Bob CollinsIs this a growing trend in Minneapolis? People posting public parking areas in front of their homes as private parking only?
Ed Kohler’s post on The Deets and on Twitter sparked a flurry of reports about how other people in Minneapolis are laying claim to what is not actually theirs.
But upon further review, Kohler says, there’s a story behind this particular example. It’s the home of an elderly woman who’s been getting help from her family, he says.
I was scolded for not researching why someone chose to hammer nails into a boulevard tree to claim a public parking place. Knowing what I know now, I did some research to figure out what the age threshold is for nailing signs to boulevard trees in Minneapolis. There doesn’t appear to be one.
Assuming this is an accessibility issue (perhaps elderly people come and go at the same hours of the day when the Blue Door Pub is busy enough to have cars parked nearly a block away?), the city has ways of addressing this kind of situation that don’t involve nailing “Private Parking” signs into trees. Two different types of restricted parking can be requested depending on needs. I’m all for people aging in place. In fact, I do it every day.
But the need to stake out parking turf shows the exasperation some neighborhoods are experiencing, trying to get a parking spot near their own homes.
Mo Parking: Minneapolis commuters receive bogus parking tickets (KARE).
