“They are essentially using the motorcycle to reserve their very own personal neighborhood spot, at the expense of all of their neighbors”

Photo by PoPville flickr user nevermindtheend

“Dear PoPville,

I’m wondering if you might be able to help me right a wrong in my neighborhood that has proven difficult to address. We park on the street in Lanier heights, which is nestled between Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights and mount Pleasant. It can be a pain depending on when you are looking for a spot. (As an illustration: a couple weeks ago my wife had a spot stolen from her by some guy who then verbally berated her for being angry that he had stolen the spot she waited 10 minutes for. It took her 20 mins to find another spot)

There is a large parking spot outside of an apartment building called the Chalfonte. The spot in question is on the south side of Harvard where it intersects with Argonne Place, and is big enough to fit a small car and a smart car, a REALLY big car, or a big-ish car like a Jeep SUV and a motorcycle.

The issue is that I’ve noticed over the last few weeks that it is ALWAYS the same black jeep and the same motorcycle parked there.

Occasionally we’d drive by looking for a spot and see the motorcycle parked in the middle of the spot, the long way, so that there was no space for anyone else to park.

Then the other night I was walking my dog, and I saw them in action: The black jeep pulled up to where the motorcycle was parked to block the entire spot, a man jumped out of the jeep, repositioned the motorcycle the way it should reasonably be parked, and they parked the jeep in the spot behind the motorcycle and walked home.

They are essentially using the motorcycle to reserve their very own personal neighborhood spot, at the expense of all of their neighbors. I spoke to a parking enforcement officer about this today, who essentially said that there is nothing they can do. Even if they saw the motorcycle parked to block the entire spot, there is no ticket for ‘parking like an asshole’. They did say I could call ‘311’ and file a report.”