Hey, there! Log in / Register

Car vandalized for being parked in Southie space; owner protests there wasn't a space saver there

Capt. John Greland at C-6 in South Boston tweets somebody got angry enough about finding somebody in "his" space on E. 6 Street near P Street yesterday that he vandalized the car.

Only he didn't stop there. To make sure the car owner realized why the entire driver's side of the car was now dented and scratched, he left a note on the windshield informing the owner of the punishment for violating Southie's unwritten code of winter parking, Greland reports.

Only problem, Greland adds: "Victim said no space saver in spot."

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 
Free tagging: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

When was the last snow emergency in Boston? Certainly > 48 hours ago, so why would a space saver even be valid?

up
Voting closed 0

That's a good point. I'm sure the criminal who vandalized this guy's car would never have done so if he realized that his space saver was outside of the valid timeframe.

up
Voting closed 0

Space savers should be banned. If someone moves a cone/gas tank just to be funny, and someone parks in that spot without knowing their was a space saver there, that car is in danger. just a dumb system overall.

up
Voting closed 0

The other day I saw someone take a cone from a parking space and toss it onto the sidewalk as they went by. My first thought was "man, whoever parks there is probably screwed". It's sad that this is what it has come to.

up
Voting closed 0

Right, however they're not yet banned. So whoever the anonymous 'hero' is who removed this space saver might want to go back to that space and leave a note on the car introducing himself to the poor sap who had the misfortune to have his car vandalized. The guy who vandalized the car is a dbag and a criminal. The guy who removed the space saver knowing that the next person who parked there would likely have his car vandalized is also a dbag and a coward unless he comes forward.

up
Voting closed 0

The guy who removed the space saver did nothing wrong. On the contrary, if everyone did what he did, then the whole space saver lunacy would die out that much sooner. The only dbag involved is the one who vandalized the car.

up
Voting closed 0

was a "space saver" in the street?

up
Voting closed 0

a little pushback to an entitled dbag.

up
Voting closed 0

Wow, nobody could have ever predicted this!

up
Voting closed 0

Not me :)

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha

Space Savers.. it just never ends...

up
Voting closed 0

I think Stephen fox may have expensive tastes...

up
Voting closed 0

How about no saving spaces ever?! How about shoveling a space and letting the neighbor park there. The city streets are for the people, not owned by them. And, his guy ought to be arrested for vandalism.

up
Voting closed 0

Most everyone on my street has a driveway, and the few cars that park on the street have plenty of space.

up
Voting closed 0

"If you can't handle your car being vandalized by people pretending to own a parking space, move somewhere warm where it doesn't snow!"

up
Voting closed 0

If only people who criticized DCR took the time to look at the DCR budget.

up
Voting closed 0

Alluding to their response.

up
Voting closed 0

In Medford I've seen tires slashed in the summertime for this infraction.

up
Voting closed 0

So the options are either move to Roslindale or have your car vandalized? Well I don’t like those choices at all.

up
Voting closed 0

that's another option.

up
Voting closed 0

Or you could stop being a phony passive aggressive tough guy and join civilized people in not engaging in the use of space savers like some entitled toddler.

up
Voting closed 0

I've never saved a parking space and I never will. It's bratty, entitled BS.

up
Voting closed 0

How about a concerted effort to move all vehicles and let the city plow the entire street width.

up
Voting closed 0

So when is the city going to put an end to this lawless thuggery instead of condoning it?

up
Voting closed 0

Better chance of banning snow.

up
Voting closed 0

When the City stops allowing developers to create housing units without providing the proper amount of parking spaces. Until then saving parking spaces is the only way to go.

up
Voting closed 0

Solution: Make South Boston a giant parking lot.

up
Voting closed 0

Or are you talking about requiring off-street parking to be created when someone renovates a triple-decker?

Most renovations don't create units - even if they bring in higher numbers of residents.

up
Voting closed 0

X is scare, therefore I'm going to take more of X than I need, to be sure I have some when I need it. Screw everyone else.

up
Voting closed 0

If you want to justify spacesavers, it has to be because there is ample parking, you just need to dig yourself a space. If space is tight, spacesavers are just a way of hoarding public property for yourself.

up
Voting closed 0

Next thing, somebody's going to get killed...and then it'll really be too late!

up
Voting closed 0

Lawless Buggery? Hear! Hear!

up
Voting closed 0

Obviously somebody has to be killed in a knife fight before this insanity ends...can we wrap it up today with this snowfall so the uncertainty is all gone by next winter?

up
Voting closed 0

If you do steal a spot, which this person probably didn't, but I have many times. Just use your phone and record all the cars in the area that night. The same people park on the st all the time and the person who saved a spot and was mad enough to do damage obviously lives there. If your car is vandalized go look through video, write down the plates and find the 1 missing over the period of a week and you have your man or woman. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

up
Voting closed 0

And then what? There is still no evidence and no witnesses.

up
Voting closed 0

this is not fair.. not fair someone with so little to lose (the vandal) to bash in a car and get away with it leaving the car owner screwed and having to pay for damages..

up
Voting closed 0

If you have a cone out yestetday than shame on you. Your the reason why this issue is out of control. And the fact that you vandalized a car in your UNEARNED SPOT, you are an embarrassment to yhe neighborhood! !

up
Voting closed 0

Give it up with the "earning" already.

Who cares if you spent 20 minutes shoveling your car. It doesn't mean unfettered week long exclusive access to a shared area. The shoveling is just a formality. It's a gold-rush era land grab.

Selfish.

up
Voting closed 0

send your insurance deductible to Dave Ivaska.

up
Voting closed 0

I wouldn't be parking my car there anytime soon - would be as good as signing that note.

up
Voting closed 0

Yeah right, heard that one before.

up
Voting closed 0

If the cops are worth the powder to blow 'em up, they should be interviewing everyone in the neighborhood to find out what they know. Shake a few trees and see what kind of bad apples fall. Space saver or no, this is a crime, and the cops aren't worth their pay if they don't make a good effort to find the perpetrator. If the powers that be just shrug their sully shoulders and say, "Whuddya expect", that will completely and finally brand Boston as a bush-league town that tolerates lawbreaking for petty, selfish, spiteful reasons.

up
Voting closed 0

Don't expect bpd to look to hard into this one. Too busy working details on one of the 10 million holes that nstar is digging on summer street

up
Voting closed 0

let's disband the homicide unit, pull al, of the detectives and investigate the space saver related vandalisms...

seriously, you grade police on their ability to investigate vandalism?? please go back to the Herald

up
Voting closed 0

Green ticket the closest property to the space saver. If there is trash on the sidewalk in front of my house for an extended period of time or not bagged on trash day, my landlord risks getting a green ticket from the Code Enforcement Police, even if the trash is on City property. I can guarantee that if the City starts ticketing houses with space savers in front of them, the space savers will disappear immediately.

up
Voting closed 0

Parking would be a lot easier in southie if the city actually did something about it. I don't live there, but I visit a friend and see the following issues;

  1. No parking enforcement for the "big offenses." Park in a handicap space or don't have a resident sticker? Yeah, you'll get a ticket, maybe even towed. But double parking? No problem
  2. The resident restriction is only M-F overnight. A lot of people park in southie that don't live there.
  3. A billion handicap zones. I'm sure that they were valid when they were put in, but you can drive around for twenty minutes and pass by 20 empty handicap spots. The city should take a look and see if the original requestor still lives in the area.
  4. Driveways. Not much can be done about this, but the driveways eat up a lot of parking real estate.
  5. Fire hydrants. Not much to do here either, but it seems like southie has more hydrants than other residential parts of the city.

Edit: Here's an example. If you head down E 6th towards H you have hydrant, driveway, driveway, handicap, handicap, hydrant. And that's just part of the block.
http://goo.gl/maps/3CsOg

up
Voting closed 0

Seems a bit heartless.

up
Voting closed 0

Yeah, I suppose it's more or less a big offense. My point was that there is a disparity in what offenses are punished. You can double park overnight with near impunity and that just seems idiotic.

up
Voting closed 0

Lets get rid of driveways and hydrants to improve parking?!? Great idea, you know driveways can have more than one car parked.

up
Voting closed 0

All I said is they eat up a lot of space. I specifically said there isn't anything that can (or should) be done about them.

up
Voting closed 0

This is true, sorry...... My friend on 7th has a 2 car garage and parks 3 additional cars in the yard, great use of the space. I bet that there are some residents who remove cars from the driveway to hold spaces for people who may be at work. Some people!

up
Voting closed 0

Driveways. Not much can be done about this, but the driveways eat up a lot of parking real estate.

So you gain one street parking spot, but lose at least one off street parking spot, and that person or persons will then need to park on street.

Makes sense.

up
Voting closed 0

All I said is they eat up a lot of space. I specifically said there isn't anything that can (or should) be done about them.

up
Voting closed 0

Driveways theoretically create spaces, not take them away.

I was looking at the paperwork for when the owners created our driveway (not in Southie). The rule was that the property owner had to show that they were creating parking. Hence, we ended up with a 2 car driveway with the loss of 1 street space.

Of course, older driveways along with illegal ones aren't governed by this.

up
Voting closed 0

I agree. In theory they would create more spaces. In practice? Well, you mentioned some drawbacks. Others include the fact that "anyone" can use the street spot while a driveway is for the homeowner renter, more spaces means usually means more cars (for better or worse), and nothing prevents the homeowner/renter from getting a resident spot anyways.

Like I said, though, the city shouldn't be taking away driveways. It's just one of the many reasons that street parking is so tight there.

up
Voting closed 0

There is a guy on e 5th who recently had a a curb leveled so that he could create a new driveway on into his property. The problem is now he parks one of his cars in the driveway and his other car on the street in front of the driveway, thereby creating two spots all for himself.

up
Voting closed 0

You mean blocking his own driveway and potentially freeing up a spot on the street? As long as he isn't blocking the sidewalk I'd be thrilled! Not mad at him for having 2 whole spots! (Pouty face, arms crossed)

up
Voting closed 0

The problem with space savers and the rules the city observes regarding them is that there isn't complete and absolute enforcement of the 48 hour snow emergency rule. If DPW or whomever removes space savers on one street, either on their own, or by request, who is to necessarily say (or know) that the city did it, rather than someone "stealing" a saved spot?

up
Voting closed 0

there isn't ANY enforcement.

up
Voting closed 0

Well, by enforcement, I really mean someone picking up a space saver and tossing it in the garbage truck...

up
Voting closed 0

Does that mean that I can keep others from using it? Can I put up a space saver or barrier? Charge a toll maybe? After all, I earned the right to use it by spending time shoveling and throwing salt down on City property at my landlords' expense.

up
Voting closed 0

Neal, go for it!

up
Voting closed 0

He car basher needs to seek help. He has a mental illness/anger problems. Who does that?!

up
Voting closed 0

Once again my biggest issue with this problem are those who save spots without actually shoveling anything. Why is it that 2 days after a snowfall there are still snow banks lined up the entire street? It makes it almost impossible to get into an open or saved spot because very few people actually shovel. Those selfish space saving losers aren't saving a spot because they worked hard to clear the snow. They simply just don't care about the neighborhood and neighbors. I watch the people saving spots from my window. They're generally the older 40 something residents not the so called "yuppies". Those same people who feel they're entitled because this Is "their neighborhood" should be the ones following the rules put in place to better accommodate their neighborhood. In fact they shouldn't be angry when someone removes their cone/stool/fan/box/stroller or whatever garbage they use, they should be angry when someone is still saving a spot a week after a snowfall. If anyone, leave a message for those cars. There's a piece of $hit brown truck and a big old blue Mercury Grand Marquis who's "owned" the same spots on my street (east 4th near O) for about a month now. I shouldn't have to confront someone to let them know they're wrong and acting like an @sshole for saving a spot. Why is it that there aren't parking issues during the summer? You might have to circle the block a few times but there are generally enough parking spots for everyone. The snow isn't the problem, it's the people and their selfish attitudes.

Sincerely, the guy moving all of the cones.

up
Voting closed 0

Why is it that there aren't parking issues during the summer? You might have to circle the block a few times but there are generally enough parking spots for everyone.

That depends entirely on the neighborhood. In the downtown neighborhoods, there is basically no parking available after 5PM, no matter how many times hou circle the block.

up
Voting closed 0

There are plenty of people who shovel who are over 40. Trust me, I am one of them.

up
Voting closed 0

I think we should have a vote to allow the city to rent street parking spots for about $250 per month. You know the same people who are saving parking spots would vote against that. Their argument would be that they're public parking spots for the residents and shouldn't be individually owned. Which is exactly the way it is now. It's property of the city and available for all of the residents first come first serve.

up
Voting closed 0

Anybody who vandalizes somebody else's car because the person who parked in "his" or "her" space deserves to be fined and to spend some time in the slammer. That's malicious and wonton destruction of somebody else's property, which he had no right to do. The vandal needs to realize that nobody owns those streets, because they're public streets that everybody's taxes, including his own, go toward the maintenance and upkeep of.

up
Voting closed 0

I'd leave the car there until summer..

up
Voting closed 0

The city of Boston should do a better job of snow removal after a great big snowstorm, for one thing. People pitching in and shoveling out their own spaces after a snowstorm would also help alleviate a hot-button situation, as well. Those two solutions might not necessarily be an end in themselves, but they'd be a huge step in the right direction, and maybe, hopefully, people wouldn't feel the need to engage in the stupid practice of putting space-savers in "their" parking spaces in the first place. This doesn't just go for Southie, but for the whole city at large, from what I understand.

up
Voting closed 0

promoted this thought in the mid 60's.

up
Voting closed 0

they said you could put out a space saver. but nobody legalized vandalism. if this is what it has come to, get rid of space savers.

up
Voting closed 0

Doesn't having a lot of vandalism damage in a relatively small area result in everybody's insurance rates going up?

Including those of the vandal and all of his or her apologists?

up
Voting closed 0

The vandal probably doesn't insure his car.

up
Voting closed 0

If someone did this to me I'd just light his car on fire. Clearly no one in charge cares about property damage so I'd just torch his car. No one would arrest me.

up
Voting closed 0

I've never been more sure that moving out of state next week is the right idea.

Southie, I hope your entire neighborhood and its asinine "traditions" get paved over and turned into the world's largest Starbucks.

up
Voting closed 0

Take your college friends with you.

up
Voting closed 0

I moved south over the summer and nothing I've read on UH since then has made me regret my choice.

up
Voting closed 0

Good riddance

up
Voting closed 0

.. then bless your heart.

up
Voting closed 0

The city of Boston is ultimately responsible for not enforcing laws against these people who vandalizes other cars. This is bullying in my opinion and the city is perpetuating the problem.

up
Voting closed 0

Yeh, but if the city moved in, put a stop to the stupid practice of space-saving and did a better job of snow removal, this kind of bullying wouldn't happen.

up
Voting closed 0