Isn't this a little piggy?
M Street, South Boston: Maybe the wind moved it and maybe it didn't.
The BPS student in the family and I cruised around South Boston and Dorchester today looking for trouble interesting items used to save spaces after the weekend storm. Based on the number of kitty-littler containers and coolers we saw, there are an awful lot of household cats in Southie, where people really like to go on picnics. Also, people put those old little recycling bins to good use.
Edwin Street, Dorchester: It takes a village to save a street.
What is it?: We couldn't figure it out. Ashtray?
Those look like nice chairs: Be a shame if anything happened to them.
Traffic cones are like Lay's potato chips: You can't stop at just one.
Still nothing quite as good as the JP pregnant-lady chair, though.
Comments
I didnt get a picture, but my
I didnt get a picture, but my favorite so at least the most honest about the whole BS of Menino's space saver program. It was a chair saving an unshoveled, snow-covered space.
We came home tonight to a
We came home tonight to a stolen spot... someone had unceremoniously dumped our trash can in the street and parked in our space. The urge to dig my keys into that Durango's paint job is near impossible to quash.
Stolen spot?
Unless you actually own spot, it's not a stolen spot. If you own a car and you store it on public property it's just a fact of life that you to dig it out after it snows. Once you leave, it's no longer your space. I don't know why some people in Southie and some parts of Dorchester think they're more special than those of us in the rest of the city who seem to get along just fine without littering our streets with their garbage to claim a piece of public property that they don't own. The City is being very charitable by turning a blind eye to these code violations for 48 hours. Also, I'd think twice about damaging someone else's car. After all, you don't know if they were the one who moved your garbage out of the way in the first place.
According to the Globe: By
According to the Globe:
I tried looking in the city ordinances for the law referred to by the Globe and found nothing. If the Globe is correct, it sounds like you're wrong, but as I said, I can't find the law.
they cover it under parking ban information...
you can see it here.
only it doesn't quite say that you can always hold parking spaces for 48 hours. basically it says that when there is a declared snow emergency, you have 48 hours after the snow emergency ends to remove your "spacesaver".
so, no snow emergency = no spacesaver. and it doesn't exactly make it illegal to remove a spacesaver and part in that spot. just that the city turns a blind eye to it, and won't throw out your chair/cone/ashtray/babycarriage for 48 hours.
Not ordinances, I don't think
The parking webpage refers to it as a "regulation."
http://www.cityofboston.gov/snow/parking/
I'm guessing that from a legal standpoint, the idea is more that laws allow the city to remove anything (other than a legally parked car) unattended in a public street and dispose of it correctly (trash in the trash, dogs to the pound, etc.), but that the city has a posted policy of waiting 48 hours to apply this to space savers. The site doesn't say anything about the savers granting a legal right to the space or anything.
Exactly, There's no law, just
Exactly,
There's no law, just a stated policy that the city won't throw out your trash littering the street for 48 hours.
As for parking, Neal is spot on. You don't know if it was the same car (frequently assholes who know they need to run in somewhere for a second will do this, leaving the damage to the sap that thinks he found an open space later), and even if it was it's not your space.
It took me all of 30 min to shovel out my car from our "09 Nor'easter". I don't see how 30 min of work entitles anyone to hold a slab of public property hostage for 48 hours (in Southie it's frequently a week, or until 80% of the snow in the spaces melts)
Oh, there doesn't even have to be snow
Certain areas of Southie have trash barrels and chairs and crap in the road year-round.
You work for it. It's yours.
You work for it. It's yours. Don't likeit? MOVE! This is how it's been in Dorchester all my life everbody knows the rules and evrybody gets along fine.
30 min of shoveling is
30 min of shoveling is "Work"?
I hope you don't "Work" in a government job.
Part of Owning a Car
But also part of not owning your own space.
If you don't like it, walk or take the T. Lots of people do when the weather is bad. Better yet, buy your own space and then you can complain.
RE:"evrybody gets along fine"
In Dorchester? Really? We're talking about Dorchester in Massachusetts, right?
God bless them for taking
God bless them for taking your spot. A medal they should get. It's aggressive jerks such as yourself who give this city a bad name. And that's what it is--it's not about the parking spot. It's about sticking it to all the outsiders you think are coming in to steal what is rightfully yours. Well it ain't yours--it's a public street and you shouldn't be able to put out your broken chairs and claim your territory. I don't even have a car and this issue drives me nuts.
Don't key the offender's car because it might have been me who dumped your can in the street or threw your chair in a snowbank.
Whit
Whit, as much as I agree with
Whit, as much as I agree with you, don't do that unless you plan on parking there.
Because someone else will come by, see a free space, and have to deal with some tools overblown ego in the form of vandalism.
And right there is the ultimate problem of all this childish behavior. It's common law by the mob; very ineffective and arbitrary in how it deals with enforcement and punishment. Ultimately the residents and community are hurt by it.
I do that all the time, take
I do that all the time, take the trash the hillbilly's put out and free up the space for someone else. If someone vandalizes a car that parks there, I don't think you can argue that mob rule is in effect.
Wanting to damage someone's car just because they parked
Wanting to damage someone's car just because they parked in your space, which, btw, you don't own, is the sign that you're losing control of yourself. Cool it, before you get out of control and get into trouble, and get help, meanwhile. It sounds like you need it.
Double-parking space saver
Given the way Southie's residents like to both save parking spaces and double park, I suspect that the M Street trash barrel in the middle of the road reserves that spot for double parking until April.
Move it and your car will be keyed.
Best Saver & Fundraising Idea
Best (worst?) saver I've seen the in the 8 winters I've lived in Southie is a toilet. I wish I had taken a photo, but that was before my phone had a camera.
I've always thought that a great fundraiser for a Southie non-profit would be a calendar featuring photos of space savers. July could be a lawn chair... December a snow shovel, etc.
hah
Funny how those that feel the need to comment against such actions are the same people who don't live in Southie, and therefore probably don't have a clue about it.
Having live in Southie as
Having live in Southie as well as other parts of Boston, Southie is not the hardest part of the city to find parking. There are much more densley populated parts of the city (fenway, south end) without much parking too. But its the hillbilly culture of Southie, as well as Meninos spine free "leadership" that has led southie to be king of the trash strewn streets.
Little slow today?
I live in Southie and abhor it, even as I practice it because I'm forced to do so.
It needs to stop. There's a laundry list of vandalism against private property because of pig headed residents views that they own a public parking space because they had to get off their lazy asses for 30 min to shovel out their space.
Even / Odd parking bans for snow removal, much like street sweeping, would be the easiest and best way to deal with the problem, but that would require residents to pressure city hall or some political leadership. Where's Michael Flaherty now?
Street Cleaning
I'm with anon2 We can get cars moved one a month for street sweeping why can't we do the same for snow removal.
The week following a snow storm insist all cars are moved (Odd/Even) and clean the streets
Somerville now bans parking on even sides of rds.
Somerville now bans parking on the even-numbered sides of streets during a declared snow emergency and allows residents who are unable to find parking to park in designated school or municipal parking lots until the snow emergency is lifted. The city has also cracked down on the reserving of parking spaces, especially with chairs and other furniture. Both are excellent ideas, imho. All of the above being said, regarding the situations in Southie, Dorchester, or other parts of Boston, it seems as if better snow removal by the city is in order, and maybe, if everybody shoveled out their own parking space, that, too, would help. In either case, people might not feel the need to put furniture or whatever out the middle of a parking space to reserve it, and there wouldn't be so many car-keyings, assaults, etc., as a consequence of that.
use the new bins
the wheeled recycle bins are so big and expensive, I don't think the city would trash them
Get an old television set,
preferably a 1970's console job on wheels, as a space saver. By law, the trash collectors CAN'T take it away.
Well ...
Yeah, the regular guys can't, but you can call the city up to schedule a special pickup of TVs and monitors, so I suppose the city could have one of those trucks drive around picking them up.
Interesting. I'm not a City of Boston resident, so
this is the first I've heard of any Massachusetts city or town that actually has a curbside pickup program for TV sets. Most cities and towns only allow you to dispose of TVs and computer monitors on specially designated "haz-mat" days, whereby you not only have to haul the stuff to the collection site, but also pay the city or town a fee for the stuff to be taken away.
I don't mind paying a fee, but if I'm going to, they should have curbside pickup - just like they do for old air conditioners and refrigerators. After all, freon is also a "haz-mat", isn't it?
Yes. Just look on the City
Yes. Just look on the City of Boston website and arrange a pick-up day. They will come and pick up your old TV.
Whit
Wait, what? Boston does something better than the suburbs?
Yay, Boston!
Yeah, it's pretty cool - you call the DPW (I think you can do it online, too) and leave the TV or monitor outside by 7 a.m. on our normal trash day (well, for those of us with just one pickup a week; dunno about the three-times-a-week neighborhoods) and voila, it goes away.
Boston has for years
Quincy does it too.
My neighbors with less civic pride will put TV's/AC's out with the trash and then just leave them there when they aren't picked up.
I just call the city and give the address. DPW says put it out on your normal day. I say sure and they come and get it where it's been sitting all week.
Spotsavers = Douchebags
Anyone who saves "his, her, their" spot is a complete douchebag. The street is a public way, not private property. So it took you 10 minutes to dig YOUR car out of a public spot. That does not somehow give you quasi-ownership rights to the spot. People who do this crap essentially are complete selfish morons who are saying FU to all of their neighbors. They can go F themseives and die. Use of these space-savers is morally indefensible.
The only reason Menino allowed the 48-hour post-snow-emergency rule is because he is a complete dunce and a coward. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. That a-hole just cares about votes.
Douchebaggery
Anyone who saves "their" spot is a complete douchebag. The street is a public way, not private property. So it took you 10 minutes to dig YOUR car out of a public spot. That does not somehow give you quasi-ownership rights to the spot. People who do this crap essentially are complete selfish morons who are saying FU to all of their neighbors. They can go F themseives and die. Use of these space-savers is morally indefensible.
The only reason Menino allowed the 48-hour post-snow-emergency rule is because he is a complete dunce and a coward. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. That a-hole just cares about votes.
new
I'm sure those that are complaining are new to the area and probably knew this before they moved here. Boo-hoo for you because daddy spent 500k on your new condo, and now you want to try to change the way things are and have always been.
Don't like it? Move somewhere else.
One day Im going to rent a
One day Im going to rent a pickup truck and drive around town amassing a collection of fun items