Parking feud
DALLAS - A fight between two bickering neighbors over parking has quickly escalated in one Dallas neighborhood.
While the issue began over parking, it has grown into a battle pitting neighbor against neighbor in the Independence Park area of Dallas off Valley Mills Lane.
Both neighbors agree parking is a problem, but neither can agree how to fix the issue.
Eunice Grant, the vice president of the homeowners association in Independence Park, is among a dozen homeowners who filed a petition asking the City of Dallas to install no parking signs. They claim residents who own two or more cars began parking up on the curbs because of a lack of space at single dwelling homes.
With most of the homes having only single-car garages and short driveways, Candy Wells said the wayward parking made it difficult to see children crossing the street.
"It's a blind side," she said. "It's very dangerous when the sun comes up and the cars are coming on the side of the road."
But, those who opposed the signs that recently went up allegedly retaliated by breaking Grant's car window, poisoning her grass and trashing her front porch. Grant filed a police report and said the incidents have led to more stress that she doesn't need as she copes with multiple medical problems.
"I got cancer, diabetes too, high blood pressure, mini-stroke, lipidemia, rheumatoid arthritis," she said while taking off her wig to show her loss of hair from chemotherapy.
The situation has led the residents who live less than 10 feet away to become un-neighborly.
"She don't say nothing to us; we don't say nothing to her," said a neighbor of Grant.
"I'm not scared of none of them, and I mean that," Grant said.
Evelyn Harris, who has three cars, said the bickering began when her daughter's car was towed and visiting friends were ticketed.
"They parking on the side of the street where they can park and the rest are parking on their yard, just double up cars on one side of the street and the other side is vacant," she said.
Now, Harris is fighting back with a petition of her own. She wants the no parking signs removed and the freedom to park where she wants.
"I'm mad as hell because I don't think it's right," she said.
But, the city won't remove the no parking signs until 51 percent of the homeowners agree to their removal.
"We all got to get along in this neighborhood," Grant said. "They're not going nowhere and I'm not either."
Before the no parking signs were installed in March of last year, no tickets were issued in the neighborhood, according to the Dallas Traffic Enforcement Department. After the signs went up, 11 citations have gone out.
