This street (Longwood Avenue- Google Streetview avoided part of it) is extremely congested. It's also one of two ways to get into the emergency room for Children's Hospital. The lanes are small on this three lane road, and the whole thing is marked no-parking.

But hey: the balding, grey-haired, bespectacled masshole owner of Boston Transportation Department Vehicle with plate # 3045 (who encouraged me to "go ahead and report the tags" but wouldn't tell me his name) apparently feels "it is [a parking space] for me", and parked blocking 1/2 of the only lane going towards the hospitals, and making it dangerous for bicyclists who need that space. He was busy chatting it up with a bunch of other people in suits and ties in front of the Mass College of Pharmacy. Commish, was that you? Maybe that gut wouldn't be so big if you found a proper parking space like everyone else, and walked. Always nice to see the rules mercilessly apply to us, but not to you?

The Globe cites a report that proves that. Naturally, the Globe doesn't provide a link to the report, so here it is.

Right now, there are many police cruisers, both marked and unmarked, parked on Avenue Louis Pasteur. A large number are parked illegally, either in no-parking zones, bus stops, and even blocking crosswalks (in front of Boston Latin, a school zone.) This is an area where both the MBTA and MASCO run a large number of shuttles and need all the room they can get just make the turns. The State Police, Northborough, Danvers, and Boston were among the 'representatives' who showed up with marked cruisers. The unmarked cruisers and personal vehicles had various "I'm a cop" signs- raid jackets in windows, ticket books on dashboards, radios left in plain sight, or emergency lights.

They are attending a conference in Harvard Med's New Research Building, held by IACP, regarding Project Safe Neighborhoods. IACP is a police chief association, so there are probably a bunch of chiefs amongst these lawbreakers. Of note- there are multiple pay lots within 1-2 blocks, and public street parking within a few blocks.

Update: photos from twheaton. More welcome, especially showing plates and the signage showing they're illegally parked.

Joe Keohane tells his South Boston neighbors to shove their persecution complex into the nearest puddle of melted snow and stop bitching about the nerve of the mayor for asking them to clear the streets of their cones and crap already:

... Of course Southie, which is as close to a lawless breakaway province as we have in Boston, responds to this like a bunch of Southerners who got their Confederate flags confiscated by the federal government. They have no time for logic. They're too busy playing the victim. "He's really got it in for us, let me tell you," one resident says of the mayor. "I really feel like he's singling out South Boston."

Of course he is, because you barbarians are the only ones doing this. ...

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.

Jay lives on a dirty street:

Moments ago a city street sweeper brushed its way down Anderson Street on Beacon Hill. Down the middle of the street. That's because nine of the approximately twelve spaces between Revere and Phillips were filled with cars that weren't moved. ...

He wonders when Hizzoner will make good on his pledge to tow cars that stand in the way of streetsweeping progress. One wonders, though: In this age of self-reliance, why wait for City Hall? Maybe Beacon Hill should get off its duff, follow the Back Bay's lead and annoint some block-captain vigilantes (but would they in turn need supervision to make sure they don't become parking Nazis?).

So Tuesday of last week I used the mayor's online complaint/suggestion form to bitch about the rampant illegal parking in a Fenway/Kenmore resident zone on Ipswich Street during Sox games. I suggested making the street a tow zone during the hours it's residents only (after 6pm). To my surprise, a nice lady from the Department of Transportation (or some such agency) called me yesterday to follow up.(!) She gave me two pieces of information that made my day. First, the fine for illegal parking in a resident zone is up to $40 from $20, so it's roughly keeping pace with the cost to park legally on a neighborhood lot during baseball games. Second, she's calling the situation to the attention of a Jimmy Mansfield (I forget his job title but I think he's a state official). She said that during BU (I'm pretty sure it was BU, but it could have been BC) football games, the surrounding streets are temporary tow zones for nonresidents, and they're working on getting the same status for the Fens during Sox games. So yay for me, I'm civically active. :P

There's no coming together of the local minds on the guy who allegedly spent seven years vandalizing neighbors' cars for supposed parking infractions.

Miki: Who the hell is THIS guy to take things into his own hands and "enforce " city parking rules vigilante-style?

Tim doesn't condone his actions but says he can't help but sympathize:

... I do believe people need to know that their selfishness while on the road, and while parked, affects other people.

He links to a site where you can buy stickers to place on the windows of obnoxious parkers, and says he doesn't like using the word "Nazi" in connection with the guy.

Jay: Keys and screwdrivers, bad. We know that.

But how about throwing/placing/smearing rotten tomatoes on cars that are illegally parked?

Carpundit: Don't do it:

They are acidic, and can cause permanent harm to a car by damaging the paint. By causing damage to the car, as opposed to one of its discrete parts, you are probably committing a felony because it is unlikely that the repair can be accomplished for less than the $250 threshold (See M.G.L. c. 266, § 127). ...

He suggests contacting the authorities to deal with parking scalawags. But failing that, well, just let the air out of the tires.

City Councilor John Tobin, who represents JP, praised the police for apprehending the guy:

Finally, the elusive Jamaica Plain parking bandit has been caught! Our office over the years has received complaints from residents whose vehicles were vandalized by the alleged perpetrator. ...

We give the final word (for now!) to John Van Horn, founder, editor and publisher of Parking Today Magazine, who, like Tim, deplores the methods but appreciates the thought behind them:

... Here are people who are breaking the law complaining that someone has done something about it. Now I do agree that keying the cars and covering them with dog doo might be a bit out of line, but the chocolate syrup has a certain poetic justice. ...