“Dear PoPville,
I’m genuinely curious what the laws are around leaving your car parked for an extended period of time in an area where there are no clear signs limiting it.
More context:
I live in Columbia Heights/Petworth and was going out of town for 10 days. The streets around my apartment building are zoned (I have a RPP) and there’s street sweeping that alternates between M/T. So when I go out of town for extended periods, I park my car in the neighboring area of Crestwood. There is no street sweeping there and no RPP zoning. It’s also an affluent neighborhood dominated by single family homes (many with driveways and/or garages) and green spaces (right next to Rock Creek), and there are many streets with almost entire sides of the street devoid of parked cars (read: there’s plenty of parking). I go to grab my car today after getting back to town and find this welcoming note on my windshield. I’ll often get side-eyes from folks when I park my car there—my 2005 Honda Civic is no beauty—but I don’t really see the harm in me parking my car there. I only do this a total of 20 or so days a year and always try to move my car near my apartment on 14th St. as soon as I get home.
I did a quick peruse of related posts like this one, but most focused on where this kind of parking exists (Crestwood!) and not necessarily the legality of it. Does anyone know if it’s legal to leave your car in one place for more than a week where there are no signs that state otherwise? I’d love to leave a copy of city code or something on the dash to inform any overly zealous homeowners next time.”