Urban Living Pet Peeves

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rxlexi
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Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by rxlexi »

Not sure how this thread will go, but I am currently witnessing one of my biggest pet peeves living on/near the Plaza, and I thought we could do a little friendly venting about those small (or large) urban living situations that drive you crazy regularly.

In this case, people that sit on patios without purchasing anything. Especially, people that do this and bring say, a lunch from Potbelly to the patio at Kaldi's (aka Latteland), plop down at a table, and bust out their laptop. I recall seeing a couple of med students along 39th walk right up off the sidewalk onto the patio at Mud Pie, sit down at a table, spread books/notes/computers out everywhere, and proceed to study for well over an hour while drinking from plastic water bottles in their backpacks. Unbelievable to me, not sure how folks feel this it totally cool, but I've never seen an employee or customer (including myself) say anything about it, so maybe that's why.

Second, in a city without parking meters (for the most part), street parking isn't terribly clearly defined, and I can't stand cars that are parked without any regard to the availability of space around them. I.E., when you park, pull your car up to the bumper of the car in front of you, or leave your bumper, front or rear, at the edge of the parking signs that delineate the space. This isn't always possible, but man I'm amazed how often I see cars pull up messily into a space that could fit two vehicles, and suck it all up with bad parking job.

People that don't pick up dog shit is obviously a given.

Thanks for letting me vent. Any other little bothersome things out there?
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smh
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by smh »

The parking issue gets me too. I'll expand on it by saying that on streets with indentations for parking, I don't get why people park along the bump outs as if it is a parking spot. They must notice their vehicle sticking 6 feet further out than the surrounding cars. Are they fools, or do they just not give a shit? Probably a combination. The same goes for people who park in no parking areas generally. I have mild sympathy for people who put on their flashers to indicate they've just gotten out of the car for a moment--but even then...
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by loftguy »

smh wrote:The parking issue gets me too. I'll expand on it by saying that on streets with indentations for parking, I don't get why people park along the bump outs as if it is a parking spot. They must notice their vehicle sticking 6 feet further out than the surrounding cars. Are they fools, or do they just not give a shit? Probably a combination. The same goes for people who park in no parking areas generally. I have mild sympathy for people who put on their flashers to indicate they've just gotten out of the car for a moment--but even then...
I'm with you Rxlexi and smh, the parking consciousness indicates that a lot of downtowners are racking up some serious karma deductions. That goes for most things car related, parking or otherwise. It's going to get worse, too. I'm a big believer that the coming of the streetcar is just short of a messianic arrival, but with some problems included in the stuff that tumbles from the heavens.

People are going to park like idjits, to get on the train. Private lots, no parking zones, fire hydrants, double parked....whatever you might imagine, it's going to happen. Parking policies, both public and private, are going to become more professional, detailed and onerous. Invest in tow trucks now, because at $200+ per ride, it's going to sending some bikers kids to good universities.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by smh »

loftguy wrote:Parking policies, both public and private, are going to become more professional, detailed and onerous. Invest in tow trucks now, because at $200+ per ride, it's going to sending some bikers kids to good universities.
This to me is one of the not-so-obvious benefits of the streetcar. It is a catalyst for downtown to get its act (more) together regarding all sorts of policies and procedures that most urban areas need to have in place. To restate just one example: In how many cities our size can you expect to just park your car wherever you please and not have it towed or ticketed. unfortunately, here that has been the case for too long. NO MORE! :twisted:
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by KCtonic »

Apartment dumpsters left open & exposed so that trash blows freely throughout the neighborhood/s. Made worse by dumpster divers looking for metals or other fun stuff.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by bobbyhawks »

smh wrote:I'll expand on it by saying that on streets with indentations for parking, I don't get why people park along the bump outs as if it is a parking spot.
The sidewalk immediately to the East of Lulu's comes to mind. Unfortunately, the city put the parking sign in the wrong place. If you are a literalist when reading the sign, there is still technically another car length of space before the "no parking" section begins and after the indentation ends. People shouldn't have to understand anything special about downtown parking to be able to understand where to park, so I have no problem with folks that park there.

Side note: I still want a Target downtown.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by AllThingsKC »

Speaking of sidewalks, I hate it when people shovel the snow off their porch step, but don't clear the snow on their sidewalks.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by FangKC »

I hate when my neighbor plays accordion polka music all day in his garage.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

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Last edited by pash on Fri Feb 10, 2017 7:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by LenexatoKCMO »

Hipsters. Just once I would like to be able to walk around the neighborhood without encountering some 250lb + dude with his ass hanging out of his little sisters' jeans. All the more worse when said dude is on a moped or mis-sized fixie bike and the full moon winds up blotting out the sky. Can't we just have the craft beer and leave the ridiculous fashion cliches?
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by brewcrew1000 »

Pretty much everything in this city parking related bugs the crap out of me but i guess it does have its benefits in that its completely free pretty much everywhere. I really think if we had Meters and Regulations from Brookside to River Market there would not be a lot of backlash and it would make the city a little money.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by mean »

My single biggest pet peeve might be the "can lady" who goes around harvesting aluminum from everyone's garbage bags on trash day. The first time I caught her doing it, I had no idea what was going on. For all I knew this person was trying to find credit card applications or something to steal my identity, so I confronted her rather brusquely. When I realized it was a feeble little old lady who didn't speak English with a can in her hand, I felt kind of like a dick and began making it a point to keep any aluminum in a separate bag so she could just take it. Despite doing this for years, she has never gotten the hint that I don't want her to go through my freaking trash. Not just because it feels like a yucky privacy violation, although that's part of it, but because she makes a damn mess and every Wednesday I have to go out and clean up decomposing bits of leftover food, empty medicine bottles, whatever. And that's just the stuff that doesn't go blowing around the neighborhood.

The other irritating thing about this is that it encourages the dipshits in the neighborhood to just throw empty cans on the ground because, "can lady will get it". Well, yeah, probably, but do we really want discarded Busch tallboys sitting around on the sidewalk until she does? I don't. Ugh. There's enough of a trash problem around here without people willfully adding to it.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by auntbigdog »

The trash gets me. For a while someone was leaving an empty tallboy on our wall every single day. This was in addition to the usual cans and airplane bottles of Fireball we find in the hostas. It's gotten better since the liquor store moved two blocks further away -- I guess they can drink and pitch before our house now -- but there's still plenty to pick up.

People leave random crap: an ironing board on the front steps, track pants under a tree, five full and decomposing lawn bags in the parkway. And then there was the time someone stole a minivan and emptied it out on our property. At least the man who sits on our steps to eat dinner doesn't leave his garbage anymore, since I've started greeting him. My husband stopped a guy peeing on our wall, and I've seen guys on two separate instances stop their cars, alight, and piss right there in the middle of the street.

This is the price of living in the city, and one that I willingly pay, because I do love our neighborhood. But it doesn't prevent me from complaining. Jeez, people, pick up after yourselves! And plan your loo stops better!
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by Eon Blue »

I can't for the life of me understand why somebody would litter when a trash can is a few steps away. I see it all the time, especially near my office. Somebody will get food at QuikTrip, sit in the bus shelter and eat it, then leave the trash on the bench or ground when the stop has a trash can. Hell, just littering in general pisses me off.

I also loathe bus stop smokers. Then they get on the bus and carry their malodorous stench with them. It's bad enough when they smoke until their bus arrives, but sometimes they'll huddle in the shelter for a smoke, finish and just leave!
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by taxi »

As for parking meters, rrrrrrraahrrrrr. Most of them don't even function. You put a coin in and they don't work. And/or the plexi window is scratched and you can't read what it says, as in how much/how long and when. I often leave a note on the meter saying it's broken, sometimes I write it on there with a Sharpee, but I will still get a ticket. And the new fancy-pants meters, like by Oppenheim Park on Walnut... you cannot read most of the spaces' numbers that were painted, apparently, by Helen Keller, in chalk.
If I was king (or mayor or anyone with some spare funds to spend), I would initiate a study to find out how many of the city's parking meters work as they are supposed to. I would wager its' around 30%.
And I don't have any problem with working parking meters that are clearly labeled.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by smh »

I'm loving this thread. Very cathartic.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by bobbyhawks »

Channeling my inner old man... why is it that smokers somehow feel they are exempt from littering laws? This applies to more than just the urban core, but I'll even have people over to my house who feel like they can just throw a butt into my yard or onto my sidewalk.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by scooterj »

I don't live downtown anymore but I'm really enjoying this thread. :) Two of my peeves were already mentioned: people parking alongside bumpouts (in my case, along 3rd Street between Wyandotte and Broadway), and dog poo. The ground along the fenceline on north side of 2nd from Main to Delaware is paved with a continuous, unbroken sheet of dog turds.

Another of my peeves was something that probably goes unnoticed by most people but will start getting noticed more when those new apartments get built east of Market Station -- people in the Chase Bag building who throw their garbage out their windows instead of putting it where it belongs. The alleyway on the north side of that building contains all sorts of rotting food, broken beer bottles, and even dumped out cat litterboxes that were all quite obviously simply dumped out the windows above. Disgusting.

For a while the residents of Askew Saddlery couldn't seem to go more than a week without setting their building on fire, but that seems to have quieted down in the past couple of years. None of them can park worth a damn, though. :)
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by chingon »

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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by loftguy »

Cathartic? Damn right. Kind of represents this whole forum, to me.

My biggest pet peeve? People who are against _______________!!!!

I'm much more interested in what you are FOR and far less what you are against.

I have a zero tolerance for my neighbors who are............ against the streetcar, against the Sly James administration, against taxation, against Kansas City/Johnson County/East of Troost/North of the River, against the police department, against liquor licenses, against dog off-leash areas, against more housing downtown, against _________________________, and yet they are making no effort and spending no time FOR anything that moves our city forward. In most cases people are so poorly informed and unaware of the complexity and nuances of issues, that they have formed a meaningless assumption and are ultimately the bulk of the problems that our city faces. These people are sucking life and energy out of our growth.

I feel like you only get to bitch about the problems to the degree you are somehow, somewhere, a part of the solution.

Otherwise, just shut up.
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