Homemade No Parking Sign in Westover?

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by ARLnow.com March 25, 2011 at 1:34 pm 3,389 63 Comments

A tipster sent us this photo of a spray-painted no-parking sign in front of a dumpster on 11th Street N., near the intersection with N. Kennebec St., in Westover.

“What right does someone have to do this?” the outraged tipster asked. “Can I report this to the county?”

The answer is yes — county officials say the spray paint can be reported to the police as graffiti since it’s on public property.

It’s unclear who is responsible for the rogue no-parking sign — the owner of the residential complex, the waste disposal company or a random graffiti prankster — and it’s not clear if we’ll ever find out. Police say that unless the graffiti is gang-related, it’s simply noted in a report and referred to a county agency for clean-up.

Overgrown Bush

My guess would be the same person painted the street as painted the home made wooden sign.
- Ernie
  
  Never mind. It was all just a dream…
  - duh
    
    Nice photo shop work. CS5 content aware is tight, am I right or whut?
    - Ernie
      
      only used the clone tool, didn’t try content aware. CS5 is awesome but the content aware tool doesn’t work nearly as well as it appears in the youtube videos that built all the hype. Mostly only use it for wide open landscapes, otherwise it throws in a bunch of random stuff that can be more of hassle to take out than simply cloning patches.
Westover

Would rather they spray “Slow the heck down 8am-9am!” There are multiple school bus stops right across the street from there at Westover Park, and folks speed down 11th Street going 40+ mph trying to avoid Washington Blvd traffic.

I don’t know why you would need two days of no parking there, but I have seen the trash crew forced to roll the dumpster down the block to get it picked up.
- Chris
  
  My condo has the dumpster emptied 3x a week, and often times that isn’t enough. Believe me we know when the truck wasn’t able to access our dumpster and the on-site guys do a great job normally of keeping it from being blocked, if they can. They are great guys, and that isn’t a great aspect of their job.
  - Westover
    
    But two days in a row?
    - GMo
      
      One day for trash the other for recycling?
      - Westover
        
        If that is it, the contractors need to work on coordination.
Arlresident

Yeah, it was a gang for sure… because gangs are concerned about saving parking spots.
- Tre
  
  It’s an anti-recycling / pro-garbage gang… must be an offshoot of the tea partiers.
  - Joe M.
    
    +1
    - Tabby
      
      Ditto.
Chris

I would assume it is the entity renting the dumpster. I live in Ballston near the strip mall (with the sports bar, burger place and 7-11). The strip mall has similar signs, albeit not homemade, in front of the dumpster on their parking lot. (No parking from X to Y on A – Z days) It is so that the hauler can get to the dumpster and empty it. If it is blocked by a car, the trash company not only charges for the visit, but they don’t empty the dumpster, which is very bad given how often that dumpster needs to be emptied.

If the tipster is a resident there, they may not want to complain because it just ups the fees of getting rid of trash if they have to find another place for the dumpster.
Git”R”Done

doesn’t surprise me in that neighborhood. Has anyone SEEN the locals who rent in those roach-dens in the 1100 block of Kensington, Kennebec, and Kenilworth? It’s as if you were teleported to the section 8 housing areas of Wheeling, Charleston, or Huntington West Virginia. Cars parked on gravel between buildings; satellite TV lines shared and running from window to window; neighborly smoking meetups; exotic reptiles and obese cats; laundry hanging out of windows to dry; circle of plastic deck chairs around the charcoal barbeque; and the fresh scent of virginia slims and catnip. In my apartment hunt, I took one ride through there, and rolled out with a “hell no!”
- CW
  
  Wow, my interest that area was just piqued bigtime; throw in some Busch Light and NASCAR references and I’d be asking where I could sign on the dotted line.
  - GMo
    
    Well I have seen a few Busch Light cans around there and I’m pretty sure a pick-up that parks there has a NASCAR sticker on it. So there you go. Come join the party Westover is a kick-ass neighborhood!
    - CW
      
      For the record, my above comment was NOT a joke.
      - V Dizzle
        
        Don’t forget the rampant AIDS. They have that going for them too. (note: no they don’t)
- KalashniKEV
  
  It’s “Coming soon to Clarendon!”
- Westover
  
  A lot of hard working parents with good kids are in there too.
- mehoo
  
  It’s so tough being wealthy.
  - GMo
    
    The more money you have, the more you have to loose!
- R0bespierre
  
  This is how, like, most of the world lives.
- Westover
  
  I live just a few blocks away, and while the buildings are not pretty like the new ones sprouting up at overly inflated rents in Clarendon, I see none of these crimes that you mention. Trying to start some sort of class warfare? You have a variety of folks living there. Immigrant families, young recent college grads on their first job, teachers, military, etc. Other then a crime of bad taste in some automotive aftermarket design add ons, I have not been concerned with crime at all.
  - GMo
    
    Just let them believe what they believe, hopefully it will keep this wacko out of our neighborhood!
    - Westover
      
      And keep those folks’ rent from going up if the redevelopment “affordable housing corporation” team gets their hands on it.
      - GMo
        
        Most of those are Paradigm Property Management Affordable Housing Units. That group is a bit different from how AHC rolls. I think the tax credit for those buildings is good until 2020, hopefully the owner will renew rather than sell to developers.
      - Westover
        
        Neither is a blessing to current residents. A few folks in the Westover Apartments got the boot in the renovations because their income had gone up since they moved in, and everyone else got a stuck with a not so modest increase in rent. Luckily the five story monstrosity was killed by the dip in the economy. Admittedly, some folks made out with the renovations, but others lost decent low cost housing.
- South Arlington
  
  It’s not that fancy, but it’s not that bad. Not nearly as bad as your grammar, diction and spelling.
- duh
  
  You’re a idiot dude. I have a friend that lives over there and I can tell you it’s not that bad at all. There are a few buildings that look like they have seen better days. The people who live there are quite nice normal hard working people. I’ve never seen any crime there and never had a problem walking around the area at night. Also I’ve never seen anything like you speak of in the area. I would have no problem living there.
  - pollosmoky
    
    I loved living in Westover, right on Kensington St. too. It was a really low crime area and I *never* felt threatened there. Building condition depends to a large degree on the landlord. For the people who don’t like that kind of mixed neighborhood, stay in your happy little cul-de-sac’ed development and don’t worry your pretty little heads about a neighborhood that isn’t yours. I’m sure Ashburn’s got a place waiting for you.
    
    [the only reason I don’t live there any more is that I couldn’t afford to buy in the neighborhood – no condos, only townhouses & duplexes at $400k and up]
- Git”R”Done
  
  I wouldn’t go as far as saying the area should be condemned. They’re just peace loving people missing some teeth who keep to themselves and enjoy the finer things in life. NASCAR, Bud Light, Virginia Slims, moonshine, meth, and anything to do with Walmart. We don’t have Chinatown or Little Italy, we got Little Wheeling!
CW

The first time someone gets their parked car thrown across the street by a garbage truck, there won’t be a need for a sign anymore, I can assure you…
Sunny617

The logical side of me says it’s the garbage company (or the building that owns the Dumpster) clearing it for trash day.

The hopeful side of me says Westover Market is combating opponents by turning the proposed Beer Garden into a food truck. Hopefully one of these graffiti signs will show up outside my building, too! I call Mondays and Thursdays, please. 🙂
Rosslynite

I think “outraged tipster” needs to get a little perspective. There must be more pressing societal woes to combat.
charlie

i’m going with the one broken window pane theory —
if you don’t nip it in the bud things get worse.
we had a neighbor do the same thing — paint lines for ONE parking space in front of their house because they were tired of people squeezing in two compacts.
County came and “unpainted” the spaces.
But seriously, what if everyone started painting the street for their own uses? i mean it is bad enough what the county does to the streets to control our lives.
- R0bespierre
  
  I used to live over on Danville right by the main strip and the transient parking was annoying enough to almost make me wanna spray paint spots too. The stretch of curb right in front of the house was big enough for two vehicles but people who were coming to visit WF or the bike shop (especially large truck owners) would just span the whole thing like a single spot. Kinda gave me a little sympathy for parking enforcement because so many people just don’t even think about basic nuisance behavior like this, they are too busy yammering on the phone or something.
  - Maria
    
    I know there are worse things in life, but people who park with no regard to common sense and courtesy (3 feet away from the end of the curb, for example) are one of my biggest pet peeves.
rick

maybe it was the same guy with the home made stop sign camera and sign at washington and westmoreland.
Bard

You can’t put up your own homemade “no parking” signs on public property, either. Some jerks in my old North Highlands neighborhood did this just because they didn’t like people parking legally on the street in front of their house. I wrote an email to the county (can’t remember exactly which department — think it might have been parking enforcement/zoning). They replied within a day and the signs were down within 2 days.
JohnW

I’m shocked shocked…another innocuous story and somehow some of the regular posters find a way to spew their bigotry, whether it’s racially, geographically, economically or socially based.
I like arlnow for giving me county stories, some of it news some of it simply slice of life stuff. If I didn’t know better I’d think Arlington was full of condescending bigots who believe they are perfect and everyone else is a fool.
I really wish arlnow could find a way to clean up the response section. The only negative thing about the site.
- Tre
  
  good point, but I believe/hope most of it is said in jest
  - Aaron
    
    Racially, geographically, economically, or socially based bigotry?!?!
    
    Shoot, we’re still missing genderly, orientationally, automotively, bicyclally, educationally based bigotry!!! Please let’s all rise to the task of generating more diverse snark.
    - Rick
      
      you forgot anti-animalistic. I saw mentions of obese cats
- GMo
  
  Welcome to the internet, friend.
  
  SOP is DFTT.
cj

Regrettably, these attitudes are here. Would you rather not know about them? At least on this site, there are enough civil, tolerant and sensible people to challenge the negative posts.
Overgrown Bush

Just plant a tow truck around the corner before the trash pickup times…problem solved.
- arglebargle
  
  And what would you suggest these planted tow truck drivers do to legally parked cars on public streets?
  - Overgrown Bush
    
    According to the spray paint, it isn’t legal. LOL
arglebargle

No sandwich boards in front of shops, but dumpsters on the sidewalk? OK!

Where are the sign police when we need them!?!?!
- Overgrown Bush
  
  Good point. This is a sign for AAA.
- Cranky Crankypants
  
  The dumpsters aren’t on the sidewalk – they’re on the mudpad next to it. But the mad painter is increasingly prolific, and increasingly cranktacular. Get off my lawn.
  - pollosmoky
    
    Teehee, you said “cranktacular,” I think I’m in love…
Mike

It’s the county doing this. They are trying to save money. Leav’em alone.
duh

The point is the person who rents the dumpster is not god. He has no right to say you can’t park here on these days of the week, and further more has no right to spray paint the sidewalk and street that he does not own. If that’s the case I’m going to do the same in front of my house so I can park in front of it when ever I like.
Gang Graffiti

We still have MS-13 graffiti on a green electric transformer behind the CostCo in Crystal City. Going on 4 months now.
Kathy on Columbia Pike

What this property owner needs to do is create a little driveway onto the property with a concrete pad nearby that the dumpster sits on. Then the truck can pull into there and empty the dumpster. And if anyone parks in the driveway, then they can be towed, provided they put up No Parking- Tow Zone signs.
- Pink EYE
  
  Yes but that would cost way more than a can of spray paint.
Pink EYE

Looks like I just found my new parking spot on tue/wed.
arlbar

I am ready to spray paint the street in front of my house. DBs all hours of the day and night…half-blocking the driveway, etc. THOUGH–it does provide some late night hours of entertainment watching Arlington’s finest line them up in handcuffs along the curb…while the scream and yell and literally cry.

My husband likes to take a piss on their cars on our way back from a night out.

Good times!
I looked

Dumpster says: for 1100 Kennebec only. One look at the building tells you that the owner needs to worry about fixing up his crappy building and worry less about his dumpster
P-town

arlbar, keeping it classy!

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