What are your city's unwritten "laws"?

[Obadno]

Water cannot be charged nor refused if able to provide.

This actually might be a written law idk.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

There's a similar rule for Charlotte -- If you get on anything named Queens, get off as soon as possible. Staying on Queens Road or any of the dozens of other streets with Queens in their name can only end in tears, especially at the intersection in Myers Park where Queens meets Providence, except if you're on Queens Road and turn right you stay on Queens Road. If you're on Providence Road and turn right, you're still on Providence.

Jesus that sounds/looks confusing.

Regarding the 7s, this is probably more of a me thing because I'm a terrible driver (ask Glowrock), but 7th Street and 7th Avenue in Central Phoenix have reversible "suicide" lanes where, IIRC, the suicide lane is for southbound traffic during morning rush hour and northbound in the evenings.

I used to work at Park Central in Midtown and would take I-10 to 7th Avenue northbound in the mornings and watched a lot of near misses and close calls because someone wasn't paying attention. Thank god most of Phoenix is on a grid (Grand Avenue being the outlier), because I always hated trying to make left turns on the 7s on weekdays.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Yes, in Pittsburgh, it's really only a widely accepted thing to claim your spot if there's a big snowfall and you shovel your spot out. But there are plenty of idiots who think it's somehow acceptable to do it year round... often in neighborhoods with a lot of bars/restaturants and/or students... causing residents to think they have a right to their spot because they live there. As I'm sure you can imagine, it is a source for conflict in neighborhoods.

I think a lot of it emanates from the highly-fractured physical nature of Pittsburgh. Because of the extreme topography, neighborhoods function like separate little towns unto themselves more than one generally observes in a city. A very insular mindset, even within the city, is still present. The physical separation breeds a psychological separation, and a certain level of suspicion. I guess it's that feeling of having to protect your turf from the outsider. Appalachia.


Acceptable:





Totally unacceptable:

If I saw that I'd just assume people were too lazy to take their junk to the city dump and were hoping someone would take their garbage away for them.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by isaidso

If I saw that I'd just assume people were too lazy to take their junk to the city dump and were hoping someone would take their garbage away for them.

Yeah, I don't even think this would register. I'd just think this is street trash.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by isaidso

If I saw that I'd just assume people were too lazy to take their junk to the city dump and were hoping someone would take their garbage away for them.

lol those chairs wouldnt last long in st louis, the alley crawling unlicensed junk vehicles piled grapes of wrath style considers anything not chained down up to the house facade free for the taking

[Steely Dan]

^ the alley crawling junkers in chicago, who generally also operate with the same "take anything not bolted down" mentality, know not to mess with anything left in a street parking space after a big snowfall.

It's just part of the city's culture.

[Razor]

Ottawa

Lights out by 11:00, obey the rules, no loitering, littering or wild parties.
Disobey, and you'll be told to obey again by elderly, semi-retired civil servants wearing knee highed dress socks and golf shorts. Take your semantics down the road to Montreal.

[Centropolis]

large groups of people drinking beer from coolers in open containers in the open streets is fine if somehow attached to a sporting event and even more tolerated on a day drinking holiday (st pattys, mardi gras, baseball opening day, etc). as long as most people are white in the masses (just the reality of it). im not even sure there is a public intoxication law. open containers are on the books as legal in cars in missouri. theres a slew of muni ordinances about alcohol sales.

open containers are also fine if you present a certain way... :/

go cups were low key a thing in st louis bars just like new orleans. now of course its all above ground now to support bars.

[mrnyc]

in nyc one time in the east village i saw a couple eames lounge chairs and ottomans out on the street/curb. not sure they were trying to save spaces though. those things are $5500. rich kids moving out they just dump everything.

[deja vu]

It is interesting to me that many of these rules are related to the automobile in some way - driving, parking or otherwise. The Pittsburgh chair / dibs rules are definitely true and widespread. I spent 90% of my time in that city without a car though, so I didn't have to deal directly with it.

Kalamazoo is really too small to have its own unwritten rules I think. The only thing I can think of is, you will get silently judged by locals if you are at a local brew pub and you order a craft beer that is non-local. I would probably have to zoom out / go more regional to think of some more.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

Cincinnati (and apparently also St. Louis): When asked "what school did you go to" means high school, not college. Its how to figure who's local and who isn't, as well as to also form opinions of someone's character and ethos quickly if someone went to a rival high school (high school football in Greater Cincinnati is serious business).

People do this everywhere. About 15 years ago I went to a dinner in New York City and a few people from Paris, France were there and they asked each other which schools they went to.

My high school in Cincinnati is 190 years old. Both sides of my family have lived in the same neighborhood for 150 years. When I hear the phrase "community" thrown around in the media I can't help but roll my eyes because the people in a hurry to use the phrase don't know what the good and bad is that comes with being part of a true community.

The high school boundaries do not align with neighborhood boundaries because the Catholic school neighborhoods don't align with the public school districts. In addition, a few of the Catholic schools are not part of the archdiocese and so draw from across the metro area.

A fair number of Cincinnati-area high school students live in Kentucky or Indiana. Similarly, some Covington Latin students live in Cincinnati and some Cincinnati girls attend all-girls Oldenburg in Indiana.

[deja vu]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

People do this everywhere. About 15 years ago I went to a dinner in New York City and a few people from Paris, France were there and they asked each other which schools they went to.

My high school in Cincinnati is 190 years old. Both sides of my family have lived in the same neighborhood for 150 years. When I hear the phrase "community" thrown around in the media I can't help but roll my eyes because the people in a hurry to use the phrase don't know what the good and bad is that comes with being part of a true community.

The high school boundaries do not align with neighborhood boundaries because the Catholic school neighborhoods don't align with the public school districts. In addition, a few of the Catholic schools are not part of the archdiocese and so draw from across the metro area.

A fair number of Cincinnati-area high school students live in Kentucky or Indiana. Similarly, some Covington Latin students live in Cincinnati and some Cincinnati girls attend all-girls Oldenburg in Indiana.

Very true. The competition between Catholic schools can be quite intense. I attended Catholic HS in Pontiac, MI. I had classmates that commuted by car from Canada daily. There were any number of schools that were closer that they could have gone to, but our school competed with other schools in Metro Detroit to attract students from across the border. It could be a 1.5 hr. one-way-trip for them, depending on traffic at the Ambassador Bridge (7am start, mind you, so they were waking up at 5:00 am or earlier to get to class in another country)

We truly were an "international" campus

[MolsonExport]

In Montreal, it is not recommended that one walk around town with a Boston Bruins jersey. Especially not during hockey season. You won't get beaten up, but you will get ugly looks and maybe some jeers.

[JManc]

I wore my NY Rangers hat with pride the last time I was in Montreal.

[MolsonExport]

There isn't much (recent) rivalry between the Habs and the Rangers. But the Bruins...ouch.

[Pedestrian]

For the last 4 years, the main "unwritten rule" I can think of in San Francisco was, "don't wear anything implying support for Trump." It could get you killed and likely would get you insulted and assaulted.

Things on that front are relaxing now and we are back to pretending. Pretend the pile of dung on the sidewalk is from a dog; pretend you don't see the guy pulling down his pants and depositing that sort of thing on a Main Street in mid afternoon; step around the person passed out on the sidewalk and pretend you don't see him (one such person recently was a dead body who laid in the busy roadway median all afternoon, ignored even by the police).

Also, when crossing the street, just go whenever you want and take your time. Pedestrians have the right of way. No need to worry about the cars coming at you. The law says they have to stop. Hopefully they are driven by people more law-abiding than you.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by deja vu

Very true. The competition between Catholic schools can be quite intense. I attended Catholic HS in Pontiac, MI. I had classmates that commuted by car from Canada daily. There were any number of schools that were closer that they could have gone to, but our school competed with other schools in Metro Detroit to attract students from across the border. It could be a 1.5 hr. one-way-trip for them, depending on traffic at the Ambassador Bridge (7am start, mind you, so they were waking up at 5:00 am or earlier to get to class in another country)

We truly were an "international" campus

Wow, I didn't know such a daily commute across the border was possible. Some kids on the islands in Lake Erie fly to school every day on the Ohio mainland.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

The high school boundaries do not align with neighborhood boundaries because the Catholic school neighborhoods don't align with the public school districts. In addition, a few of the Catholic schools are not part of the archdiocese and so draw from across the metro area.

A fair number of Cincinnati-area high school students live in Kentucky or Indiana. Similarly, some Covington Latin students live in Cincinnati and some Cincinnati girls attend all-girls Oldenburg in Indiana.

You're right, and I should've explained that. Having no affiliation with any of them, it never ceased to amuse me the animosity between Moeller, Elder and St. X when it comes to sports, and you'll find all sides of the rivalries throughout the Tri-State. I grew up in Newtown and remember the rivalry between Turpin and Anderson being pretty fierce, but nowhere near on the same level as the schools in the GCL.

Then again, my dad's side of the family has about three or four generations that attended Highlands High School in Fort Thomas.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Wow, I didn't know such a daily commute across the border was possible. Some kids on the islands in Lake Erie fly to school every day on the Ohio mainland.

I once attended a summer day camp in Windsor, ON. My father crossed the border twice a day Mon-Fri to drop off/pick up.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Wow, I didn't know such a daily commute across the border was possible. Some kids on the islands in Lake Erie fly to school every day on the Ohio mainland.

On both sides of the country. Plenty of Mexicans work in the US (legally) and I once had an Arizona neighbor who worked in Mexico.