Garage/Door Eye Opener

Posted on September 4, 2005 by Gene

Three days ago, new phone books were distributed in my neighborhood. Right now, I am sitting on my patio overlooking the street, and every house across the street still has the phone book sitting on the front stoop, along with newspapers, city council campaign flyers, delivery pizza menus, and business cards from various cleaning companies.
You’d think that this neighborhood was either completely deserted or populated by shut-ins. In fact, the problem is the prevelance of garages.
Every house here has a garage, and the vast majority of people only ever exit or enter their house through it. In fact, almost everywhere I look in California, homes have attached garages — something that was far more rare back in DC.
So, no one ever uses their front doors, and the garbage piles up in front of it.
And in the garage as well — of the people who do use their front door, a sizeable majority do so because they’ve filled the garage up with junk and can no longer park their car in it. Thus, despite all the garages here, many people still park on the street. The street at night is jammed with cars, in the midst of homes which all have two-car garages.
What a bizarre relationship we have with our cars, eh?
Just for the record, my car lives happily by itself in my two-car garage, taking short spins on the road once every few days. I use my front door at least 3 times a day when I walk the dog, so you’ll never find paper accumulating there.