Sidewalk talk

It's never my intention with blog entries to appear preachy or demanding.  We have enough agents (both official and unofficial) in our society who delight in assuming those roles.

I'd rather be a provider of perspective and information and, with that in mind, I'd like to expound upon a point that appeared in the February neighborhood newsletter:

Look at the fourth line down.

I am quite sure that many local residents do not know this:  it is ILLEGAL in many municipalities to block the sidewalk with your car, even where your own driveway crosses it.

Let me offer you a vignette of perspective on this issue before further discussing its practicalities.  I was jogging in the neighborhood about three weeks ago when I happened across a young lady, a prospective buyer, who was viewing a listing for sale on Harvard Pointe Drive.  We chatted about the neighborhood and its amenities.   Seeing my attire, one of the first questions she asked was, "Is Centerpointe a good neighborhood for joggers?  Are all its sidewalks in good condition equivalent to the sidewalks on Harvard Pointe?"  She, too, was a jogger and the availability of good sidewalks were a key factor in her purchase decisions. 

Moral of the story: 
Access to sidewalks is extremely important to many of us.  Sidewalks are not just bling added to the front of houses to increase property values.  Many of us make active use of them daily. 

Here's a short list of activities that CANNOT be properly accomplished if there is no access to sidewalks, either because they were not installed in the first place, or because they are blocked by multiple cars:

1. Take yourself jogging.
2. Take your dog walking.
3. Push a baby stroller.
4. Guide a young child on a training wheels bicycle.

We used to live in "old town" League City where you can see majestic 100-year-old oak trees... but you better not spend too much time gazing up at them because you have to constantly jump out of the way of traffic in that area.  Those old neighborhoods were built without sidewalks or even street shoulders.  Many times when we would try to walk there, we would find ourselves literally leaping into open ditches to escape speeding cars.  From a stress standpoint, it was hardly worth it to go outside. 

I personally know some families in Centerpointe who block the sidewalks with their cars, which is why I figure many people who do it are unaware that their actions are impacting their neighbors.  They're nice folks - they probably just haven't given this much thought.

Google Maps tells a tale of the extent of it in Centerpointe:

Sometimes it appears to occur because folks failed to buy or build a house big enough to accomodate all of their cars.  If you can't fit them in your garage or on your own section of your driveway (see plat excerpt below), the street is your other legal parking option.

In my recent observation, the section of Walnut Pointe between the two ends of Lilac Pointe is the worst street in the neighborhood for this kind of thing.  I have often counted as many as a DOZEN blocked driveways just along that one stretch.  Sometimes joggers on Walnut Poine have to go straight down the middle of the street! 

An example of a 2-wide where a car is blocking the sidewalk despite ample room in the driveway.  Even if these folks do not want to park next to each other, they could still probably pull all the way up to their garage so that they spare the sidewalk.

A 3-wide driveway example where blocking the sidewalk is clearly unnecessary!!

Yet another 3-wide driveway where blocking the sidewalk is EVEN MORE unnecessary!!

Some of the less-enlightened among you may be thinking at this point,
"Well, it's MY driveway - I'll park in it any way I want."

Actually, you might be wrong about that, as this survey excerpt suggests:

I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice, but it appears to me as if the documents that legally define the neighborhood state that the sidewalks and the land upon which they were poured are public property, not private.  This would mean that it's actually NOT "your" section of the driveway. 

Anyway, I hope this post begins to raise awareness about this issue.  Thanks for not blocking the sidewalks, from those of us who utilize them daily.  There are so few public spaces in our modern, crowded residential neighborhoods that we need to maintain open access to what little has been made available to us.