Neighborly dilemma

Friends, Romans, Curbly readers! Lend me your opinion. In my suburb, it's illegal to park on the street. Yeah, I thought that was pretty odd, too. So, instead of parking in the street, most people with more cars than driveway park in the yard.

Now, cars up on blocks in Tennessee are not exactly the oddest thing ever, but people filling their entire yards with cars looks like crap, in my opinion. I'd personally rather navigate around cars in the streets than see people filling up their yards (and ruining their lawns, especially) with cars.

I wish I could have gotten a better picture of what this really looks like, but I didn't want a bunch of drama from me taking pictures of people's houses, so here's the best pic I got:

Some people just park in the street anyway.

So, what do you guys think? Is it better that people park in their yards, or should they break the law and just park in the street? Do you think it brings property value down? Or should people just own as many cars as they have room for in the driveway? (That's my personal view on it.)

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neighbors yards property value

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March 07, 2007

13 comments | 911 views |

badbadivy's blog (120 posts)

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lgsal

May 11, 2007

Encourage your neighbors to get the stuff out of their garages and make good use of the wasted spaces in the attic. Check out Attic Trac plus at www.attictrac.com. This will help you organize the stuff in your attic without having to crawl around up there.

kidgenius

March 13, 2007

My g/f has this problem in her neighborhood. There are houses that have 4 cars and they are parked in the yard, across driveways, or however they can manage to get their cars on their property. Worse is that everyone has a two car garage. Now, I know there are people out there that want to have a workshop, or need some storage, whatever. You still should be able to park one car in your garage. If you have a garage full of stuff and can't park one car, then you need to seriously clean that stuff out. There's no reason that anyone should have that much stuff. If you really need, cram it in an attic. People these days hang on to way too much stuff.

bhikkhu

March 12, 2007

First off, I want to agree that this is a bit ridiculous, it looks like there is plenty of room on the road for parking to me.

However, I do want to offer a slightly different perspective, if for nothing other than conversation. Parking lots and driveways cause a significant amount of unnecessary greenhouse reflection; more-so that it would seem. I stumbled across this great stuff a few months ago, and it's stuck in my head ever since ( http://www.invisiblestructures.com/GP2/grasspave.htm ) basically,you put it down and the grass grows through it. It's permiable and porous so that rainwater can get to the grass, but it's not a big paved area. You can park and drive on it and it won't damage the grass!

Yes it is very odd to see cars parked on the grass, but maybe someday it would be more aesthetically appealing by cultural acceptance... asssuming you weren't tearing up the yard in the process. Any thoughts? Has anybody seen this stuff in action?

badbadivy

March 09, 2007

We have horrible mass transit here too. Especially in the suburb I live in! We have a bus that comes through 3 times a day! So NOT helpful!

jasimar

March 09, 2007

My little daughter thinks she drives, my husband backseat drives and well, we can all do this in one car. I'd really love to downsize to one car, but we have horrible (and scary) transit out here. Lots of cars in front of a house means party but then they must all go away please.

badbadivy

March 09, 2007

That's what I'm saying, babalu! Who really needs more cars than there are drivers? The house with the 3 cars in the lawn are 2 adults and about 47 small children. None of the small children drive!

balubalu

March 09, 2007

Dudes, you have way to many cars there ;-)

jasimar

March 08, 2007

Very silly. Cars in the yard hurts the lawn. And believe me, lawns are evil fickle!

Keter

March 07, 2007

I'll be willing to bet that it is against the law to park on front yards, too. Sounds like something to call your city council representative or county commissioner about.

badbadivy

March 07, 2007

Bruno, that's what is so surprising about the law to me- this is a working class suburb. Not everyone even has a garage, and most of us who do have garages use them for much-needed storage. Even if I cleaned my garage out to bare essentials, I could only put one car in my "2 car garage" at best. My garage is tiny, and so is most everyone else's.

bruno

March 07, 2007

Ditto. What a silly law. Is everyone supposed to have a two or three car garage?

Cantalyssa

March 07, 2007

I think the law is ridiculos. Are there any ways to petition for a change? It certainly does detract from property values.

KatNap

March 07, 2007

I'm a realtor and have to say that cars parked in yards most definitely would bring a property value down. One, they look hideous. Two, they destroy yards. Three, seeing all the cars parked on mud and bare lawns would send buyers running from an area in droves. But that's just my opinion.