Ah, to be the owner of a single-detached house in Burnaby.
Rolling in all of that equity as house prices surge, some are still not happy with their lot in life.
No, they have to claim ownership of things that are actually the domain of the City of Burnaby.
Like the parking spots on the street in front of their homes.
Ryan D. learned this when he was visiting his sister in the Metrotown area recently. He parked out back and not on the street.
“I was sitting in the living room and startled by loud banging noise on the door,” says Ryan. “I peeked through the door and saw a man with a berserk face wearing no mask. I thought about my safety so waited for him to get out of the gate, then opened the door. He asked if the car parking in front of his house is mine. I said no. He kept swearing at me, ‘Move your ****ing car out of my property!’ I repeated, ‘It's not my car.’ He said "Move it! It's my ****ing property!’ before going into his house and slamming the door. I was stunned by the aggressive behaviour of this person when he claimed the street in front of his house belongs to him. There are no signs about parking restrictions on this street. I hoped he wouldn’t do anything to vandalize that car. When I left, I drove by his house and was stunned again when I saw it has a double garage and also a long, empty backyard that can fit at least four cars. Apparently, that is still not enough for this selfish and ugly person.”
Oh my.
Imagine thinking people can’t park on a public street because it’s front of your house. Dude, you don’t own those spots so get over yourself.
I don’t know what it is about people and parking. I’ve been in journalism for 30-plus years and parking is one of the things readers complain the most about. Some housing proposals have too much parking. Some have too little. The house next door takes up all of the street parking. The city is raising the cost of street parking using meters.
The list goes on.
“I think the City of Burnaby should educate people living there that the street is not their own property because it is becoming toxic source for altercations,” Ryan says. “I don’t know what would have happened if I had opened the door with the guy standing right there. Just by looking on Google Street View, you can see cones and boxes people place on the street to ‘reserve’ the space in front of their house. Some even put up ‘no-parking’ and ‘towing’ signs.”
Yep. Just incredible.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
