Cars parked in front of the Huletts Casino on a Sunday morning, at 6:30 am. Because of COVID-19, the Casino is not open at this time.
OK – so here is a multiple-choice question. I’ll call it the “Huletts Parking Quiz.”
You have some renters coming to your house in Huletts. After they arrive, you hear from them that they have brought too many cars and that not all the cars can fit on the property. What do you do? Here are some possible answers:
A.) This does not happen to us because we inquire from the renters before they arrive how many cars they will be bringing. We only allow the number of cars that can fit on our property.
B.) We tell the renters to go park their extra cars on someone else’s property. They can slide over onto the neighbor’s property because the neighbors are away and they won’t know about it. What are a few days parking on someone else’s property? The neighbors won’t know and probably don’t care. Perhaps they can even “slide out” into the road a bit.
C.) We tell them there are some areas in Huletts where an extra car or two will not be noticed. Have them park in front of the Casino one night, then have them park by the Post Office another night and then maybe even the Washington County Beach’s parking lot could be used for a few nights.
D.) This was an honest mistake so we send them to the Marina and have them pay the overnight charge that island campers would pay to park or we contact some neighbors and offer to pay them something for the courtesy of allowing the renters to park on their property.
If you chose A or D, you are thinking about parking and trying to be a good neighbor. Congratulations, while you may not realize it, you are contributing to the peace and harmony of the community.
If you chose B or C, you are not thinking about parking the way you should. I will try to explain below.
The problem with answer B is that the neighbors usually always find out someone is parking on their property and they usually do care. By not being upfront about not having enough parking on your own property – guess who looks bad? Sliding extra cars into the road is even worse because they become a hazard to everyone on the road and could prevent adequate access to emergency vehicles.
The problem with answer C is that the owners of the areas with adequate parking have invested in those areas and are paying taxes on those spots. It is disrespectful to them and the people who they have provisioned that parking for, to usurp those areas. Others in the community do notice and guess what? They do talk about the people parking on other’s property.
I had a conversation with a realtor from West Hollywood, CA a few years ago on a plane which I never forgot, and which may be instructive. This realtor told me that in any area where the real estate becomes valuable and people start tearing down and building new houses, or start investing in new construction, parking invariably becomes an issue. Once everyone realizes that it is their responsibility to care about parking on their own property or make provision for it by paying for it somewhere else, property values go through the roof even more. This realtor went on to analogize – that good neighbors, who are respectful, care about doing the right thing, park on their property or make suitable arrangements elsewhere.
On the other-hand, it is poor planning on someone’s part that overflow parking from one house ends up on someone else’s land. These people, while unintentionally or not, are taking advantage of another’s good planning to park their overflow. Thus, parking such as this can be a symptom of a bigger issue with the type of people living in the neighborhood.
So in the future, let us all consider parking as one important element to the smooth functioning and harmony of the community. Property values and a great way of life are all improved when we all do our part.