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Citizen complaint of the day: Somebody is using a car to save parking spaces

So it has come to this in Jamaica Plain: A fed-up citizen complains about Weld Hill Street:

In addition to the gazillion space savers that are all along Weld Hill, at 14 Weld Hill there is a small blue car used to save at least 2 spots during the day, then moved to a driveway. there is no parking on the street because of space savers, and things like this. please come ticket. this is absurd.

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Comments

That's how grownups handle things, right?

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Or rip off their rear windshield wiper and smash a chair into their windshield because you parked in a "saved" spot that didn't have a space saver in it. Oh sorry that was my car on N st in Southie.

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Right?

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You just shovel them in, cant get arrested. Maybe a $100 fine for putting snow in the street.

Example:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=763_1297118370

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I know this sounds ridiculous but I kind of understand the frustration. My neighbors do the same thing, if there's a snow emergency all of the sudden they forget to park like normal people and take up two spaces and then move their car when their husband or whoever gets back from work. I'm in Somerville so we have to move to the odd numbered side in snow emergencies and one woman last week parked in a way so that two cars could only fit where three usually do, and after the storm there were only two spots for several days because this idiot parked like a fool so that a place that would've been a spot was covered in a foot of snow. Leaving 6' of space between cars drives me insane even when it isn't snowing. It's just rude.

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Happens all the time in my hood, Ctown. Annoying as he'll during a snow emergency.

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Just because people are frustrated due to not being able to find parking spaces doesn't give anybody the right to vandalize and trash other people's property, physically assault them and send then to the hospital, or to slash their tires or whatever. In this weather, it's better to leave afew inches between cars, due to ice and snow on the ground, thus lessening the chances of accidents/fenderbenders, etc.

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I didn't say you should vandalize anyone's property, just don't park like an idiot. If you need 6 feet of extra space to parallel park in the snow you should learn to drive or sell your car.

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I specifically said six inches, as opposed to six feet, regarding amounts of space left between parked cars.

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I guess I don't understand what's illegal here? Sounds like the person reporting needs a Xanax.

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Prima facie, this complaint strikes me as absurd but my brain just froze when I tried to think about why.

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So, the citizen is complaining about someone legally parking their car on the street? Allegedly taking up 2 spaces, which is determined how?

Come on all you Gaffin haters from a certain part of Boston. He has just posted the most ludicrous Citizen Connect complaint about space saving, and it's from one of the more pristine districts of our fair city.

But seriously, what does the citizen expect the City to do? Have the properly registered car picked up by the garbage men next week? Or are they claiming that the owner shouldn't be allowed to park their car in a legal space?

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When they drive to work, they move the car out of the driveway to block two street spots. When they return, they move the car back to the driveway and park there existing car there. I figure they do this so they do not leave the small car on the street for weeks.

...pretty devious =/

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So someone is parking...in order to park.

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What do you want the city to DO about this? Arrest him for parking his car on the street in a legal parking space?

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He is being a jerk. But this is not something you can give a ticket for. There was this time, or so i am told, where neighbors managed neighborhood things together and were not selfish jerks. They looked out for each other and they all conformed to a certain set of behaviors, like clearing out a parking spot in a reasonable fashion. But now we have space savers, people who leave cars parked for an eternity and never did them out. people who throw snow into the street etc.

But you cannot ask city government to step in with every silly issue you have with your neighbor. At some point, you actually have to go knock on their door and call them out. Or just leave a passive aggressive note on their car.

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This is all true. In this case, it's probably one resident feeling more entitled than their neighbors - a longtime resident sticking it to newcomers/transients, or an owner (often who has access to driveways) sticking it to renters. Where I am in Somerville, the ones who make the parking regulations are often homeowners with driveways, who aren't affected by the huge fines and multiple infractions they can get you for.

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In neighborhoods with a lack of parking the city should mark spaces like they do in commercial districts and ticket for parking in two spaces like would in commercial districts. People on our street do it all the time out of laziness/thinking only of themselves. This is a cheap and easy way to increase the amount of parking spaces in Boston.

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I would think that marking parking spaces would have the opposite effect: it would lower the number of parking spaces. I'm not sure of the city/state requirements for marked parallel parking spot dimensions. I know I have less clearance from bumper to bumper on residential side streets than bumper to painted line in marked commercial districts roughly 98% of the time.

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(see above) I have to admit, I called the cops once on a neighbor who had his car parked over into my curb cut. I figured a ticket would send the message. In my defense, there was 30 feet of space behind his car (and it was not winter.)

One of the things that set me off was that during the previous winter, the day he moved in next door to me, I helped clear a space (in front of my house, and the scene of this incident) out for him. I did most of the work and made it nice and clean. What did he do for the next 6 weeks- marked the space. I was kind of okay with that (this was the winter when January had storms every 4 days), but this was the thanks I got for it. I left notes and all that, reminding him of my help, so I kind of went off. Of course, I could have gone off in other ways, but I am a peaceful guy.

Essentially he messed with the parking ecosystem of the block. He's gotten a bit better, and he is seemingly a good guy, but his parking is another thing altogether.

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In my neighborhood someone took the initiative and painted the space markings themselves, in the areas where people tended to take up more than one space. Legal? No. But it helped in those situations where people were just being clueless. In this case though, it sounds more like someone is intentionally taking up more than one space to reserve those spaces for later - the painted lines probably would not deter that behavior.

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Well if people would give up the suburban mentality of car ownership and accept that they live in a city and don't need multiple cars per family this wouldn't be a problem.

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Now you've gone and done it. You've awakened the sleeping dragons.

The only good part is if they spit enough fire, maybe they'll melt all the snow.

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Seriously! From what they describe, this one family has 3 cars and a driveway parking spot. They use one car only as a space saver and intentionally park in a manner they know is wrong to save 2 spots with one car. Everyone that street parks does this - I have when out of town guests have been coming or when I have been moving (in this case 2 cars strategically parked to save 3 spots adjacent to a hydrant) but to do it everyday is sticking it to all the neighbors and on purpose.

Having said that, it's still not illegal to be an asshole in Boston (obviously) and the saver car is parked legally if dickishly. I like the idea of burying the car with snow - they'll get the point. At the very minimum, you've ruined their day.

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Consternation! Uproar!

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This is why no home should go without a good racing jack and car dollies. Jack up each tire, set it down on dollies, wheel it anywhere you want it to be, jack it back up, remove the dollies, done. With practice (and researching jack-up points) you can do it in just minutes.

Also, a good tug with a tow strap can pull a car right out into the street...

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Should get built in the City without providing off street parking spaces.

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That said, it should not be required. Cities work better with less parking and less cars. A developer should be free to build as much or as little parking as the market deems appropriate. It is not something that should be determined by arbitrary zoning rules.

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I honestly get frustrated every day at this type of selfishness, even living in a neighborhood in JP that has ample parking. I feel like a lot of it stems from the transient nature of urban neighborhoods where folks may not grow up together, know each others names, and otherwise see each other as neighbors and people to look out for. I've been told that I'm too sensitive to other people not being aware of how their simple parking actions affect others, that I shouldn't worry about parking tight so that others can fit, but I refuse to "just look out for myself". My parents taught me better. And the whole "ownership" of a neighborhood is silly. Yeah, you may have lived on a street for a long time, but that doesn't make any public parking "yours". Enough of this already. I love this city and the people in it, but the winter parking absolutely brings out the WORST in people. Bring on the spring.

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1. Mayor should have a roaming officer to remove space savers.
2. Issue ticket to cars who are taking 2 parking spaces.
I dont understand the sense of entitlement. Streets are public property.

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Why is the complaining citizen any more entitled to the spot than the parker? Both parties are essentially saying that this bit of public space is theirs, even though indeed it belongs to no one (excepting, of course, that the area is resident parking)

I'm not saying I don't see the frustration, but there are no "two" spaces. There's a place where a car is parked.

By the way (and not directed at you in particular) the residence cited, in looking at google street view, has no driveway.

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Seems like these obnoxious city neighbors feel an even greater sense of suburban entitlement by having a driveway. May as well move to Medford where you can have a sprawling paved yard to accommodate your automobile fleet.

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and clever to me. Maybe, not considerate, though.

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In some cities, they have a tiered structure for purchasing an on-street parking permit (as opposed to Boston where it's free).

If you have no off-street parking available, the first permit is the cheapest. Additional permits for additional cars become more expensive for each additional car.

If you DO have off-street parking available, the rate tiers are higher.

This disincentivizes people who have off-street parking from buying an on-street permit and encourages people to park as few cars on the street as possible.

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