Neighbours getting competitive and creative in fight for Vancouver street parking

Andrea Wesley, a resident of Vancouver’s Champlain Heights, went outside last week to find a note on the windshield of her car, which was parked outside her home.

The note appeared at first glance to be from the City of Vancouver and featured the city’s coat of arms.

“This is a warning issued to you and your vehicle,” the note said. “This is a no parking area and next time you will be given a parking ticket.”

Wesley said she laughed when she saw it.

“I was like, ‘This looks so fake,'” she said. “It was cut, and it wasn’t even cut properly. It was this jagged line.”

Wesley says she called the city, who told her the note wasn’t from them and that it was likely from someone who also lives in the area trying to bully her into not parking in the spot.

“I park there all the time,” she said. “I’ve been parking there for four years. There’s never been an issue. Everybody in the neighbourhood does the same thing. Townhouses behind us do the same thing. We’re fighting for the same parking.”

The note highlights the ongoing competition residents face for on-street parking in the city.

Kitsilano resident Lola Campbell also recently had a note left on her windshield.

This note said, “In case you care, it would be nice to park in my vehicle in front of my own house sometimes.”

In this case, the note was handwritten.

“It was anonymous,” Campbell said. “It was a little passive aggressive — or flat-out aggressive. I thought it was a little strange because it was only a few doors down from me. My block parking is at a premium, so while I would love to park in front of my house, I’m not parking in front of someone else’s house to be a jerk. It’s because there’s no other parking available on the street.”

Notes aren’t the only way people are trying to keep drivers from parking in front of their homes. A common sight on some streets is pylons being used to prevent someone from parking in certain spots.

“It’s very competitive,” Wesley said. “Sometimes I’ll come home after work or after a day out with my kid, and we can’t park on any of the streets. We have to park even further down.”

The City of Vancouver tells CityNews that on-street parking spots are city property and “do not belong to any specific resident, business, or property owner.” It also said, “Placing items such as pylons, cones, buckets, and private ‘No Parking’ signs are not permitted. We may remove these items.”

It adds the amount of curb space is finite, but if residents are experiencing difficulties parking in their neighbourhoods, they can contact the city.

“I think the automatic assumption that people are doing it to be unfair to you is, I mean, you see how many parking spaces there are in the city,” Campbell said. “You can see how crowded it is. These were originally single-family homes and a lot of them, like mine, have been divided into multiple residents per home.”

In Wesley’s case, she responded to whoever left her the fake note by putting up a note of her own in the neighborhood.

“I found out that your ticket is fake,” her note said. “Also the link you provided is for Vancouver, Washington, so it’s not even the right Vancouver, and like, you know, get a life.”