Neighborhood Scrooge

Casadena

My house sits on a cul-de-sac. Most of my neighbors are retirees or young families. As a result, the street is treated as a playground, with the kids constantly out and leaving their crap in the road. My house is the one with the steepest drive and I can’t tell you the number of times I had to tell the kids to stop playing in my driveway and watch out because my truck doesn’t have a backup camera. I chalked it up as an ordinary annoyance, until my neighbor across the way started to close off the entire street with cones and “kids at play” signs. Meaning it is an entire ordeal if I have to run errands or want to get take out. It takes forever to get the kids and all their stuff out of the road, and my neighbors treat it as a giant favor to get them to clear the road. I am usually a live-and-let-live guy, but there is literally a park two miles away. I have already spoken several times with my neighbors about the issue but it still happens. We do have an HOA, and I am really tempted to throw the entire issue out at the next meeting. Can I get some advice?

ILoveBeachMusic

If you have reached out to the neighbors that are contributing to the problem and nothing has improved, I would definitely go through the HOA.

short+sassy

There's an HOA?  Then what is the LW waiting for!

I have zero sympathy for people who waste my time or money with their abject rudeness, especially when they are breaking laws.

Casadena

Honestly, kids playing in the cul-d-sac is one of the nice things about living on one. I'd take issue with them playing in my driveway and the parents literally putting signs up to block off the street though - definitely talk to the HOA about that. 

But a park 2 miles away is not even close to comparable to neighborhood kids being able to play outside their homes relatively safely.

ILoveBeachMusic

Casadena said:

Honestly, kids playing in the cul-d-sac is one of the nice things about living on one. I'd take issue with them playing in my driveway and the parents literally putting signs up to block off the street though - definitely talk to the HOA about that. 

But a park 2 miles away is not even close to comparable to neighborhood kids being able to play outside their homes relatively safely.

I agree about a cul de sac is nice to have for kids to play. However, leaving toys and stuff on the cul de sac is not ok. If a bike or scooter got run over I'm sure the parents would be angry. Also if the kids are actually out there, they need to know to move if someone is driving down the street. That is just Safety 101.

banana468

That's too much when you're trying to block neighbors from entering and exiting their property.

I would NOT say that there's a park down the road.  The point of playing outside is the ease that it is for parents to not have to schlep the kids down the road in the car and they can be outside playing.  That's likely what the LW did as a kid.  The difference is that ALL kids new the universal, "CAR!" to scream to get out of the way of traffic followed by a "GAME O-ON!" once the car passed.  

IMO this reminds me of what it can be like living in a tourist area with people walking all over.  Yes, you're a pedestrian and yes you get the right of way IN A CROSS WALK.  So pay attention to what you're doing and be respectful to the rest of us who are trying to get along.

Respect works both ways.  In this instance I'd go to the homeowners leaving stuff in the street or the driveway and if that doesn't work I'd head to the HOA asking about what can be done specifically when the items are left outside on the street blocking traffic.

Eventually someone is going to get upset and assume that what was left in the street was garbage and up for public usage to be taken.  It's not really smart for the other homeowners to play with that temptation with their negligence.