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New handicap ramp in South Boston put to good use

Southie parking space

File this under "Only in Southie."

Technically, a concerned citizen was complaining about this, but hey, give the person credit for just parking a car on that "yard" instead of applying to the zoning board for a six-unit condo building on the space, amirite?

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Comments

"You're suspect."

I'm not one to immediately think "insider deal" when I see something like this, but this one definitely looks fishy.

It appears that the city installed the nubbed pad (this has a name, which I do not know, sorry) for ADA compliance, and instead of cutting the curb, put asphalt on the street to create a ramp. However, the extent of the asphalt certainly makes it look like DPW was also doing someone "a favor" so that they could get the car up onto that little lot. The seemingly freshly graded lot and crushed stone adds to the intrigue.

All of this presumes, of course, that the city put the asphalt on the street - if the owner of that lot/car did it, it would, in my experience, be a whole new level of ballsy-ness, one (two?) of which I would make a public spectacle of grinding up if I were the incoming mayor.

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They put these handicap ramps all over Southie on lots of corners exactly like this, it is certainly not an "inside job"
Conspiracy theorists....

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i believe the asphalt is put in so that the ramp is accessible to the street until the road is repaved. They'd leave a little ledge where the curb is so that they can match the grade when they eventually put new blacktop down. They've been installing these all over southie recently and they all have asphalt similar to the picture.

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On the new ramps they are raising the road a bit at the ramp, so they'll finally be useful and not just catch basins for huge puddles every time it rains.

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The difference being people in Roslindale don't then use them to drive up onto their yards.

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The new one in Cleveland Circle also looks exactly like this. Except they didn't even remove the plastic wrap and label from the nubbed pad, so that will wear away as people walk on it to look even crappier.

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It is a tactile strip or (less commonly) tactile paver.

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I don't know why anyone would report that - that's one more street spot for the rest of us!

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But I fail to see why this is news.

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....the car is neither double-parked in the street, nor parallel parked while facing the wrong way.

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When this guy moves his car he's going to put a chair there to save the spot.

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People have been doing this in Quincy for at least 20 years.

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That's where it all could get interesting ... if the land doesn't belong to the the car owner.

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It probably doesn't. The car owner is probably renting that spot from the owner for $500/mo.

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What happens when people park too close to the ramp and he's unable to drive out?

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What happens when the plow crews do their usual "pile the snow fifteen feet high on the wheelchair ramps" trick?

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To get a parking spot approved, on your own land mind you, going through the long permitting process, BRA approval and Public Works approval for a curbcut is too much red tape.
If you can drive your car onto your own property, go for it.

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I agree. When I lived in JP, my neighbor had cars parked illegally all over his yard. Multiple calls to the city did NOTHING.

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Get a life.

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So that I can buy the lot next door and operate a radioactive waste reprocessing facility there, without going through the ridiculous permitting process. If you can build it on your own property go for it. Land use regulations are for friggin' commies.

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Off street parking is an allowed Use Group in most neighborhoods of Boston. Waste processing or nuclear processing is not an allowed Use Group. Look it up Numbnuts.

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A driveway would be too close to the intersection, deemed unsafe, and a zoning violations in most places. There are many restrictions on driveways.

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double parking in front of the bars on Broadway, next to the bagel place and burger joint on L Street, parking on the apron in front of he firehouse, leaving there cars on the entrance to Stop & Shop. Now arking on empty lots in the Lower End. Just giving more ammo to all the Southie haters.

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I mean, they put photos of monkeys in their bars to commemorate Black History Month and ban gays from their St. Patrick's Day parade. I need no further reasons to dislike South Boston.

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https://mayors24.cityofboston.gov/reports/524182220882cf06080001ab

This looks to be the same place (listed address is the other street, so far as I can tell). There are several complaints for this place and, in most of them, there is a car parked there, too.

Go to street view, and it is garbage cans AND a "no parking" sign.

It looks like somebody didn't find any garbage or cans to complain about, so they "found" something else. Using this lot for parking apparently has been going on for a while.

Someone in this area also keeps taking pictures of a Hyundai Tuscon, insisting that it is somehow wrong that it is parked in the same place all the time. https://mayors24.cityofboston.gov/reports/5231af400882cf0e6000c76f

They appear to be obsessed with it, and claim that "it has been in the same place for five months" and another time that it "hasn't moved in two months". But when the city goes to check on it, the car isn't there. I'm betting that the real problem is "they are taking MY SPOT". Each picture shows it a different distance from the curb and in a slightly different orientation ... so one has to wonder what the citizen is trying to accomplish.

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I've lived around the corner from this for almost 8 years. It's been parking the whole time, and cars definitely come and go. Never seemed odd to me, as it's where a driveway might be anyway...

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Also, give them credit for not blocking the handicap ramp.

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This nearby photo raises a question: https://mayors24.cityofboston.gov/reports/518863e30882cf8fd5001a04 Permit parking only 6 pm - 10 am, Sun - Fri is ambiguous.

When exactly can nonresidents park? I'd think they were trying to say it's residents only on Sunday night, but that it's safe to park on Friday and Saturday night. Is that right?

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