I'll leave it to fumin' Joe Keohane to explain why Walker's column today (on people complaining about the towing the city is doing because other people were complaining our streets have become an open trash heap) is so inane. But a couple of questions:

Does Walker live somewhere other than Boston? Because he obviously doesn't know what happens to streets where cars are parked when the sweepers come - especially in the winter (by springtime, it's like Revere Beach, there's so much sand).

That having been said, did the city notify people first before it began enforcement? We're not New York and we don't have anything like "alternate side of the street parking" implanted in our brains from birth. A city that can put little paper leaves with leaf-pickup information on every single doorknob in the city twice a year can surely find the resources to put little paper cut-outs in the shape of tow trucks on everybody's door - even here in Roslindale, which Walker says is one of the hardest hit areas (must be down by the Square, since up here in the foothills along the Hyde Park frontier, we never see tow trucks).

Earlier:
City forces her to push her dead car across the street.

This past Saturday I volunteered as part of Boston Shines and the Beacon Hill neighborhood cleanup. The City of Boston posted signs on some of the Hill's dirties streets, including Phillips, Anderson, Irving and Garden, to ask cars to move the day of the cleanup.

Many owners moved their cars, though I imagine more out of fear that they would be towed. Whatever the reason, this allowed a street cleaner to get to the curb on those streets. I must say, it's amazing how well the street cleaner can do when it can reach the curb.

For those of you out there who move your cars to make way for the street sweeper, thank you! Your efforts make a huge difference!

Mark your calendars. The City of Boston is again organizing the city-wide clean-up day, Boston Shines.

www.cityofboston.gov/neighborhoods/bostonshines.asp

Visit the site for more info or to sign up.

As a captain for Beacon Hill, I can say this is a pretty neat event. Encourage your neighbors to come out and sweep!

Jay notes that street sweepers are of limited use if people don't move their cars - or if the city doesn't ticket or tow them to get them out of the way.

John notes the boston.com service to notify you when your Boston street-sweeping day is. And I note that said service does not cover Hyde Park and nearby streets in Roslindale, so I am now terrified that I will get hit by a bus or come down with sudden Alzheimer's and not remember that our sweeping day is the day after trash day, i.e., Thursday, not that it really matters, since nobody ever gets tickets on our street (then again, it's not like we have to worry about trashy tourists) - as you can notice when you drive around on Saturday and see all the mini-beaches left where the same people always have their cars parked on Thursdays, and, ooh, am I grouchy today or what?