an insult to Glen Ellyn residents if I put that little yellow man on the parkway that has a little flag -"SLOW DOWN"?

lupechennl: we have a guy on my block who uses those. . . he also parks two freakin' vehicles on the street all day. . . go figure.

quote:

Originally posted by Fish:


I know for a fact that many residents on streets like Bryant park in the street to slow you *******s down...deal with it.

busted. . . it's the lure of the downhill acceleration. i can't help myself.