Paying for your parking spot.
You must not be in small town rural Maine.
When the space to park your Civic or RAV4 is just not to be found in a crowded city landscape without digging deep into the purse or opening wide your wallet. Had a caller from Cambridge MA looking to relocate to Houlton Maine share with me about a parking spot she saw listed for $375,000. Come and get it, hot and ready admit one vehicle parking spot up for sale. Better hurry. I believe she said it just hit the real estate market in the Charles Street area where parking spaces have all but evaporated.
Like sports or musical arena seats, the better the parking spot, the proximity to where you need to be, the cost increases exponentially.
For safety sake in the urban jungle, you want to be close to the three chain locks, two dead bolts and security cameras of home sweet home right?
Not to have to hoof it head down and trying to look small. To not call attention to yourself for the stroll of many blocks away from home hoping your tazer still has a full charge. Did you remember to plug it in last night wracks your brain as your breathing increases in the ready to fight or flight.
Paying for a parking spot.
In small town Maine, the down town has plenty of spaces to park the iron horse. Fewer people competing for them and a large supply of where to park that works best for where you need to shop. Not miles from where you want to go in the pouring rain or wading through new fallen white fluffy snow. We spend money on other luxuries like groceries, heating oil or fire wood, property taxes, not a parking permit. The cars and trucks we drive are practical, made to last and treated with respect. Because money does not grow on trees to allow it to be any other way in frugal, common sense thinking Maine.
This real estate home buyer hoping to telecommute from Vacationland in Houlton Maine.
Plans to pack up the job to bring it up the pike along with the rest of her Worldly possessions.
Where she lives in the Boston area, she says her Subaru has a war torn battle weary front and rear bumper. No reason to repair or replace them because more dings and dents happen daily. She says people more and more drive like they are behind the wheel of a bumper car. Tar instead of a metal floor the only difference.
Maine is easy to drive, not hard to do the parking.
You don’t have to own by buying your parking spot and around your home, lots of where to park options exist. The houses lots boundary lines are not zipped tightly around the buildings and have lots of side, back, front land components for breathing room. You don’t find zero lot lines zoning happening in sparsely populated Maine.
With COVID, she read there are 30% more cars in the Boston area circling the parking lots and trolling the streets competing for a parking spot.
New drivers have not mastered the art of parallel parking either. So they screw up 1.5 or 2 spaces cocked eyed sideways when they throw the transmission into park and walk away.
The less than black belt city drivers also don’t hug the curb to get in out of harm’s way of the busy multi lane Bean Town streets.
So their ride is over the parking line and kitty corner spilling into the traffic. Great situation for body repair shops I guess. Depends on who’s ox is being gored who wins or loses.
The commuter lanes are closed off too for repurposing to handle all the bike traffic.
COVID made folks a little queasy about hopping on the many colored lines of growded in your face commuter trains. Many drive or bike that used to climb up and into all those big diesel smelling buses. You never really forget how to ride a bike or to kiss right? It’s more of a sport when vehicles are weaving in and out off lanes like asteroids all around you.
But no doubt ER’s have a little more customer base hobbling in the automatic sliding doors due to bike injuries.
Too much traffic moving along way too fast for safety sake leads to casualties and fatalities at a time hospitals are already red line RPM jammed to the max with a high no vacancy COVID census.
Maine, where I live only 11 people per square mile.
Where in New Jersey, the head count per same space is 1000 Earthlings. We don’t lock doors, the cars don’t get stolen. Plus not much that is exotic to temp the car jacker and most rides proudly display 200,000 and more odometer miles. Not all the fender colors match but the longer you hang onto and nurse or doctor a car, the more attached you get to it. You have lots of history with the vehicle that becomes an important part of the family.
Maine, where house lots are measured in acres not inches or a few feet.
Parking spaces, paying for one would cause a raised eyebrow at the mere suggest. Parking spots surround going round and round into a dark concrete multi level garage. Or you checking your watch to drop and stop everything. To hustle back in crunch time to feed the hungry parking meter. We park in our yards, own the land far from our houses in all four directions. Lots of breathing room and parking happens in our yards. Not out on the street to compete with a winter snow plow that can steal a side mirror in the blur.
Plenty of parking, not wall to wall living or pushing, shoving, road rage out of control.
You don’t dish it out like you receive it. Not grazing another’s vehicle bumper to open up a car parking space. Can you imagine being sardined in and hopping into your car, removing the car jack wedged into the steering wheel. And accelerating to ramming speed to push the car in front and behind you hard. A couple of times to open up some room. To back off jack “nulldozer”. To create space back and forth whittle your way and blast off into the high speed stream of traffic.
Paying for a parking spot.
That’s not living, that’s not Maine. Save your money for other more important things. The high cost and stress of parking is missing in Maine. One more reason to consider hanging it up, bailing out, taking your real estate poker chip winnings and high tailing it Maine, the way life should be.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA