Dead Cars in the Parking Lot and More

DMS General
#7

You know who the car owners are. The members(s) in question may not even read Talk forums. This is not the way to handle it.

A parable from a leadership class I once had:

A Manager had the same one or two employee always come in late on Mondays. He knows who they are because he sees them come in from his office, and their time cards are stamped. The other employees know who they are because…employees. The Manager sends out a memo: “It has come to my attention that some of you are coming in late sometimes. Please refrain form this activity”. One of the two perennially tardy employees scratches her head and thinks “hmmmm…he didn’t mention me specifically, he must not mean me”. The other one smiles his sneaky smile and thinks “my chicken-shit manager is too chicken-shit to confront me…I’ll just keep doing it”. The other employees seeing that the bad behavior goes unaddressed, other than by meaningless memo, when everyone knows who the tardy employees are and everyone knows the manager knows who the tardy employees are, decide “wtf, I’ll just come in late too since there are no consequences for bad behavior and my manager is to chicken-shit to confront us.” So more and more employees came in late, and later, and more and more memos are sent out. Etc., etc., etc.

Lesson: if there is a specific problem(s) and the specific person(s) causing the problem(s) is known, just deal with it directly, quickly, and professionally with the person(s). Handling in any other way, including ignoring, just leads to more of the problem, and other problems.

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#8

Each specific car will be addressed.

This is the polite notice that the issue is getting board focus. Get while the getting is good.

Also, the “Because they did it” excuse is just that. It is not a valid reason to break DMS rules.

Meanwhile, I know car issues can cascade. AND cars are VISIBLE. If this describes you, get in touch with Tom (TLAR on TALK) or Logistics if it is not an automotive issue, think of the van conversions.

(I am bloviating…)
I think the punishment should be if you are the cause of overspray, that you are given a very small toothbrush to clean up the mess and required to work on it at Noon on a hot day.

(I am SERIOUS.)
I would prefer that spray painting NOT be banned. Do not overspray!

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#9

There are at least two cars that we do not know who they belong to.

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#10

Not our problem. Just tow them. Some have been there since the board election. In 2017…

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#11

I am OK with that, although this is not the first time “polite notice” has been given, most notably here: https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Rules_and_Policies#Parking

OK, I stand corrected. Although it’s hard to believe no one (other than the owners) know who they belong to. I suggest posting pictures of the cars sufficient for identification and ask the membership to help out with identification. It’s been done before, for many different reasons.

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#12

Please help :slight_smile:

https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/is-this-your-car-1993-honda-accord-wagon/36683

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#13

image
image.jpg750×600 141 KB

Here:

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#14

I’ve already offered once. If someone will give me a tag number or VIN I can look up the registered owner.

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#15

I doubt that’s going to work since the car was bought at auction?

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#16

How many chances do we give people? A huge deal was made about parking a while back and now we are back to bending over backwards for people while they take advantage of us allowing them to break the rules. That thread was posted a week ago. Blows my mind that the car is still there. Tow it now. When? Now.

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#17

Sometime tomorrow?

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#18

Also, don’t we have it posted somewhere in the building what the parking rules are? If we do, there is no need for these talk threads. If we don’t enforce the rules, why do we ask people to follow them?

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#19

I’m not sure if we have the proper signage to be able to tow cars. I haven’t looked.

IIRC to tow cars, there must be a sign notifying people that they can be towed and informing them of the name of the towing company / impound lot their car will be towed to.

I’ll let the [other] armchair lawyers figure out the details.

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#20

I don’t know of anywhere in DFW where you can park a dead car for weeks or even longer unless it’s paid storage. This is common sense, a sign shouldn’t be necessary. I don’t recall ever seeing a sign that says don’t abandon your dead car in the parking lot, I thought everyone knew they would get towed for this.

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#21

If only we had the capability to make signs at the Space. Maybe someone should have a class.

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#22

It is kinda fun to do a search for the word “tow” on talk.

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#23

Signs are generally required for areas that are developed (so they can go find their car and pay the impound fee).

I thought there was one by the lot entrance for the property as a whole. Usually such towing services are retained by the landlord and the leases have access to the retainer. I don’t look for these signs explicitly so I could be wrong about its presence. However, members are required to abide by the rules so unless it was a guest, they can’t claim the didn’t know anyway.

EDIT: There is at least one tow sign on the property. Streetview won’t let me get clean views of the rest of the property.

EDIT 2: here’s the other visible on streetview, again still can’t get a clear view of a sign on some other entrances.

-jim

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#24

None of this is relevant, anyway. That’s all landlord business.

The question was whether we post anything IN the building informing DMS folks their cars might be towed. This, to me, is redundant to the landlord’s posted signs stating that overnight parking is not allowed. Then there’s the nuisance parking of DMS folks, such as blocking access to load or empty dumpsters, blocking dock bays (DMS’ and others), parking in front of other businesses during business hours (or leaving your broken hoopty in front of a business during business hours), etc. Things which seem like “common sense” when it comes to good neighboring but aren’t necessarily “legal matters”…

Again, all superflous to the current topic of “we may need to assist our landlord in enforcing their towing policy, so if you don’t want to get caught up in that, make sure your vehicle is not in the lot more than 24 hours”.

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#25

I know a guy that firesaled his car to comply with that mandate…

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#26

If it’s manual I’m willing to offer some money on this one, get it out of the owner’s hair, just saying

1 Like