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Citizen complaint of the day: The devious parking conspiracy on one East Boston street
By adamg on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 10:32am
A fed-up citizen files a 311 complaint about the way the owners of three cars have figured out a sort of musical-chairs approach to always getting a parking space on Princeton Street - and blocking everybody else:
There are 3 cars on the 3rd block of Princeton Street in East Boston that almost everyday save spots for each other by parking in the middle of two or three spots so other people can’t fit. In the picture I provided 2 of their cars are parked strategically to save a spot for their third card. Since parking already difficult enough as is this is extremely frustrating. They have been doing this everyday for months and months. It not fair and very inconsiderate of them. Multiple people on my block have complained to them and left notes on their cars, but they do not seem to care.
Ed. note: Sounds like the Jamaica Plain method might not work here.
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Comments
An exercise for the reader
An exercise for the reader:
Try drafting a rule that would forbid doing this deliberately, and that wouldn't have unreasonable consequences for people who are doing nothing wrong. For example, when you see a car parked in the middle of a gap big enough for 2 cars, you can't reasonably conclude that the driver is a jerk; the car might have originally been parked tightly in a single space, and other adjacent cars might have shifted and shuffled subsequently. I see this all the time in the days immediately following street cleaning.
Drafting rules is a lot harder than it looks.
Possible solution...
The City could easily paint markers on the sidewalk for designated parking and if you're not within those parameters, you get a sizable ticket.
No they cant. The city does
No they cant. The city does not have any money to keep the existing infrastructure operational. Any additional funding needs to be used to get rid of all the cars and automobile spaces. We need more bike lanes and better public transportation. Less cars means safer streets for all
Oh, right
Free bus rides took that piece of budget
Definitely
Fer shure it was the free bus rides that took that piece of the budget. And not the $95 mil that we spent on City Hall Plaza. And certainly not paying rank-and-file police $250K per year.
This, but unironically
(at least, I assume anon is being ironic here.)
I'm guessing they have cars
I'm guessing they have cars because it's not feasible for them to bike or take public transportation to work.
Unintended consequence
In which case the choice is either to make every space big enough to accommodate a truck, which ends up being a huge waste on a residential street that's usually parked up with cars, or it's nearly impossible for your plumber to park a truck in front of your house for a service call, since your plumber's truck won't fit in a car-sized space.
I mean…
it’s not like there’s any enforcement for commercial vehicles anyway. My whole block was a construction zone for quite some time. Commercial vehicles in resident parking all day, no occupancy permits-or tickets-in sight. No street cleaning tickets or tows. Sometimes they’d just leave stuff overnight.
how big would each spot be?
That would so eliminate so much more parking. To do that you would have to mark each spot for the maximum allowable vehicle.
Each spot would be the size of a double cab pickup truck that contractors use
That would eliminate probably 40% of available parking because most cars aren't that large
Or you make them smaller but allow those trucks to use 2 spots since they can't fit in the small space
It's not remotely reasonable to mark parking spots in neighborhoods
Or just make monster trucks ineligible for street parking.
It is bizarre to me to see all these sparkling never seen a minute of cargo monster size trucks in an urban setting. There definitely should be a width limit they make small streets unsafe.
Can we make an exception for my plumber?
There's stuff that my plumber needs to have onsite, like a pipe thread cutter, that doesn't easily fit in a sedan.
Just make an exception for
Just make an exception for commercial plates
Ripe for abuse.
Even specifying between certain business hours would not be respected or enforced.
We don’t make exceptions for visiting medical workers whose work is more important.
Though for that we should.
Doctors that make housecalls?
I agree in principle, but special provisions for imaginary creatures can get out of hand. Why not an exception for angels that drive Buicks?
Visiting nurses
home health carers, etc., all need temporary parking.
Visiting Nurses
For patients who have great difficulty traveling and need regular care.
You seem to be out of touch with modern health care.
Ever heard of visiting nurses, visiting occupational and physical therapists, medical equipment technicians, home aides or other healthcare professionals I haven’t heard of either?
Permanently and temporarily disabled people rely on them to recover faster or to have fuller lives than they would in institutions with parking lot issues of their own.
It would be good also to have adequate bike racks …
…. for visiting medical and home care professionals in some of those parking spots.
An injured friend in the Netherlands is visited twice weekly by a pt who arrives by pedal powered bike. Her medical equipment arrived in an electrical cargo bike. The nutritionist came on an ebike.
The intake nurse arrived by subway.
...also paratransit and
...also paratransit and rideshare doing paratransit contract work.
That's what a work van is for
Easily fits your tools, doesn't take up much more space than a standard sedan. Also much better visibility for pedestrians and cyclists than a truck where you can't see the 4 feet directly in front of you.
Tell me you don’t know what you’re talking about
Without telling me you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Average Chevy van length is 230”. Average Toyota Camry is 192”. That‘s a difference of 38” or over 3 feet!
So Most plumbers I know drive
So Most plumbers I know drive vans and not trucks, because they need the head height.
That being said here some size stats.
https://www.edmunds.com/ford/transit-connect-cargo-van/2022/features-specs/
Ford Transit Connect 190"
https://www.ramtrucks.com/ram-promaster/specs.1500-cargo-van-low-roof-11...
Ram ProMaster 195"
https://www.edmunds.com/toyota/avalon/2022/features-specs/
Toyota Avalon 196"
https://www.edmunds.com/toyota/avalon/2022/features-specs/
Toyota Camery 192.7"
They don't seem to be able to
They don't seem to be able to ticket for anything else, so what makes you think adding another thing to ticket for will lead to enforcement for the new thing?
“Possible solution...
“Possible solution...
By Friartuck on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 11:43am.
The City could easily paint markers on the sidewalk for designated parking and if you're not within those parameters, you get a sizable ticket.”
Yeah, because we must keep restless city employees busy or else they will walk off the job in protest for having nothing to do all day ever since they filled in all the potholes and repainted all the crosswalks.
Three problems in Eastie for
Three problems in Eastie for 2023
1) Stabbings/ shootings
2) Limited Parking
3) Overpriced Rents
Only one of these is an
Only one of these is an actual problem.
??
overpriced rent is an actual problem. Tell me you haven't had to pay rent in a decade or more without telling me you haven't had to pay rent in a decade or more.
My guess is they collect rents.
So they have no problem factoring in parking tickets into the budget.
Actually charge for parking
So that people who are leaving their cars parked for most of the day have an incentive to find somewhere else to store their personal property.
lol
There IS nowhere else in this neighborhood. Hell, I’ve been on a waiting list for one lot for over a year. I’d gladly pay to not have to deal with street cleaning, ‘almost’ spaces, plows, delivery trucks, etc etc.
Not sure about Eastie, but in
Not sure about Eastie, but in some neighborhoods (Dorchester, for example) there is verrry little rental parking without having a significant walk to get home. I’d also happily rent a spot if I didn’t then have to walk 20 minutes to get home, lug groceries, etc.
Get a motorcycle or two
Park in the gap between the cars and then move the motorcycle to park your own car.
Unfortunately
You'll get a ticket for not parallel parking, if the BTD person is in such a mood. At least I did when I parked like a responsible motorcyclist on Mercantile St back in the day hitting up The Living Room.
Same trick
the yuppies do everywhere when there’s 3 rooms Ted in the same apartment. Wdd we call it musical cars.
Yuppies...
...don't drive those kind of cars. Nice try, though.
Yuppies?
Are there still yuppies? What year is this? Those yuppies must be pretty old by now.
OK
Oupies, then.
Charge for parking stickers
May not necessarily help in this situation, but the city really should be charging for residential parking stickers.
Exactly how much is up for debate.
It seems crazy that they'd
It seems crazy that they'd forego such a low hanging fruit in terms of possible revenue sources. Tie permits to driver's license numbers - first permit is a reasonable annual rate like $50 or something (on par with permits in neighboring cities), and a second permit for the same driver can be had for $250. Maximum 2 per driver.
Limitations
Part of my issue here in Chelsea, and it may be the same in Boston is they issue TOO MANY of them.
There are buildings on my street that I know have 4+ cars for that one building. (I live on a street with lots of 2 or 3 units in one building.)
The city/cities should limit how many parking passes that are issued to per property taxable address that match the registration of the car. And not to "just whoever can prove they live there".
So for example, issue two per taxable address. My 3 unit building would get six parking stickers. Two per unit, because each unit is a taxable address. Next door, which is an identical building (3 units), except the taxable address is the entire building, not each unit, would only get two stickers. (Each of the units in that building are rental properties)
(And yeah you want it to match the car registration to the taxable address to prevent other units in the building obtaining parking passes for other units. For example, me who doesn't own a car right now, giving my two spots to my neighbors)
Seems a bit slanted but here me out, the building across the street is an 8 unit duplex. The entire building is one taxable address. So they would be limited to two. Verses over 16 stickers that would be needed for each unit. I mean 16 cars on my street would pretty much be one side of the block between cross streets. SIXTEEN CARS just for one building?!? So yes, there has to be hard limits on this.
I'm not trying to screw renters here, but its hard not to when you know some of these rental units having 3,4,5,6 cars to one unit. (yeah illegal overcrowding is an issue in Chelsea)
How does this work?
Do they have to pull out, then have a collaborator pull a different car forward to block the space, and then reverse the procedure again when they come home?
I assume it's one run of curb
I assume it's one run of curb that works well enough with the size of the three cars in question to (a) fit three cars with minimal spacing between their bumpers and not block a driveway/hydrant/whatever at each end; as well as (b) remove one car and shift one or both of the others a few feet so that the spacing between them and to the end limits is larger than previously but still too small to park anything else*
* excepting traffic cones, commodes, ironing boards, etc... - but only during decades where there has been a declared snow emergency, of course.
annoyance not a crime
In front of my house there is room for 2 full size cars, unless someone parks in the middle. It irritates me, and I have written some please don't notes but that's all there is to do.
yup
we rarely agree cinnamngrl.. but I got U on this too. So tired of it.
There is a driveway on one side of my house (for next door), and a hydrant down a little ways. Enough for large vehicles. Yet people always park strategically for two cars, and magically a third car can fit if the other two move.
Two cars vs one
We have this issue on our street, mostly because some people follow the rule of not parking too close to a driveway. If the space on the street is between two driveways some people park in the middle of the space, leaving two partial spaces on either side of them. We have a driveway and don't pester our neighbors unless they park so close that we can't get out without hitting their car. Our across the street neighbor is not so tolerant and often parks one of their cars in front in the middle of the space rather than in their (three car) driveway.
End motor vehicle addiction, cuz ..:..
PARKING SPACE POVERTY IS REAL!!!
Don't get mad. Learn from
Don't get mad. Learn from their mastered skills and instead of beating them, join them! It's the powers who govern and develop the parking who you should beat. Learn to play the game. I'm sure you've already investigated the plates and names of owners of those cars. Now go show some sugar and love to them to join their game. Boston resident parking is a game, man. Play the game.
Sooo....
Respond to behavior you don't like by committing a crime? I look forward to reading more of your life tips!
What would that look like?
Parking them in until they learn a lesson?
That's nothing
There's a person on my street with 6 cars taking up space. The city towed one but it was back in a spot by the end of the day. Which doesn't make sense especially since the cars are sharing license plates, they dont not have inspection stickers and registration is visibly expired. The city will do everything in their power to not do anything. There are so many 311 reports from other neighbors about this guy parking all of these cars that don't move for months at a time. 2 of my neighbors now permanently park on a side street no where near their house because of this fool.
So many solutions
Like helping them out with their overinflated tires.
It wouldnt matter
There is a house a few houses away that has four cars and they all play the knuckle shuffle with parking to save all the spots in front of their house.
One car.. a minivan often has two flat tires and enough tree sap on the windshield that it could be used as a Kari Lake filter. I mean the minivan looks abandoned (minus the active plates), yet they move the minivan with the flat tires just a bit so another car can be parked.
Never overinflate. I don't want people to get onto the highway and have a blow out. Under inflate so they drive around on their rims and ruin them (and the suspension in their car). Rims are not cheap.
THIS
This also happens on my street here in Chelsealand too. Several cars are all in cahoots with each other to shift cars so their friends can have spaces.
What they do is call each other when someone arrives. People come out, move cars, and boom. Space acquired.
I have hours and hours of security camera footage of people doing this on my block. Enough to prove this is happening.
Surprising the solution to this wasn't stated above. I've thought about the best way to deal with this. And no, its not painting lines. A simple parking rule, which I am surprised doesn't exist yet.
Create an ordinance where you can limit how long you can park in a spot and put a feet requirement in it.
example: No person may park their car in the same 50 foot range for more than 24 hours.
This should nip this in the butt. 50 feet is more than 3 car lengths, which would stop most of this. This would force people to move their cars every day to a new spot. And would stop 'long term car storage' on streets.
Going away for longer than that? Hire someone to move your car, or take your car to a Park N Fly and pay for it. Want 'car storage'? Move to the burbs and get a place with off street parking.
I am surprised this doesn't exist in Boston already, as I seem to remember eons ago having to go with a friend across town because he had to move his car. But I could be mis-remembering this.
But enough already with this self righteous car shit. So tired of people and their argument that they can park their car for the 'god given right' for as long as they see fit.
I'm about to take a job working until midnight, and probably will buy a car in coming weeks. I cringe at the thought that I'm going to have to park blocks away from my house because there will be no parking anywhere near my house at 1am.