The Indian Neighbour

I live in a block of flats on a dead end street near some student dorms.

The area is extremely crowded and one can barely find parking space. Therefore we always race to occupy any free parking spot as soon as we spot it otherwise the students will occupy it.

Basically there are 4 parking spots for every 15 flats in the area. But as cars multiplied they are always scarce.

Although there are some people with two cars they manage somehow to juggle with the cars and still be reasonable.

However we have an Indian neighbour. Initially he had just one small car. Perfect one for the crowded area. He was sometimes visited by his in-laws for a week so a second car was parked near the block. His in-laws live about 300 meters away - so walking would not have been a problem.

Then a few of months ago he bought a second car. A huge old sedan that barely can be manoeuvred  in the tight space we have. The sedan is now occupying a place as he doesn't drive it for weeks.

We were not happy but as there were also other neighbours with two cars we accepted the situation.
But the situation has got worse. The neighbour just bought his 3rd car - a station-wagon. And again he doesn't drive it at all but keeps it parked near the next block - making also our neighbours happy.

It is not about the nationality of the neighbour. It is about the lack of coordination in the Romanian society and the lack of mechanisms of regulating excesses. The neighbour could have been Japanese, German or Romanian. The problem is the same. Adapt to the resources you have. Do not use shared/public propriety in an exclusive way.

There is no easy way for us to regulate this as the town hall is an opaque institution and there is no law that can be applied in this case. The parking is not given by God to the righteous ones but rather it is a resource that should be prioritised for those that really need a place nearby - people with young children, elder people, etc. If one is in any of the fore-mentioned categories this is not a right for a second (or even a 3rd or 4th car - if we count the in-laws) on all the 4 places our block has.

I do not understand why the town hasn't yet responded to our petition of marking the places. I am not expecting that they will rent them (as it's normal in other cities) but at least make the waste visible - this is the first step for creating a control mechanism.