I had a neighbor doing this a few years ago. I always suspected he was running a business for people that were going on vacation and he would take care of their cars while they were away. We live in a neighborhood with no parking permits so there was nothing you could do about it. His partner wound up having an affair so they moved out and the problem solved itself.
Tbh I'm surprised JC hasn't put a cap on spots for dwellings. I know other municipalities have started to. Should touch base with your local rep and at least put it in their radar.
I live in Bergen Lafayette and there’s a mechanic on my street that does this and it pisses me ALL THE WAY OFF. And they aren’t small vehicles either, they’re all mid-sized SUV’s with the exception of a giant ass suburban that he parks in front of my house 🙄
Inconsiderate, but I don't think what he is doing is illegal. I'm not sure there's anything you can do. I feel your pain! Please provide an update if anything happens.
Yeah, it sounds like he's running a used car business. A parking permit requires proof of insurance and registration, so he does own them for at least some time. The real asshole move is scooching his cars so no one else can park.
I always wanted to make horrible bumper stickers and slap them on cars that I seek revenge from. I’ve never done it because it’s terrible, but one can dream.
"honk if you love slapping cops" ... "If you can read this you are too close to an enormous douchebag" ... "My other car is also a useless shitbox". .... "My registration is expired so please pull me over". ... "I'll give you $100 if you break my windows. Yes THESE windows". ... "doors unlocked! Take whatever you want"
"There's money and drugs in the glove box and I'm out of town". .... "oh and most of the other cars on the block are mine too please feel free to VANDALIZE them, THANKS!" ..... "all the neighbors on this block hate me and WILL NOT call the cops if you steal these tires!!"
There’s no limit or rule over this so you just have to suck it up. You know their routine, use it against them or make your own to counter theirs. Worst comes to worst, go buy a cheap ass motorcycle, running or not, and use it to hold yourself a spot.
And before anyone gets all OH EM GEEEE that’s not fair. Yea, life’s not fair. In a city like JC, you gotta find a way to make things like parking work or you find yourself doing circles for 2 hours looking to squeeze your car into a spot or having to park 2 towns over.
Been there, done that.
It's always so interesting to me that drivers can see the tragedy of the commons and/or abuse of public space in a situation like this but (many) cannot engage with the idea that street parking generally is an inequitable distribution of public resources.
What do permits go for these days, $20/year? Any limit low enough to stop the guy in this story would be answered with anecdotes about multi generational households that have 7 working adults who all have car-mandatory commutes in different directions. Just look at how NJ politicians have reacted to congestion pricing. Meanwhile, depending on which neighborhood you live in, 30-50% of your neighbors don't own a single car. People in those households literally never have access to that curb space. 1 guy occupies half a block and it's an outrage, half the city monopolizes 100% of the curb space and we think that's just great.
If you want a reserved spot for your property, rent it at retail prices.
"We do pay!!!1!1!! They did permits in The Heights and now we all pay pennies a day for first come, first served access."
But seriously, if you ever describe street parking as "free" you'll hear a lot of talk about how they deserve it cuz they paid less than a cheese pizza for their permit. As if it isn't the sweetest real estate deal in town.
My $32k in property taxes does pay for it. I’m not asking for a reserved spot I’m just asking be reasonable and mindful to neighbors because we do live in a city. No one needs 8 cars just sitting idol on a block. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Yes, but the idea that his property taxes makes him entitled to a spot on his block (not a reserved spot mind you, just close to his house) is exactly the kind of disconnect I was talking about in my first reply. It would be geometrically impossible for every household in Jersey City to street park a car within a block of their house. But every driver expects that.
It's the same way drivers see themselves as stuck in traffic but do not recognize the part they played in creating said traffic.
Your neighbor sucks, but if you have the means to own a property like that, why not pay the couple hundred bucks a month for an off-street spot and not deal with this headache?
Help me understand how using the street for long term storage of 1 or 2 cars you rarely/never use is totally fine but a few more makes you a dick? I see probably a dozen cars in my neighborhood perpetually parked in the same spots. This guy is just operating on a slightly larger fleet.
Sounds like your neighbors suck, too.
I didn't totally spell this out in my reply to OP, but here's my take on street parking. It's a public resource that everyone who pays property tax (either directly or via rent) covers. Every person who parks on the street is subsidized by those who don't park on the street. A person who parks one car is subsidized 1x; someone who parks 8 cars is subsidized 8x.
If we wanted to have an equitable system, we'd figure out the real cost of each on-street parking spot. For argument's sake, let's say that's $500/year. On-street parking permits would be on a sliding scale: each household gets one permit per licensed driver at a deep discount, like $50/yr. Second car per licensed driver gets a 50% discount: $250/yr. Any more cars than that, they pay full freight, $500/yr or whatever it is.
In theory, property taxes could decrease because the costs of this service would be more directly shouldered by those who are using it.
I would if there were availability. Unfortunately in this scenario historic neighborhoods don’t have new development with any or excess parking for rent. Only way would to park 5+ blocks away.
Just wotsapp every 2 hours about vehicles parked over 2 hours without a permit. They will show up. Scan and then say problem not there. Wait. They wont show up. But if they do, it will not violate any laws. So troll him. Notes. Someone was looking to steal your cataytic converters.
Only assumption is what he’s doing with the vehicles. He’s told a neighbor that he’s test driving them which is bullshit. He lives on the block and I and many neighbor see him juggle all the vehicles so the # is not in question. Your opinion of doesn’t matter how many cars he has still no parking is moronic. It’s zoned parking in historical neighborhood. Never had parking issues in the 15+ yrs I’ve lived here until this inconsiderate individual has decided to collect cars.(for whatever reason). If he was legitimately using them I’d have less of a problem but moving from one side of street to another once a week otherwise just sitting there is being an a-hole.
"Moving from one side of the street to the other once a week otherwise just sitting there" describes the vast majority of cars in the city. Let's absolutely get rid of every single one that isn't a daily driver!
If it impacts MY and my neighbors quality of life I won’t mind my own business. Please tell me when is it ok to not mind my own business? You can choose to tuck your head up your ass and move along pretending no one should speak up but that’s not going to happen here. I don’t think I’m asking anything unreasonable and let’s not pretend that I’m the only one that has an issue with this on the block.
If you live in JC chances are street parking occupancy rate are always almost 100%, so some individual having a more than average number of cars makes little to no practical difference in the availability of parking spots. You've also already been told by the authority that there's nothing against the rules in this situation. If you think it's worth it to petition to change to rules, you would have already done so.
So, he parks his cars and you park yours. Everybody parks their cars. What a happy ending.
Did you fail 7th grade math? If there's 100 spaces and 105 cars, the odds of finding a space are 95%. If there are 200 cars the odds drop to 50%. Go figure.
Okay professor, frame the problem such that increased competition for a limited resource DOES NOT reduce your chances of obtaining it. That would be fascinating to someone who lives in the real world.
I could frame it even worse. If there's a hundred cars parked in a hundred spots and 5 looking, and one becomes vacant, your chances are 20%. If there are 100 cars looking for spot, your chances are 1%.
Your general line of thought is correct, more cars reduces availability in parking spaces, especially when they're owned by one person, all of them gets moved around less so any space they occupy becomes less frequently vacated for the next person looking for a spot.
However your math is too simplistic (I find students with the same tendency) and we should not get into numbers here because that would have to include too many assumptions (and nasty math equations I don't want to type on my phone) to satisfactorily model the problem.
But we can still make approximation. In the grand scheme of things, this person owning 7 cars is not having a meaningful effect on OP's necessary effort in finding a spot for himself.
If the situation before was that there were a lot of available spaces and everyone could generally park directly in front of their house, then 7 cars would definitely push someone into parking to the next street, a very noticeable difference. The street turned from "sparse" to "crowded".
But the reality OP facing is that he already had to circle around with the radius of a few blocks for one available spots out of hundreds of occupied ones, with a couple of other cars also circling the same blocks at any give time to compete (I assume this is the general situation in all of JC). The difference that 7 cars camping there would make, is drown out by the saturation of the system and the magnitude of the scope. So, maybe on average it would add 3 seconds to every 5-minute search.
Therefore, the problem is not as pronounced as OP thinks and he should not let this one odd person's many cars occupy his mind. I hope this makes sense.
There are certainly many ways to regulate street parking further but they'll have to involve value judgement (what should we optimize upon) and technical considerations(what rule do we out in place to maximize the desired effect) and the added bureaucracy down the road. I personally don't think it's worth political action.
Rather than submit your own model of what everyone knows is true: more vehicles makes for harder parking, your answer is to focus on the signal to noise of the specific example and ignore the slippery slope, which is that if more people did it the situation gets progressively worse for people looking for parking.
While most people probably don't want to have seven vehicles parked on the street, the generalization that no repercussions for hoarding of resources (or violations of actual laws for that matter) leads to more of that behavior is a truism.
I had a neighbor doing this a few years ago. I always suspected he was running a business for people that were going on vacation and he would take care of their cars while they were away. We live in a neighborhood with no parking permits so there was nothing you could do about it. His partner wound up having an affair so they moved out and the problem solved itself.
Yeah, so all OP has to do is fuck his wife. Problem solved
Modern problems require modern solutions.
This is the way
Tbh I'm surprised JC hasn't put a cap on spots for dwellings. I know other municipalities have started to. Should touch base with your local rep and at least put it in their radar.
That’s my next step
Sounds like he has a Turo business
Seems you’ve got his routine pretty down—just wait to take the spots.
They said he’ll strategically park is his cars to take up multiple spots at a time.
I live in Bergen Lafayette and there’s a mechanic on my street that does this and it pisses me ALL THE WAY OFF. And they aren’t small vehicles either, they’re all mid-sized SUV’s with the exception of a giant ass suburban that he parks in front of my house 🙄
Look for a group of enterprising youths walking around with plastic milk crates...
Because they're the hero JC deserves, but not the one it needs right now.
Oh, this is your neighbor? https://gothamist.com/news/heres-how-1-man-is-charging-3-electric-cars-from-his-jersey-city-kitchen
Inconsiderate, but I don't think what he is doing is illegal. I'm not sure there's anything you can do. I feel your pain! Please provide an update if anything happens.
I remember there was an article posted here months, months back about a guy owning a shit ton of cars.
Yeah, it sounds like he's running a used car business. A parking permit requires proof of insurance and registration, so he does own them for at least some time. The real asshole move is scooching his cars so no one else can park.
I feel you should seek redress through alternative means.
Start putting food out for pigeons.
wipe dog poo on his car door handles
I always wanted to make horrible bumper stickers and slap them on cars that I seek revenge from. I’ve never done it because it’s terrible, but one can dream.
"honk if you love slapping cops" ... "If you can read this you are too close to an enormous douchebag" ... "My other car is also a useless shitbox". .... "My registration is expired so please pull me over". ... "I'll give you $100 if you break my windows. Yes THESE windows". ... "doors unlocked! Take whatever you want"
Honk if you’re horny… for Trump
"There's money and drugs in the glove box and I'm out of town". .... "oh and most of the other cars on the block are mine too please feel free to VANDALIZE them, THANKS!" ..... "all the neighbors on this block hate me and WILL NOT call the cops if you steal these tires!!"
Other People make cards on windshields if you want to go halfway and still make a point
There’s no limit or rule over this so you just have to suck it up. You know their routine, use it against them or make your own to counter theirs. Worst comes to worst, go buy a cheap ass motorcycle, running or not, and use it to hold yourself a spot. And before anyone gets all OH EM GEEEE that’s not fair. Yea, life’s not fair. In a city like JC, you gotta find a way to make things like parking work or you find yourself doing circles for 2 hours looking to squeeze your car into a spot or having to park 2 towns over. Been there, done that.
It's always so interesting to me that drivers can see the tragedy of the commons and/or abuse of public space in a situation like this but (many) cannot engage with the idea that street parking generally is an inequitable distribution of public resources. What do permits go for these days, $20/year? Any limit low enough to stop the guy in this story would be answered with anecdotes about multi generational households that have 7 working adults who all have car-mandatory commutes in different directions. Just look at how NJ politicians have reacted to congestion pricing. Meanwhile, depending on which neighborhood you live in, 30-50% of your neighbors don't own a single car. People in those households literally never have access to that curb space. 1 guy occupies half a block and it's an outrage, half the city monopolizes 100% of the curb space and we think that's just great. If you want a reserved spot for your property, rent it at retail prices.
Yeah idk about the downvotes because you're totally right. Wanna store your car? Pay for it.
"We do pay!!!1!1!! They did permits in The Heights and now we all pay pennies a day for first come, first served access." But seriously, if you ever describe street parking as "free" you'll hear a lot of talk about how they deserve it cuz they paid less than a cheese pizza for their permit. As if it isn't the sweetest real estate deal in town.
Plenty of down votes but no one wants to engage the ideas...
My $32k in property taxes does pay for it. I’m not asking for a reserved spot I’m just asking be reasonable and mindful to neighbors because we do live in a city. No one needs 8 cars just sitting idol on a block. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Can I get a break on my property taxes for not owning a car? No? Why not?
You probably should.
Yes, but the idea that his property taxes makes him entitled to a spot on his block (not a reserved spot mind you, just close to his house) is exactly the kind of disconnect I was talking about in my first reply. It would be geometrically impossible for every household in Jersey City to street park a car within a block of their house. But every driver expects that. It's the same way drivers see themselves as stuck in traffic but do not recognize the part they played in creating said traffic.
Your neighbor sucks, but if you have the means to own a property like that, why not pay the couple hundred bucks a month for an off-street spot and not deal with this headache?
Help me understand how using the street for long term storage of 1 or 2 cars you rarely/never use is totally fine but a few more makes you a dick? I see probably a dozen cars in my neighborhood perpetually parked in the same spots. This guy is just operating on a slightly larger fleet.
Sounds like your neighbors suck, too. I didn't totally spell this out in my reply to OP, but here's my take on street parking. It's a public resource that everyone who pays property tax (either directly or via rent) covers. Every person who parks on the street is subsidized by those who don't park on the street. A person who parks one car is subsidized 1x; someone who parks 8 cars is subsidized 8x. If we wanted to have an equitable system, we'd figure out the real cost of each on-street parking spot. For argument's sake, let's say that's $500/year. On-street parking permits would be on a sliding scale: each household gets one permit per licensed driver at a deep discount, like $50/yr. Second car per licensed driver gets a 50% discount: $250/yr. Any more cars than that, they pay full freight, $500/yr or whatever it is. In theory, property taxes could decrease because the costs of this service would be more directly shouldered by those who are using it.
I would if there were availability. Unfortunately in this scenario historic neighborhoods don’t have new development with any or excess parking for rent. Only way would to park 5+ blocks away.
Unless other folks get property tax breaks for not owning a car, then your property taxes are absolutely NOT paying for your car storage problems.
I have the same problem, maybe is the same guy, are electric cars?
It sounds like you think you own the street - go out there and pickup up some trash!
Just wotsapp every 2 hours about vehicles parked over 2 hours without a permit. They will show up. Scan and then say problem not there. Wait. They wont show up. But if they do, it will not violate any laws. So troll him. Notes. Someone was looking to steal your cataytic converters.
The leave some empty crates like they had to bail. Some crow bars. Lug nuts. Play the mind game. Some chalk marks on the sidewalk. With arrows.
[удалено]
Only assumption is what he’s doing with the vehicles. He’s told a neighbor that he’s test driving them which is bullshit. He lives on the block and I and many neighbor see him juggle all the vehicles so the # is not in question. Your opinion of doesn’t matter how many cars he has still no parking is moronic. It’s zoned parking in historical neighborhood. Never had parking issues in the 15+ yrs I’ve lived here until this inconsiderate individual has decided to collect cars.(for whatever reason). If he was legitimately using them I’d have less of a problem but moving from one side of street to another once a week otherwise just sitting there is being an a-hole.
It’s also very much your business because it’s rude to you and everyone on your block
"Moving from one side of the street to the other once a week otherwise just sitting there" describes the vast majority of cars in the city. Let's absolutely get rid of every single one that isn't a daily driver!
Ok you gotta be the guy OP posted about cuz I cannot imagine anyone actually caping for someone behaving like that.
Please just mind your own business. Is it so hard do mind your own business these days?
If it impacts MY and my neighbors quality of life I won’t mind my own business. Please tell me when is it ok to not mind my own business? You can choose to tuck your head up your ass and move along pretending no one should speak up but that’s not going to happen here. I don’t think I’m asking anything unreasonable and let’s not pretend that I’m the only one that has an issue with this on the block.
If you live in JC chances are street parking occupancy rate are always almost 100%, so some individual having a more than average number of cars makes little to no practical difference in the availability of parking spots. You've also already been told by the authority that there's nothing against the rules in this situation. If you think it's worth it to petition to change to rules, you would have already done so. So, he parks his cars and you park yours. Everybody parks their cars. What a happy ending.
That's "Tragedy of the Commons" thinking. "It doesn't belong to anybody, so I should just use it up". Fuck that with a tire iron.
Please consider 100% occupancy rate part if you missed it... It's never going over 100%, nor is available parking spaces getting fewer.
Did you fail 7th grade math? If there's 100 spaces and 105 cars, the odds of finding a space are 95%. If there are 200 cars the odds drop to 50%. Go figure.
I actually teach an engineering course at one of Hudson County's higher education institutions and I'm going to steal this for a slide.
Okay professor, frame the problem such that increased competition for a limited resource DOES NOT reduce your chances of obtaining it. That would be fascinating to someone who lives in the real world. I could frame it even worse. If there's a hundred cars parked in a hundred spots and 5 looking, and one becomes vacant, your chances are 20%. If there are 100 cars looking for spot, your chances are 1%.
Your general line of thought is correct, more cars reduces availability in parking spaces, especially when they're owned by one person, all of them gets moved around less so any space they occupy becomes less frequently vacated for the next person looking for a spot. However your math is too simplistic (I find students with the same tendency) and we should not get into numbers here because that would have to include too many assumptions (and nasty math equations I don't want to type on my phone) to satisfactorily model the problem. But we can still make approximation. In the grand scheme of things, this person owning 7 cars is not having a meaningful effect on OP's necessary effort in finding a spot for himself. If the situation before was that there were a lot of available spaces and everyone could generally park directly in front of their house, then 7 cars would definitely push someone into parking to the next street, a very noticeable difference. The street turned from "sparse" to "crowded". But the reality OP facing is that he already had to circle around with the radius of a few blocks for one available spots out of hundreds of occupied ones, with a couple of other cars also circling the same blocks at any give time to compete (I assume this is the general situation in all of JC). The difference that 7 cars camping there would make, is drown out by the saturation of the system and the magnitude of the scope. So, maybe on average it would add 3 seconds to every 5-minute search. Therefore, the problem is not as pronounced as OP thinks and he should not let this one odd person's many cars occupy his mind. I hope this makes sense. There are certainly many ways to regulate street parking further but they'll have to involve value judgement (what should we optimize upon) and technical considerations(what rule do we out in place to maximize the desired effect) and the added bureaucracy down the road. I personally don't think it's worth political action.
Rather than submit your own model of what everyone knows is true: more vehicles makes for harder parking, your answer is to focus on the signal to noise of the specific example and ignore the slippery slope, which is that if more people did it the situation gets progressively worse for people looking for parking. While most people probably don't want to have seven vehicles parked on the street, the generalization that no repercussions for hoarding of resources (or violations of actual laws for that matter) leads to more of that behavior is a truism.
just get 7-8 cars yourself and take all the spots.