Jesse Kessenheimer here.
Having lived at the beach for most of my formative years, I know a thing or two about parking disputes. Obviously, I didn’t pitch a tent on the sand every night, but when you live within a half mile from the shoreline, there’s bound to be some competition at the end of your work day for the most choice spots. With very little turnover and even fewer spots, parking was extremely competitive.
My first apartment was an expensive, sand-filled shoebox with no laundry and no extra benefits like a designated parking spot. Despite that, my neighbor would use cones to reserve a street spot during the day, hoping it would still be there for her when she got home from a shift. The problem with that was that she would leave her stupid cones on the street for 8+ hours, gatekeeping a perfectly good parking spot that someone else could have used throughout the day to go to the beach.
Selfishly, I’d glare at the cones after circling the block for 20 minutes, wondering what the consequences might be if I swooped in and took the spot for myself. I never had the gall to stoop to a thieving level like this, but even if I had, it was a 100% public spot. She had no claim to it! Unlike the person in this next story, who paid extra every month to have a reserved spot for them in their apartment complex… Now, if someone comes and steals a private spot, that’s a totally different story.
Author: Kayitsi.com
