Morning Metro: Racetrac Proposal Shot Down, Beer Fest Map, and That Parking Spot in Front of Your House
Decatur Metro | October 17, 2012- Community Council shoots down Racetrac proposal near Little Creek Horse Farm [Patch]
- Decatur Beer Fest map PDF now available [DBF]
- Thomas Wheatley’s “Lessons Learned” and next steps for the Beltline [CL]
- POEM: The Bear by Susan Mitchell [Poetry Foundation]
- That parking spot in front of your house doesn’t belong to you [Atlantic Cities]
Anyone know why Trinity and S. Candler were blocked off yesterday afternoon? I was routed from Trinity to McDonough south of the courthouse and then off of Candler near Agnes Scott.
There was a traffic accident involving a semi-truck and a utility pole near Chick-Fil-A. Could that have been it?
Probably — it was weird though because they were diverting traffic south of College as well, but College itself seemed to be open…
Seeing the headline for “That Parking Spot in Front of Your House” immediately brought to mind the truly charming individual who chains up the bicycles in front of his house on Adair across from the park so that no one can park there. Such a bastion of humanity, that guy. While the article suggests people be allowed to use the space in front of their house in different ways, which is totally an interesting idea, I’m guessing they wouldn’t be too keen on the Adair Street individual’s contribution.
This is a reoccurring topic here. But really is it any different than saving/hogging parking spaces in a Brooklyn neighborhood? Are those folks also “bastions of humanity”? We can agree/disagree about our feelings about these spaces, but I’m not sure we should be characterizing people based on their position/actions on the subject.
And where’s fifi? Maybe your Taqueria parking problem solution is just park some bikes in front of the house! Have a neighborhood meeting and invite him to show you how to nail those things into the ground. Decorate all the bikes. You could turn it into a neighborhood art project.
I’m joking of course…or am I?
I would humbly submit that saving/hogging a parking space in Brooklyn (something I’ve actually done! It didn’t work out well, I ended up with a ticket…) in order to have a place to park one’s car, in a city that has at least 2 million people living there, is a wee bit different than saving/hogging space with two bicycles simply because one doesn’t want anyone else to park there. If that section of the street belonged to the occupant of the house, then I wouldn’t say a word. It’s their property to do with as they please. However, it’s not their property, and so therefore I do.
Your logic is flawed. You defend saving parking spots in Brooklyn, but aren’t those spaces also owned by the public? If it is public land, your motive is irrelevant when it comes to whether you should save the spot.
Aw, I’m not defending the saving of parking spots, DawgFan. (my situation was a one time thing, helping a friend move a piece of artwork into their apt., tried to “save” a spot so we could park and a police officer took note) I’m merely saying that I can relate a bit more to someone needing a place to park their car, in a city with a lot of people (Brooklyn alone has at least 2 million people living there), as opposed to merely disliking someone parking in front of one’s house because, as w poncer mentioned, there might be veggies involved.
Sounds like you have never shoveled your street-parked car out from under 3 feet of snow, only to return home a few hours later and find somebody else occupying your hard-won space. Or arrived home after a heavy snowfall (and after the city plow had come by and created even deeper, more cement-like drifts), parked blocks away, spent the better part of an hour shoveling out a space in front of your home, gone to fetch your car and returned 5 min later to find your lazy-a$$ neighbor’s car parked there. There are different ways to think about curbside real estate, regardless of who technically owns it, depending on local conditions and circumstances.
Plastic lawn chairs. No one dares to move a plastic lawn chair from a shoveled spot.
I’m split on the bike guy. On the one hand, I can see it being frustrating for those who wish to visit the park. However, the bikes do make for a nice place for cars coming from Ponce to duck into to avoid oncoming traffic on that tricky curve.
He’s really not that bad a guy, think he is trying to protect his veggies from car doors and such, but who really knows. It takes all kinds. I also like the car break when trying to get through Adair. Wish people would bring back their alleys and park in back. Between all the parked cars, contractors, dumpsters and the like, it is a bit insane.
Parked cars slow people down though, which is another big issue for folks on Adair, as I recall.
He is a nice guy. And a sidewalk on his side of Adair would create a nice buffer between parked cars and his nice looking vegetable plants.
+1. He is a nice guy.
Nice and selfish.
I don’t really think that’s a very fair assessment. I’ve not been on Adair when the only possible parking left was where the bikes were, so it’s not like he’s stopping badly needed usage. If his immediate neighbors aren’t calling for action, what is the real fuss about? My neighbor parks her car in front of her home which can be annoying to navigate around, despite the fact we have drives, but I don’t call her selfish or secretly fantasize about flattening her tires.
We’ve got a post below egging on confrontation and getting law enforcement involved, all for some raggedy bikes parked in the street. Isn’t this just blown a little out of proportion maybe?
How is it not a fair assessment. Is he putting those bikes there for anyone’s benefit other than his own? If not, that’s the definition of selfish.
I would say it’s not, because his actions don’t come at anyone else’s expense. If parking on Adair were an issue, maybe, but it’s not.
No sidewalk there? Seems like a street that needs one for sure. Kill two birds with one stone.
I don’t know. If he’s doing that to keep car doors from swinging out into his vegetables then the sidewalk would be located directly on top of those vegetables, wouldn’t it? Sounds like the planting is too close to the street. A sidewalk would end that, I suppose.
I doubt he plants his tomatoes close to the street just to be cranky. That is probably the sunniest spot in the yard.
I wasn’t commenting on his reason for planting there. I’m just pointing out that a sidewalk would probably be a bigger problem for something planted in that verge than the car doors.
While parked cars do indeed help slow cars down on Adair, without a duck-in that curve would be downright awful since drivers on either side can’t see those entering the turn from the opposite direction. The result: cars would meet halfway through the curve and one would either have to try to backup or jump the curb/sidewalk to squeeze through.
Street parking on the inside of turns like that is a bad idea, period. I know the homeowners may object, but ideally the city would eliminate street parking there altogether but add a bulb out or two (along with a sidewalk?) to help keep speeds down. Just my 2 cents.
Adair Bike Guy might be a Prince in the rest of his life, and I have no opinion about his overall character.
But parking those bikes permanently in front of his house is obnoxious and entitled. It’s a public ROW, not part of his property. If he thinks that there is a good public justification for making that stretch of road No Parking, he can make his case to the city. But for him to decide on his own that nobody can park there because he doesn’t like people parking in front of his own house? Nuh uh.
If people want to use that stretch of road to park, they should pick up that guy’s bikes and place them in his yard, and then park. And if anybody gives them static about it, they should calmly explain, “I’m sorry, but this is a public street, and these bikes were obstructing the road, so I moved them.” And the city should, after a warning, impound the bikes and give the guy a ticket.
+1 I have thought about knocking the bikes down more than once. (of course I wouldn’t do that but the thought does cross my mind) it is extremely rude for those bikes to be there all of the time.
I agree completely, TOK.
And in my younger years I would’ve probably stolen the bikes to prove my point.
Ah but now I am older and just want to hit them with my car a little each time I pass.
I also agree that if I would need to park there, I would move the “bikes”.
Anyone else tempted to switch their moniker to “Adair Bike Guy” after this thread?
That man is a hero!
speaking of which I need to find some old bikes..
I fantasize about parking my Honda Fit between the bikes every time I drive by.
I once justified blocking the space in front of my apartment in Hoboken, NJ after I shoveled 4 feet of snow from the side of the road.
we had lacrosse practice there a couple of years ago and one of the dad’s parallel parked his smart car between the bikes! hero status: achieved!
If his car was parked in front of his house all the time, would you pick it up and put it in his yard? He doesn’t own that space, of course, but he doesn’t have any less right to occupy it with his possessions than someone else does to occupy it with theirs.
I wish I was articulate enough right now to explain why, but I believe your logic is flawed there. Maybe it is because he has permanently parked his “possessions” there, when other folks simply want to park theirs there temporarily.
I live in Candler Park near the Flying Biscuit and share a driveway in a duplex, so off street parking is not always available to me. On the weekends I frequently am forced to park much farther from my house than I’d prefer. I suspect that if I pulled the bike trick right in front of my place those things would be flattened or removed.
In this instance though, I don’t believe there’s enough need for public parking on Adair to warrant serious objection to the man’s stance. Being slightly irked is understandable, though.
If it was a parked and unlicensed car, it would be considered abandoned and subject to towing. If it’s a licensed car, sure he can leave it there but more likely it would be coming and going like most other cars. Bikes are unlicensed and no different than leaving refrigerators or washing machines in the road. How long would you stand for that?
It might be a licensed vehicle belonging to someone who rarely drives. (People who work from home or are retired may well go for days without using their car.) Would that be acceptable?
I completely don’t see how being unlicensed makes a bicycle like a refrigerator. I also don’t see what it is about this that gets people so worked up. The first time I saw those bicycles there in front of the tomato patch, it made me smile. It seemed obvious to me that the vegetables have to be planted where the sunlight is optimal, and the bikes seemed like such a benign way to create a protective buffer, in addition to the traffic-calming effect.
what about in the winter months with no veggies and still bikes?
I don’t go on that street very often. My recollection (which could be faulty) is that I’ve seen the bikes disappear in the wintertime and reappear in the spring. But I can’t swear to that. I just don’t see why it bothers people so much.
I don’t think they do. If I recall, he doesn’t want people using the park parking in front of his house, period. In fact, he had a run in five or six years ago with a friend of mine on that very issue.
Am I crazy (shut up, J_T) or do I remember something in Decatur ordinances about the parking areas in front of houses actually kinda actually belonging to residents? Where is Steve?
If it has the residential signs up then only the residents of the street can park there(98-9). The only other restriction I see is if a motor vehicle is inoperable and stays for more than a day(98-5). Otherwise he can legally park them forever. Now 98-13 says that “No person shall park a bicycle upon a street other than upon the roadway against the curb or upon the sidewalk in a rack to support the bicycle or against a building or at a curb, in such a manner as to afford the least obstruction to pedestrian traffic.”. Fun fact – It is illegal to take both hands off the handlebars or feet from the pedals. Looks like I am going to have to turn my kid in to the police. The law is the law.
He moves them to his house every evening and puts them out early in the morning. So I guess they are not abandoned. What is he hurting? There is always parking available with 15 feet +/- of this home. I guess some people “must” park directly across from the Park. I have never understood the animosity toward him. He is a sweet but eccentric older man. He gives me veggies from his garden and loves to talk. You might ask him why he puts the bicycles out there and express your disapproval. You might learn something.
So how about we ALL put bikes in the street in front of our homes. Let’s see how long the City allows it then. Or, in other words, “what if everybody did it?” Maybe Fred would like this idea – an opportunity to expand Bike South’s business model?
Perhaps if EVERY house in Decatur had to deal with strangers parking in front of the house and walking on the front yard on a daily basis, the negative attitude towards this man’s bikes would change.
I think that’s probably right.
If you buy a house with a street in front of you, then you accept the fact that people are going to park there. Some of them you may not know. It is not your property. It’s like buying a house next to commercial property and then complaining that they are putting in a store you don’t like. And if you don’t like the fact that someone walks on your property, put up a fence.
Um…then don’t buy a house directly across from a public park
He’s been there a long time. I don’t believe it was a park when he bought it.
Um…then don’t buy your house across the street from a public park
Umm, live on Mead Rd here. Love to see what would happen if I tried to pull the bike thing every day at school pick-up.
So, yes, I do have a situation where people park in front of my house every day and use “my” sidewalk. I would never consider blocking those spaces.
I’ve just now seen the map for the Decatur Beer Fest.
Apparently this same layout was used sometime in the past 4-5 years, which I believe is the only one I didn’t attend in that span.
Does anyone else recall it producing more or less snarl amongst swilling pedestrians?
I’m not sure that Ponce was blocked off any time in the past. When the number of tickets was reduced from 5000 to 4000 a couple of years ago, though, it made a noticeable difference.
Ponce was blocked off at least once before (I think 2007) and it was pretty crowded, but I don’t think they had the area above MARTA to use then.
I think they blocked ponce this year b/c of all of the area fenced off that cant be used by the bandstand this year that has been used in prior years.
RE Adair parking: Is there off-street parking? I drive on Adair all the time and can’t remember. I think there is most areas, but maybe not around the condos? My thought is that the difference between NYC parking and Adair is that the former offers no or little off-street parking for residents. That makes the territorial behavior, if illegal, a little more understandable. Even though I lived in NYC for several years, I only had a vehicle there for 6 months. It was a part-time job keeping your car parked, especially with having to move it daily for street cleaning regulations.
I think throughout most of that Lenox Place neighborhood there’s no off-street parking. Decades ago, there were alleys that residents used to park behind their homes. Most of those have not been kept up for use these days, though I believe a few may remain or have been restored. In any case, notice when you drive through next that there are very few driveways.
Love that Susan Mitchell poem, “The Bear.” And it’s so appropriate for this whole parking discussion. “Whatever moves in the orchard–/ heavy, lumbering–is clear as wind.”
That choosey bear, walking and walking in search of its winter place to “log in,” is simply a metaphor for man’s search for a parking place, or a web host.
Ha! Awesome. Glad you enjoyed the poem.
Am I the only one seeing a lot of ORANGE on this site all of a sudden?
No, but you are late to the party. Ignore the husband and children and focus on priorities!