Writes our anonymous submitter in San Francisco: “I spotted this on the sidewalk on my way to work. (It wasn’t obviously attached to anything, just laying there.) I realize parking in SF is a real nightmare, with driveways every .03 inches, but come on!
related: how berkeley
371 responses so far ↓
#1
Melissa
And they say manners are dead. This does my little heart good.
May 7, 2009 at 12:18 pm rating: +13
#2
Daisychain 1978
Ah bless, the diligence for “hard working neighbour” attempting to correct their spelling mistake is to be admired. Very hardworking, I understand. Too bad for the fail factor, they still got it wrong.
What I want to know is did “hard working neighbour” actually measure the 2 inches? Just where would you start measuring from, I wouldn’t have a clue.
May 7, 2009 at 12:20 pm rating: +2
#3
Mishee™
Why waste the time and energy to call and have them fined?
Just take a nine iron to the headlights.
That’s my policy.
May 7, 2009 at 12:25 pm rating: +25
#4
jinx
The shorter version of this note is: “I broke the law and that makes you an asshole”
May 7, 2009 at 12:27 pm rating: +63
#5
anglophile
To my hard working neighbor,
I would like to formally apologize for not moving my driveway over two inches in front your bumper. What an inconveinence it would have been for you to park in a spot where your car actually fit.
Sincerely,
Whom it did not concern one bit.
May 7, 2009 at 12:28 pm rating: +42
#6
QuarterRoy00
2 inches or a yard, rock hard or if it’s saggin’…he ain’t to proud to PAN.
May 7, 2009 at 12:30 pm rating: +5
#7
Bunnee
I sense a “neighborly” feud a-comin’! The kind that involves hidden cameras, late night phone calls and the police.
May 7, 2009 at 12:31 pm rating: +9
#8
Mishee™
Of course, if you haven’t been to San Francisco, then you just don’t realize how important those 2 inches are and what they mean to the difference between being able to get up and go to work and not being able to get out of your driveway which in turn causes you to lose your job…
I can kinda see where note recipient was coming from…
May 7, 2009 at 12:34 pm rating: +20
#9
CS harmonikah
I appreciate the struggle in trying to spell inconvenience. It’s one of the words that i tend to massacre the spelling of, no matter how often i use it.
May 7, 2009 at 12:40 pm rating: +5
#10
Cat Skyfire
If it’s anything like my city, there’s supposed to be a 3 foot clearance by the driveway, so that two inches means they were way overboard.
May 7, 2009 at 12:46 pm rating: +2
#11
cam
So apparently the extra 2 inches goes a long way in San Fran
May 7, 2009 at 12:47 pm rating: +2
#12
Dina
As someone living in LA whose driveway is also regularly “nano”-blocked (about 3 or 4 inches), I can attest that those few inches can actually make the difference in whether you can see oncoming traffic, and safely enter the road without sticking too far past the line of parked cars.
Team Open Driveway, 100%!
May 7, 2009 at 12:48 pm rating: +6
#13
Bunnee
Wouldn’t it be a kick in the head if the note recipient didn’t actually drive?
May 7, 2009 at 12:54 pm rating: +3
#14
claw71
Maybe if you’d worked a little harder on your parking skills in the first place, this whole melee wouldn’t have been necessary..
May 7, 2009 at 1:12 pm rating: +5
#15
Frankie
My neighbor’s name was Mr. Rogers. He was hard working too. I never got mad at him for parking in my drive way. Not even for just two inches. Sometimes he’d only pull in a little just to tease me a bit, and then he’d slam it into drive and pull all the way in just to laugh in my face as he backed out again.
I’m sorry, what were we talking about?
May 7, 2009 at 1:21 pm rating: +20
#16
kate
You’ve never lived in LA, have you? Speak to the neighbors?
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
May 7, 2009 at 1:23 pm rating: +12
#17
CS harmonikah
This is one of the situations where a passive aggressive note would have saved the day.
If the driver had received a note on his windshield about being inconsiderate and in the way, he may get pissed off, but he’d $85 richer.
May 7, 2009 at 1:44 pm rating: +3
#18
CS harmonikah
Why did the author have to scribble out the amount of the fine and edit it? Did the fine increase while he was writing the note?
May 7, 2009 at 1:47 pm rating: +2
#19
lady
can the submitter say where in san francisco the note was found? i live here too, and that handwriting is a dead wringer for a close friend who recently passed away. this is exactly the type of note she’d have left… i’m curious to see if it was found in her neighbourhood or not.
May 7, 2009 at 1:56 pm rating: 0
#20
Neeners
This person needs to visit:
youparklikeanasshole.com
May 7, 2009 at 2:02 pm rating: +2
#21
Eff 'Em
I have lived in SF (I live in Oakland now) and I don’t play assholes that think they can just leave their cars sitting part way into your driveway. I even deal with that on a street that has more parking then you would normally find in SF (the street is still generally packed with cars).
My next door neighbors used to allow their friends to completely block off my drive way and after they moved and I was able to get in or out, they would think they could just move back. After too long of going back and forth with them, their landlord and us and our landlords (verbally..no notes), i just started calling the cops. Fuck it…let OPD deal with it and tow them.
God forbid I had an emergency and needed to leave asap, but i need to locate you and your guest and *ask* for you to move your janky ride…ugh.
I don’t feel bad for this hardworking person
May 7, 2009 at 2:27 pm rating: +14
#22
noah
Whether the original complaint was reasonable depends a great deal on the width of the driveway and how busy the street is. If they blocked a portion of a really wide driveway, the original complainer is a whiner. If the street is not very busy, a small blockage also isn’t a big deal, because you can just back straight out across the street. But, on a busy street, that’s dangerous. Need more information.
Team ambivalent!
May 7, 2009 at 2:33 pm rating: +3
#23
claw71
I couldn’t help but pen some lyrics to the tune of Working Class Hero:
As soon as you park, they’re making the call
you blocked part of the drive, but not nearly all.
Then a ticket is left and you have to pay all
A hard working neighbor’s something to be
A hard working neighbor’s something to be
They hide in their home, like chickenshit fools
they call the damn cops to enforce the damn rule
then you can’t get a discount if you go to traffic school
a hard working neighbor is something to be
a hard working neighbor is something to be
They’ve looked down their noses for twenty odd years
sitting at home while you work your career
you don’t even mind that they’re a couple of queers
A hard working neighbor is something to be
A hard working neighbot is something to be
They don’t even drive, they take the bus… do you see?
They once owned a Vespa but said it wasn’t quite green
but obstruct their drive and they’ll throw a tizzy
A hard working neighbor is something to be
A hard working neghbor is something to be
They won’t be rude, they wave at you still
but you know that they mock you when you pay the bill
it makes you so mad that you just want to kill
A hard working neighbor is something to be
A hard working neighbor is something to be
if you want to leave a note, well just look at me
if you want to leave a note well just look at me
May 7, 2009 at 3:08 pm rating: +7
#24
aaa
Well, it’s obvious you were working so hard to leave your car hanging two inches (Really? I’m guessing it’s really more like a foot and a half.) over the driveway of your hated neighbors. I just feel so horrifyingly sad that you and your hard work were punished with an $85 fine. *cries*
May 7, 2009 at 3:28 pm rating: +2
#25
Joy
That note seems a little harsh on the driveway owners, since parking enforcement in SF is pretty aggressive — the owners might have called the cops, but it’s more likely the cops spotted a minor infraction and seized the opportunity to enrich the city’s coffers for an infraction no one cares about.
May 7, 2009 at 3:34 pm rating: +4
#26
Tastelessandless
How much do you think we can get for Claw’s donkey?
[Arrgghh! Gigglebrax fail! Wanted to respond to Mishee's 25.2....I'll have u know I hit the wrong reply link!]
*bangs head on keyboard, then deletes resulting gibberish*
May 7, 2009 at 4:01 pm rating: +4
#27
oi!
Parking blues in east bay
It’s such a sore point for me, I can’t even think of funny comments
May 7, 2009 at 4:04 pm rating: +1
#28
DearJane
I say the parker next time doesn’t park 2 inches into the driveway, but fully IN the driveway next time. Just to be a real jerk.
At least in SF they have curbs. Here in VT we just have jackasses pulling too far up on the edge of lawns. Taking my sod with them! It’s my sod!
May 7, 2009 at 4:07 pm rating: +2
#29
Ti to the O
Twitchy bold maybes?
May 7, 2009 at 4:51 pm rating: +1
#30
Ti to the O
Hard to Hold Springfield?
* I regret I only have but one + for your airedales.
May 7, 2009 at 5:32 pm rating: +1
#31
m
this note assumes a lot.
who is to say that the neighbor called the police and had them ticketed? a cop car probably just drove along and ticketed them..how is that the driveway owner’s fault?
May 7, 2009 at 9:35 pm rating: +3
#32
Canthz_B
Dear Hard Working Neighbor,
We’re sorry about the parking ticket.
That was $85.00 we’d hoped you would use to pay for an etiquette seminar.
The Concerned
May 8, 2009 at 12:06 am rating: +3
#33
Nancy
LOL i’m always writing notes like this (this site in general) and then i usually decide not to leave them cause i’m afraid ill look like a lunatic. Apparently I’m not the only one who does it though
Some of us realize that “Neighbour” is the proper spelling of that word in certain countries, including a country where the english language existed before the United States of America. We feel no need to harass other people on their proper, although different, spelling of words.
May 8, 2009 at 2:57 am rating: +1
#34
park rose
(((Mishee))) – ferocious hugs - I just might be a little drunk, and so, cannot focus on being lucid. But, I might just post with gay abandon (hurrah!)[not that there's anything wrong with that].]
*Pines for mama*.
May 8, 2009 at 9:11 am rating: +1
#35
park rose
Doesn’t anyone find it ironic, not that this thread has anything to do with all that shit, that the world’s opinion is directed by a measly mouthed Australian?
Oh, Rupert Murdoch, you too, you foxxxxxy devil you, long may you reign. Watch out for him, folks. He is the devil incarnate.
May 8, 2009 at 9:41 am rating: +3
#36
ravenlynne
This note is AWESOME.
May 8, 2009 at 10:25 am rating: 0
#37
GhostWriter
I used to have the same trouble, as my triple-wide drive sits across from a Starbucks. People would see a closed iron gate, and assume that the parking space was safe.
I got tired of calling the cops; the parkers would usually leave prior to their arrival. I use the back alley drive to exit my property, so I wasn’t inconvenienced, just irritated, by the scofflaws.
Instead, I started writing my own tickets, and instructing the parkers to send their $85 to “Municipal Parking Enforcement”, c/o my P.O. box. Did you know that “advising” or “instructing” people to send you “Unauthorized Parking Compensation” is completely legal? On any given Monday, I haul in around $500 in checks and money orders. Repeat offenders are the best; my fees escalate.
Do I mind if their bumper extends two inches onto my drive? Not at all.
May 8, 2009 at 11:59 am rating: +10
#38
nick
9834
May 8, 2009 at 3:01 pm rating: +1
#39
claw71
Now I know what J. Jonah was always yelling about parker.
May 8, 2009 at 3:06 pm rating: +2
#40
KatieMB
Nothing to see here, move along….
May 8, 2009 at 7:47 pm rating: +2
#41
Grimfool_Reluctant
Why is my gigglebrax function not working? Everytime I click on “reply to this comment” I get sent back to the top of the page? Is there a limit on nonerudite witlessness?
May 9, 2009 at 3:30 am rating: +2
#42
Julie
That word (absolve). I do not think it means what you think it means.
May 10, 2009 at 12:46 am rating: +2
#43
daniel
a friend in san francisco has had his guest’s cars towed IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT by his neighbors for being an inch into the driveway. he warns them to wake up at 6 to move their cars just in case, and often they have disappeared.
May 11, 2009 at 4:32 am rating: 0
#44
Rachel
No sympathy. If you park in someones drive way, you deserve to be towed. No matter how far into it you are. There is an area around the drive way that you arent allowed to park on. Anyone who has lived or been to SF knows how tight these little driveways are. They’re maybe 5′ across and steep. I am glad that person got a parking ticket. You break the law, you get caught, its on you…
May 12, 2009 at 2:57 pm rating: 0
#45
leigh
Better a fine than to be towed. That’s what happened to me for my bumper reaching the curved part of the curb before it officially becomes driveway.
My friend has had his truck towed twice by the same neighbors when he was parked perfectly fine.
The worst are the neighbors who mess with your motorcycle because they don’t like them parked there. Grrr.
May 16, 2009 at 3:07 pm rating: 0
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