There has been a change in the neighbourhood and we’re all getting an opportunity to put into practice the Great Commandment to love your neighbour as you love yourself.
The back story. We live on a boulevard, a fancy name for an extra big bay. There is also an elementary school on our boulevard. With the school comes school buses. The corner near us is fairly tight and the bigger school buses have difficulty making the corner and keeping off people’s front yard. This problem is compounded in the winter when there are snow banks everywhere and when people park their cars right around the corner. Now the road is super narrow, and the buses have pretty much no choice except to cut the corner across a neighbours front yard leaving very big and deep ruts.
To deal with this the city has taken action and this sign arrived yesterday.
Seems like a good idea to handle the issue of making it easier for the buses to get around the corner. There are a lot of buses twice a day. But, this new signage has knocked out about 8-10 parking spots. For sure this will not be welcomed by quite a few people and willmake visitor parking much more awkward.
Enter the neighbour who has “issues” with the new parking restrictions. This neighbour had five cars, a long driveway and a two car garage. However, two or more of the cars are using the public road as their personal parking lot. Generally, two cars from this neighbour are parked overnight on the road and not in front of their house but in front of another neighbour’s house. This is not good etiquette at the best of times.
Within hours of the sign showing up there are many neighbours on the street expressing their thoughts on the signs, sometime quite heatedly. The ‘special’ neighbour is quite unhappy, voicing his opinion that I can park anywhere I want and I have lots of money to pay lots of tickets. Basically, “Bring it on!” This should be interesting.
A few more hours later, with several cars now parked in a no stopping zone, a police cruiser shows up. There are several more intense conversations with the police officer and many of the neighbours including the “special” neighbour. We find out on the grape vine later that the police were not there about the parking but because Mister “Special” has allegedly assaulted one of the other neighbours by splashing her with dirty water three time. She is in her 80s, had a stroke and uses a walker.
This morning the city is back and there is an addition to the controversial sign in an effort to clarify things. 🤣
So far tonight there is one car in the “no stopping zone”. I’m guessing that a few folks have called that in.
And then there is this. I didn’t really think this whole issue would affect me but a car has pulled up in front of our house and parked in front of a fire hydrant. The occupants went down the street to Mr. “Special’s” house.
About an hour later I’m in the back yard with a friend BBQing some steaks and we notice a City of Winnipeg Parking Enforcement car stopped at the end of our driveway.
Sure enough the car above got a ticket and another car in the “new” no stopping zone got a ticket.
Just to be clear, we did not call in and complain (rat them out). The timing seems a little funny and either somebody in the hood called it in or the City automatically ups the monitoring in areas where parking are restrictions are changed.
We’re now thinking we can rent our driveway out for parking. What do you think?
Update: 2023/05/16
Sometime overnight, under the cover of darkness, several of the new parking signs were “removed”!
The neighbourhood grape vine confirms that three signs were uprooted and tossed into the school yard around the corner. I noticed a City of Winnipeg Parking Enforcement vehicle drive by this morning so I guess the city is well aware of the situation. Seems like things are heating up. I wonder what’s next?
You write so well that I feel like I was right there!!