On transportation and population density
I'm back from Hawaii.
We left for vacation from
lynthia 's apartment. This apartment comes with one parking spot in a carport, and there are zero other spaces available for the complex, only street parking. Most of the local complexes seem to work the same way, since parking lots earn zero dollars, but crappy apartments rent for hundreds per month.
So, that was four cars. With the carport eaten by the dead Neon, that means four vehicles left on street parking. Since 1/3 of San Jose's population lives within three blocks of this location, as evidenced by the constant hell that is Saratoga avenue, there's a lot of cars on the street. If you try to park outside work hours, quite often, you have a hike. It's now spilled over into adjacent side streets that are a bit more upscale, with houses rather than tenements.
Last night was no exception, I had to park out on the side street a block and a half away, in front of the houses, under their trees that drop sticky berries all over the place, year round, nightly. My car's filthy right now due to these trees, but that's an aside. This morning I returned to my car to find a note from a self-appointed Parking Nazi telling me that my car (referred to as a "bucket of bolts" and "junk" at various points) shouldn't be on their street.
Okay. I'm all in favor of self-policing rather than litigation. But I'm torn on this one. On one hand, what the hell am I supposed to do? They're shoehorning people eight to an apartment around the area, and you can't traverse the Bay Area on public transportation (reasonably). On the other hand, were I a homeowner or renter on a given street, if the parking in front of my house was always used up by other nearby residents and wasn't there for my friends, I might be inclined to be upset.
I'm ready to go back to Hawaii now.
We left for vacation from
lynthia 's apartment. This apartment comes with one parking spot in a carport, and there are zero other spaces available for the complex, only street parking. Most of the local complexes seem to work the same way, since parking lots earn zero dollars, but crappy apartments rent for hundreds per month.
So, that was four cars. With the carport eaten by the dead Neon, that means four vehicles left on street parking. Since 1/3 of San Jose's population lives within three blocks of this location, as evidenced by the constant hell that is Saratoga avenue, there's a lot of cars on the street. If you try to park outside work hours, quite often, you have a hike. It's now spilled over into adjacent side streets that are a bit more upscale, with houses rather than tenements.
Last night was no exception, I had to park out on the side street a block and a half away, in front of the houses, under their trees that drop sticky berries all over the place, year round, nightly. My car's filthy right now due to these trees, but that's an aside. This morning I returned to my car to find a note from a self-appointed Parking Nazi telling me that my car (referred to as a "bucket of bolts" and "junk" at various points) shouldn't be on their street.
Okay. I'm all in favor of self-policing rather than litigation. But I'm torn on this one. On one hand, what the hell am I supposed to do? They're shoehorning people eight to an apartment around the area, and you can't traverse the Bay Area on public transportation (reasonably). On the other hand, were I a homeowner or renter on a given street, if the parking in front of my house was always used up by other nearby residents and wasn't there for my friends, I might be inclined to be upset.
I'm ready to go back to Hawaii now.