Priorities

As a member of the Board of Directors of the homeowners association I live in, particularly my role as President, I sometimes have to enforce the rules of the association. It's never fun. Unfortunately, today was one of those days.

We have assigned parking here. Every spot is either associated with an apartment or is reserved by the HOA to be rented out on a first-come-first-served basis. We don't ask much for the spots, just $5 per month or $50 for a year, because revenue is a secondary concern to maintaining order - if all spots are not spoken for in some way, and if there is no cost associated with acquiring a spot, people end up taking more than they need, which generally leads to them further taking more than they're allowed and displacing their neighbors.

I had one gentleman's car towed away today because he has taken spots that are not his again and again. He's been warned numerous times about parking out of place, and reminded as many times that spots can be rented for not much money. But now instead of $5 a month for parking, he gets to pay our HOA's $50 fine for violating the parking policy, approximately $110 for towing fees, and whatever impound charge the towing company assesses on top of all of that. After paying out all of that money, he still will not be allowed to park in our parking lots.

The whole time this person has lived here, he has always been able to come up with money for cigarettes, probably a lot more than $5 per month worth.

That's why I've entitled this post "Priorities," because knowing how to set them would clearly help this guy a lot. On the other hand, I supposed I could entitle it "Don't Steal."