Parking and the Mailbox Continued

[kybearfuzz]

I seriously didn’t mean to leave you all hanging on the whole neighbor van thing. The neighbor eventually managed to drag himself out of bed and move the van, too late for the mail, but any progress is good.

However, when I drove home on Tuesday, there was ANOTHER car blocking my mailbox, a little red convertible piece of crap that I swear had a cassette player in it. I was ranting in my driveway, giving the neighbors a good show with my flailing arm movements and blue language. Luckily, my mailman must have felt sorry for me (and was tired of hold my mail) and delivered it anyway, complete with a DVD I had ordered.

Wednesday was not a good day either as I drove up to find yet ANOTHER car blocking it, this time a Toyota SUV. By blocking, I mean that it is too close to the mail box. The mailman does not have to exit his vehicle to deliver the mail (unless there is a package). If he cannot swing in, drop off the mail, and leave, then technically he doesn’t have to deliver the mail and he writes that the box was blocked. City ordinance says cars cannot park within 10 feet of a mailbox, but realistically if you give the mailman five feet, he can get in and out without trouble. My mailman knows me personally, so he’s cut me a break or two, and I managed to catch him yesterday and get my mail.

I left a friendly note under the wiper to ask the drive to not block my mailbox. Then I thought to myself that I should call the city. An officer stopped by and was very friendly about it, and told me that he would ticket the car if it happens again. Since I managed to get my mail (I was still holding it when he showed up), he didn’t leave a ticket this time. He also said that until the road construction is done, I might want to drop my mail off at work or a postbox, which I might do.

So we will see what happens today. I’m trying not to get too mad at this, but it’s becoming very inconvenient and the inconsiderate people are driving me nuts.

Comments

[texwriterbear.livejournal.com]

So they want you to pay for a mailbox elsewhere to get your mail? Change of address and everything? That's ridiculous!!!!!

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Oh no, the officer meant that I might want to drop my outgoing mail to a standalone post box. There's one outside the city building on my way to work that I often use.

Hell no to the PO Box. I'll be calling the city building daily before I do that.

[dendren.livejournal.com]

I went ahead and spent the $200 a year to get a box at the UPS store. I only use it for package shipments, all my regular mail goes to the mailbox at home. Since packages basically would need to be left on the street for everyone to see, the box is worth it. Don't want someone stealing my monthly comic shipment or all the various things I buy on Amazon LOL

[dr-tectonic.livejournal.com]

Tape a little sign to your mailbox that says "If you park blocking the mailbox, expect to get a parking ticket." And then follow through.

People sometimes park on the street behind our garage, blocking the exit despite the great big NO PARKING sign *right there*. If it's workers with a big truck they're gonna have a hard time parking elsewhere, I'll cut them some slack, but if it's just some random person's car, I'm not shy about calling Parking Enforcement.

We've even had people try to park right in front of our garage door because they wanted to go to the garage sale a few doors down and were "just going to be a minute." Um, NO.

(One time somebody who parked behind our garage left their windows open, and I picked up a whole bunch of dead leaves and threw them in the car. I'm not proud of that tactic, but they never parked there again...)

[barak.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest a big sign and maybe position it about where the mailman needs room to mark it for those who *need* to park there.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Since when do mail folks not have to get out of their vehicles? Is that a local thing? I remember my mail carriers walking their routes. My carrier here at my apartment community stops at the mail center and distributes mail by hand. Particularly since your carrier can see there is construction, it sounds like he or she is just being lazy. Delivering your mail would seem like good customer service.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I checked with the city building and they're the ones who told me the postman doesn't have to leave the vehicle unless he's delivering a package that won't fit in the mailbox (and my mailbox is big). It's an efficiency thing, and it's why we have mailboxes along our street instead of on our houses.

My mailman Greg delivered mail on days he doesn't have to, mostly because he knows the construction is disrupting things, but it depends on how much time and material he has to deliver.

Greg is a good egg, so he's not being lazy, it's just what he's supposed to do overall.