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And we have a winner!

With Boston snowfall currently measured in microns, somebody has already put out a space saver on Juniper Street in Roxbury.

UPDATE, 10:15 p.m. The city has closed the complaint, saying crews will go around collecting space-saving crap 48 hours after the snow stops. But wait just a second there! The city also announced there's no snow emergency. The last time we got snow, the city said residents could save spaces during the emergency but would have to remove their items within 48 hours after the emergency was lifted. But without an emergency declaration, doesn't that mean there's no right to save a space? Oh, the head, she spins.

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Comments

If you didn't have to dig it out you shouldn't be able to save it. People just misuse this now.

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Even if you did dig it out, how does that give you the right to save the space when you're not using it? Imagine if everyone did that, then it would be impossible to park your car any place other than the spot it was in when the snow fell. What if that spot was at work, or out of town?

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Escalates once again.

See what happens when the city, illegally, looks the other way from the law? Property damage, illegal hording of public property, and and increasing escalation on the part of these nitwits.

Even odd snow emergency parking bans on consecutive days and plow to the damn curb. Time to stop the winter bullshit Menino.

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Even/Odd parking bans can't possibly work.

First of all, a lot of streets have parking on only one side anyhow. Secondly, where would you imagine putting all those cars that would be displaced by the even/odd ban?

My neighborhood had approximately 1300 on-street spaces. An even/odd ban would push 650 cars off the street. There aren't an extra 650 spaces in the commercial garages nearby.

People need to put some thought into the data before proposing solutions.

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> Even/Odd parking bans can't possibly work.

Yes. This is why no other cities use them.

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streets never get swept in summer.

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The summer street sweeping schedule was based on careful study. In my neighborhood, they actually went out and counted cars for a while, and determined that, on average, about 10% of the cars are moved on any given day. Accordingly, we have a street sweeping schedule that removes about 10% of the parking spaces on any given street sweeping day. 10% of the streets are swept first and third monday; another 10% are 2nd and 4th monday, another 10% first and third tuesday, etc.

The slop in the system and the commercial garages can absorb 10% of the street spaces for 4 hours in the morning. That's hugely different from even/odd, which would invalidate half the spaces for a much longer block of time.

See, the system was designed by someone who actually thought it through, and not by someone who said, "hey, even/odd works in Medford, let's try it here."

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Yes, of course it works in other cities; My entire point is that even/odd bans work in some places but that it isn't applicable everywhere.

It's a matter of density.

When the total number of cars registered in a neighborhood exceeds the number of on-street spaces by 5:1, when there are no driveways, and where there are not enough commercial garage spaces to absorb half the cars normally parked on the street, then it cannot work.

People need to think about the actual facts on the ground.

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Rosemary Street, Jamaica Plain.

Penfield Street, Roslindale.

Which makes you wonder: If we get so much snow the space savers are covered, do their owners shovel them out and then put out new space savers to save the space for the space savers?

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I know Menino has been sick, but he seems to have just given up doing his job he past year or two. 48 hours after a snow emergency is
ridiculous enough, but this is just laziness on his part.

Do your job Menino, and enforce the laws or else step aside and let someone else do it.

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Dug out the car, pulled into the road double parked, then pushed the sidewalk snow bank into the spot I vacated.

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Rather than rant and rave and fight over space savers, it might be worth trying to understand the underlying cultural problem and fix that.

A big part of it may be simple failure to think things through. 50 years ago, when there were many fewer cars, anyone who wanted a parking space could have one just by shoveling one out. Under those conditions, putting out a marker sort of made sense. But those days are ancient history... even 30 seconds of thought ought to lead you to recognize that the only way parking even sort of works is to share the limited number of spaces.

If I could have a civilized, face-to-face conversation with someone who believes in saving parking spaces, I would ask this:

"Where would you expect the nurse or firefighter who was working night shift (and therefore parked at work during the storm) to park when he or she returns home?"

Bear in mind that "shovel out a space for yourself" doesn't make any sense: in much of the city there is no such thing as an empty space: all legal spaces (and even some of the illegal ones) are filled every night.

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In some Boston neighborhoods, especially older ones where residents have lived for a long time, there is a deeply embedded sense of entitlement that the resident "owns" the parking space directly in front of their house. I have even seen residents argue with people who parked "in their space" even when there is no snow.

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I live in such a neighborhood. Those cones stay out year-round.

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I understand that the sense of entitlement exists, but it makes no sense.

To the people who believe that the space in front of their house "belongs" to them: If every legal street space belongs to the person who owns the abutting property, then where does the person who has a fire hydrant in front of his house park?

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Remove the damn thing yourself! Why ask the city to do it? Just kick the stupid cone/chair/whatever over to the sidewalk. Problem solved.

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1. Vandals Destroyed my Space Saver!!!!!!!

2. Destroyed furniture is blocking the sidewalk!!!

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That is a naive solution, which fails to take into account the violence with which the primitive space-saver personality will defend "his" territory. Removing the cone/chair/whatever is a good way to get your tires slashed (if you park in the space) or your jawbone broken.

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Hey "anon"

Before I go any further, let me go on record as NOT recommending my 'solution' to anyone else. I recommend everyone else continue to cower in deference to the almighty space saver. It sure beats anyone doing anything to stand up for themselves (and getting me sued).

Having said that I've got quite the survivor's tale to tell you. I have never had my tires slashed. I've never had my jawbone broken. Deep down, the douchebags who put space savers out *when there is no snow to speak of* know they are full of shit. They do not have the coglioni to do anything when someone calls their stupid bluff and moves their piece of crap out of the way that is saving a space that they didn't even shovel out, or that they shoveled out two months ago and the snow melted two months-minus-one-day ago.

They may say *someone* is going to do something. Just like *someone* is going to do something to all the yuppies and suburban transplants who've invaded their neighborhood. Yup, *someone* is going to smash the windows of all those damn BMWs that park in our neighborhood. *someone* is going to break the windows/rob/blow up the building where they built those damn expensive condos. "Someone" is going to....going to.. not do a damn thing except talk out their ass about someone doing something.

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