There is not much room to park in Troy. The campus lots fill up instantly, as do the surrounding streets. And if you live off campus you can’t always find a spot to park near your apartment, either. Unfortunately for RPI students, some local residents choose to deal with this problem in a not-quite-so-legal way.
Cones. Big, orange cones placed in the street near the curb to ward off any would-be parkers. Apparently, at one time citizens were allowed to reserve a parking space for themselves in front of their home with a cone or other such marker. This is not, however, permitted any longer. Like it or not, that’s just the way it is.
Now, I can understand how Troy residents feel. Everyone likes to park as close to their home as possible. And with students living in your area, there is a high turnover in some of the apartment buildings. Year after year, you live in the area as twenty-somethings move in and out. And some students are probably not the best neighbors. There are a lot of students who will throw parties at all hours of the night or not keep the property up the way a permanent resident would. I can see how this can get frustrating after many years.
There are important things to remember, however. Number one, it is not permitted by the City of Troy for any citizen to reserve a parking spot on the city street for themselves in any way, even if it is in front of their residence. Number two, it is not a neighborly thing to do, especially considering many students are hard-working people who may keep late hours and not mow the lawn much but are otherwise good neighbors. Number three, if there’s no place to park on the street but in front of your house it’s perfectly reasonable for your neighbor to park there, even if it means you will have more trouble parking when you come home. And number four, sometimes as many as six or more people must park their cars in front of an apartment building rented by students, and I don’t know of any property large enough for all those cars to park in front of it.
Finally, I’d just like to say, "calm down." Stop leaving nasty notes or making snide comments to a student if they park in front of your apartment. There are more important things to worry about than parking eight extra feet from your door. If you are an RPI student, don’t aggravate your neighbors. And both parties, try to remember that not many people in this town have optimum parking conditions at home or on campus, and being overly defensive or just plain rude never did good for anyone.
