Neighbor Creates Own Parking Spot Complete With Sign: ‘Blatant Entitlement’

An Oregon resident has taken the extreme step of creating their very own reserved on-street parking spot complete with sign and paint job.

The parking space was discovered by one of their neighbors, who shared a photo of it to Reddit under the handle u/pdxtrashed, where it’s caused quite a stir.

When it comes to disputes between neighbors, arguments over parking are an all too regular occurrence. A 2021 survey of 2,000 U.S. adults conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Homes.com found that parking ranked second only to noise as the most common cause of a neighborly dispute.

But while it’s one thing to get involved in an argument over parking, it’s a whole other extreme to then set about creating a fake reserved space for yourself.

Yet that’s exactly what this particular resident, who lives outside of Portland, Oregon, has been accused of doing by a neighbor who, for obvious reasons, has asked not to be named. They told Newsweek it was immediately “obvious” that the sign was fake for a number of reasons.

“The sign post is not standard height and has been erected using a strut you can find at Home Depot,” they said. “There’s also the fact they painted the curb yellow which means no parking or unloading/loading only zone.”

The suspicious local resident also searched the city’s transportation website for more information on on-street reservation parking permits. “The only option for such a thing is handicap parking and only to reserve a spot outside of your residence with no driveway,” they said. In addition to this, they also Googled “electric vehicles only sign” to see what results it yielded. “The sign they used was one of the top results,” they said.

Their suspicions that the sign was the work of their neighbor came with the “dead giveaway” that they are “the only ones that park there now” and that he noticed the “50 ft orange extension cord they use to charge that runs from their car to their house.”

Despite the allegedly illegality of it all, the Redditor who revealed the supposed ruse has been left with mixed feelings about it. “I was annoyed at first but the more I looked into it I found it extremely hilarious,” they said. “The blatant entitlement along with the audacity to just go for it made me giggle after the initial irk.”

It’s certainly had a huge response on Reddit, with the original post earning over 44,000 upvotes and a raft of comments from shocked and amused users. “I know its not right but it’s kinda funny that they actually had the nerve to do it,” one Redditor wrote with another commenting: “Yeah not gonna lie the balls on them is impressive. Totally going for the official look and hoping no one questions it.”

A third suggested “Park there, then tell them to report it to the city when they complain” while a fourth, similarly mischievous, Redditor said: “It might be worth renting a Tesla from Hertz and waiting for them to drive somewhere.” A fifth added: “Or add this as a location to maps that show you where to find ev chargers. List it as a destination on Google Maps! Strangers will come to use the charger. No rental car required!”

While the Redditor who discovered their neighbor’s scheme is unlikely to do any of the above, they’re glad the post has been so well received. “To be honest I was not expecting it to blow up like it did,” they said. “I posted it into the void of the Internet hoping to make a couple people laugh and not get much reply.”

Let’s just hope their neighbor hasn’t seen it.