Short story, for the past three years I have had three cars parked at my house during the warm months. All are used on a regular basis. I have a two car garage so the third car is parked at the end of my driveway. This blocks the sidewalk going through my driveway. Yesterday I received a warning from IMPD about the third car blocking the sidewalk. The only thing I could find about blocking sidewalks is this Indianapolis ordinance. What would the penalty be for this ordinance and can it really be enforced on a vehicle that is parked in the homeowner's driveway? Is there any recourse?
The rest of the story. I have a treeline behind my house that divides my subdivision and another. The neighbor that lives behind me in the other subdivision has grandkids that were going back and forth through the treeline playing in my backyard and my adjacent neighbors' back yards. I politely instructed them to stay on the other side of the tree line as I have instructed any kids that traverse my backyard. Later that evening the grandkids' parents and grandparents arrived at my house and began hassling my wife. I was not home at the time. I spoke with the parents a couple days later when I saw them out and about, they live in my subdivision. They claimed they had no problems and would keep the kids in the grandparent's yard. That was a couple years ago, haven't had any problems since then. Fast forward to Friday, the Grandfather was pushing his wife down the road in a wheelchair and saw me mowing. They proceeded to stop me and ask me why my third car was always parked at the end of my drive. I responded factually and politely. At that point it became clear that they were not interested in why the car was there, they only wanted it moved. I remained polite and they recognized me as the person who told their grandkids not to play in my yard. From there, things only went down hill as they were insistent that I should move my car. When I stated that moving the car would be an inconvenience for me his only response was that it wasn't his problem. I didn't say much else as I didn't feel like arguing and nothing I said would make they happy. The wife said that she was handicapped and told me they would call the police. I apologized for her handicap but said nothing else. After that they continued to the home of their kids and grandkids who live at the end of the street.
I realize that blocking the sidewalk is an inconvenience for pedestrians and more so for them, but I feel the other options are also not good. I can park in the street, but this presents its own set of problems. First and foremost I think it's worse to clog up a street with a parked vehicle than a sidewalk that is used infrequently. Second, parking in the street is less secure and greatly increases the risk that the vehicle will be hit by another car. Third, I can't park directly in front of my house without blocking a mailbox, I would have to park on the other side of the street between my other neighbors' houses. The only other option is to pull up in the driveway and play musical cars. I find this to be a ridiculous request of a tax paying homeowner solely to placate a grumpy neighbor from another subdivision. Nevermind the annoyance of being told that you can't park in your own driveway because there is a sidewalk going through it. I can probably go around the neighborhood and find several other cars also blocking the sidewalk, I've walked around plenty of them and never though that I needed to make a big deal out of it.
The rest of the story. I have a treeline behind my house that divides my subdivision and another. The neighbor that lives behind me in the other subdivision has grandkids that were going back and forth through the treeline playing in my backyard and my adjacent neighbors' back yards. I politely instructed them to stay on the other side of the tree line as I have instructed any kids that traverse my backyard. Later that evening the grandkids' parents and grandparents arrived at my house and began hassling my wife. I was not home at the time. I spoke with the parents a couple days later when I saw them out and about, they live in my subdivision. They claimed they had no problems and would keep the kids in the grandparent's yard. That was a couple years ago, haven't had any problems since then. Fast forward to Friday, the Grandfather was pushing his wife down the road in a wheelchair and saw me mowing. They proceeded to stop me and ask me why my third car was always parked at the end of my drive. I responded factually and politely. At that point it became clear that they were not interested in why the car was there, they only wanted it moved. I remained polite and they recognized me as the person who told their grandkids not to play in my yard. From there, things only went down hill as they were insistent that I should move my car. When I stated that moving the car would be an inconvenience for me his only response was that it wasn't his problem. I didn't say much else as I didn't feel like arguing and nothing I said would make they happy. The wife said that she was handicapped and told me they would call the police. I apologized for her handicap but said nothing else. After that they continued to the home of their kids and grandkids who live at the end of the street.
I realize that blocking the sidewalk is an inconvenience for pedestrians and more so for them, but I feel the other options are also not good. I can park in the street, but this presents its own set of problems. First and foremost I think it's worse to clog up a street with a parked vehicle than a sidewalk that is used infrequently. Second, parking in the street is less secure and greatly increases the risk that the vehicle will be hit by another car. Third, I can't park directly in front of my house without blocking a mailbox, I would have to park on the other side of the street between my other neighbors' houses. The only other option is to pull up in the driveway and play musical cars. I find this to be a ridiculous request of a tax paying homeowner solely to placate a grumpy neighbor from another subdivision. Nevermind the annoyance of being told that you can't park in your own driveway because there is a sidewalk going through it. I can probably go around the neighborhood and find several other cars also blocking the sidewalk, I've walked around plenty of them and never though that I needed to make a big deal out of it.
