Your Neighbors Hog The Street Parking: What Do You Do? [Block Talk]

ACROSS AMERICA ? You have a crowd coming to your house for the holidays ? your aging parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grown kids and their families, arriving in at least a dozen cars packed with Christmas presents and luggage. Your driveway already is so full it looks like a used car lot. But there?s not a single place near your house for them to park.

Alas, the neighbors across the street have taken every last spot on their side and yours. They have as many guests as you, or maybe this is a year-round pattern that becomes thornier during the holidays when so many people are competing for prime spots.

Of course, parking on public streets is fair game unless it is a permit-only street. But still, short of hiring a valet service to park your guests? cars blocks away, is there a polite through the competition for parking spots? How do you handle this where you live? Do neighbors have a gentleperson?s agreement about whose guests park where and whether residents ?own? the spaces in front of their homes?

People who live in apartments have a separate dilemma. When other tenants? guests take your designated parking spot, what do you do? Where do your guests park?

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About Block Talk

Block Talk is a regular Patch series on neighborhood etiquette ? and readers provide the answers. If you have a topic you'd like for us to consider, email beth.dalbey@patch.com with "Block Talk" as the subject line.

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