Hey, there! Log in / Register
Brighton parking vigilantes get right to the point, but in Cambridge, of course, they have to explain their thinking in great detail
By adamg on Thu, 02/26/2015 - 9:11am
Marty's minions will have a bit less to pick up in Brighton next week, thanks to a vigilante who's already busy removing space savers - and leaving behind notes explaining the situation - as Kricket Feeney shows us.
Somebody is also leaving notes on cars in Cambridge, Cyn Donnelly reports. Of course, being Cantabrigian, the vigilante had to explain in excruciating detail just what sort of villainous monsters people who lower themselves to saving spaces are, in the sort of manifesto that makes you wonder how he even managed to finish composing the note before smashing his keyboard to smithereens with his righteous, Cambridgey fists of fury.
Topics:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Nice to see passive-agressive
Nice to see passive-agressive, anonymous notes still fly in Cambridge.
I don't think it's passive
I don't think it's passive aggressive. It reads as very direct.
The top note is pretty good.
The top note is pretty good. It gets to the point and hopefully helps prevent the space saver from vandalizing a car. But this is all assuming someone who thinks they own a piece of public property because they moved some snow around 3 weeks ago is a reasonable person, which is probably not the case.
In South Boston, pink paper adds a festive note
Carly O shows us a note on a windshield on E. 8 Street this morning:
YOU'R WELCOME!
[sic]
Meanwhile, the local Somerville parking guy is documenting unshoveled-out cars with his cameraphone today.
"e" is included
The "e" is there but you have to look closer. I am enjoying the bright color of the paper which shines through the grayness of today.
bright paper and cheery font.
bright paper and cheery font.
Southie wins this one
I give Brighton credit for being succinct and honest.
The Cambridge note makes me glad I don't live there. What pompous a-holes. I mean, the Brighton note essentially says the same thing without being sanctimonious.
The Southie one just calls them out on their BS. And the red paper is a great touch.
Gotta agree
If you want to move a space saver, go ahead and park there. Taking them because you're some renegading neighborhood hero who likes to smell their own farts is lame.
"We all have shovelled"...isn't true
Part of the problem in some areas is that many people DO NOT shovel a space. They park in a garage for the duration of the storm and later want to take a space that someone else shoveled.
People who shovel understand the need for spacesavers.
And of course the real problem, as pointed out by many posters is that the city has not done its job. It continues to amaze me that even on snow emergency no parking streets, the city does not and never has removed the snow to the curbs, unless of course it's for the Patriots Parade.
That costs money, you know
You should go park in a garage when you can't find a space. Do you even know what that costs? Leaving your car on the street in public parking doesn't give you a right to own that parking and force someone who acted responsibly to spend hundreds of dollars until you grow up.
It isn't that expensive in
It isn't that expensive in many neighborhoods. Pay nothing or $1 to not have to shovel? Sign me up!
It is free in Allston/Brighton, Charlestown
http://cityofboston.gov/snow/stormsearch.asp?selNeighborhood=Allston%2FB...
http://cityofboston.gov/snow/stormsearch.asp?selNeighborhood=Charlestown
It cost $1 per each overnight in South Boston.
http://cityofboston.gov/snow/stormsearch.asp?selNeighborhood=South+Boston
It cost $10 per day in Chinatown
http://cityofboston.gov/snow/stormsearch.asp?selNeighborhood=Chinatown
It is $2 -$12 in the Back Bay
http://cityofboston.gov/snow/stormsearch.asp?selNeighborhood=Back+Bay
It is $2 -$10 in Beacon Hill, Downtown
http://cityofboston.gov/snow/stormsearch.asp?selNeighborhood=Beacon+Hill
http://cityofboston.gov/snow/stormsearch.asp?selNeighborhood=Downtown
It is $5 to $16 in the Fenway
http://cityofboston.gov/snow/stormsearch.asp?selNeighborhood=Downtown
It is $10 in the North End
http://cityofboston.gov/snow/stormsearch.asp?selNeighborhood=North+End
It is $13 in Roxbury
http://cityofboston.gov/snow/stormsearch.asp?selNeighborhood=Roxbury
It $10to $16 in the South End
http://cityofboston.gov/snow/stormsearch.asp?selNeighborhood=South+End
non-sequitur
I personally am not a space saver, and I don't condone it but these examples are a bit off base. Space saving as discussed here is a problem long after the snow emergency has ended. These rates only apply when there is a snow emergency (and a few hours before and after). And good luck finding the $2 spots in Beacon Hill and Back Bay - the garage is always full when I try. I've found reasonable off street parking in Beacon Hill, but it is only available at night and weekends.
The issues of finding a parking spot with all the snow that we currently have is an issue, and there are ways to address it without resorting to vandalism. But the above is not really part of the answer.
No, during snow emergencies
No, during snow emergencies garage rates are controlled by the city. They're very reasonable, not 'hundreds of dollars'. And what the person who does park there should do is shovel out a fucking spot and park in it when the storm is over. I'm against savers but I also hate people who are too lazy to do their own shoveling and instead take advantage of other's work. I've probably shoveled 15 spots this winter. If everyone had done the same, we wouldn't have such a bad problem. Equally as bad are those in SUVs who simply drive out of spots, rendering it useless to those of us driving normal size vehicles.
Hundreds of dollars
During snow emergency - cheap.
After when you can't find a space because someone has illegally claimed public property = $$$
Yes and no SG
Yes I know how much it costs to park in a garage, and I am aware that there are sometimes discounted rates, and no I don't agree with your conclusions or character attack on me. Unbeknownst to you, many people park in a garage during a storm just to avoid the hassle of shoveling, can easily afford it, and don't "have to" as you theorize. And they and you think you have some "right" to park in the space I shoveled. I disagree. Go shovel your own spot when you get out of the garage.
I shoveled my space and I'm keeping it unless and until the city does its job and makes more spaces available or until the snow melts. And if you remove my spacesaver to park in my space, I will consider an appropriate reaction.
And by the way, it also costs something to shovel a space. I am not young and when I shoveled and re-shoveled my space, my muscles hurt and I am incredibly tired. I have a friend whose father died of a heart attack while shoveling. Some older people (and others) pay others to shovel out their spaces, which costs as much as a few days in a garage.
And according to you Swirl, I should grow up? I think anyone who has read your way too many posts about everything under the sun understands who needs to grow up. I'll resist the temptation to comment on where you live (as shared by you) and whether or not you have any clue when you talk about life in Boston, where you don't live.
It is not your space. The
It is not your space. The only "appropriate reaction" to someone parking in a space your car used to be in is finding another parking spot. Only selfish babies struggle with the concept of sharing.
Keep calling me names
So I'm a selfish baby? I don't agree.
I shoveled the space. The city did not. The only thing the city did is plow one lane down the middle of my (normally) two way street. Pretty much everyone in my neighborhood of Dorchester understands how it works and respects the spacesaver system. There are zero other parking spaces available and there wont be until the city removes a lot more snow, or the snow melts.
Perhaps you live elsewhere where parking spaces magically appear without being shoveled, or in the rare sections of the city where the city has completed removal down to the curb.
By the way, I wouldn't ever call you a selfish baby, but I would call you a crybaby.
Shoveling out your car means
Shoveling out your car means you get to use your car, not hog a piece of public property for weeks on end. Thats like me charging a toll for anyone who wants to use the sidewalk in front of my house that I shoveled.
The space saver system does not work, as evidenced by all the threatening notes and vandalized cars and spots that aren't used half the day because space saver users don't know how to share.
Wrong again kinopee
The spacesaver system works quite well. Maybe a few people practice threats and vandalism but that stuff happens in the big city, even when its not about space savers. If you lived in my neighborhood you would use a spacesaver too. Sorry to smash your cute little vision of a world of unicorns and rainbows, but that's reality, and really, it's not that bad.
Sure does
Because all the problems (nobody else can find parking even though the street has empty spaces, someone else's day is ruined by a busted mirror, etc.) happen to someone else while you're not there to think about them.
where's your space saver?
so I can come toss it in the garbage.
Appropriate reaction?
...As in: Kindly find another open space and park your car there?
...As in: Kindly find another snow-covered space, clear it for your temporary use and the use of those after you, and park your car there?
...As in: Finally realize it frequently snows in Boston, and that parking on the street after a snowstorm can be difficult, so you rent an off street parking spot and park your car there?
Any of those seem appropriate to me.
Rent an off street space Taggie???
You are truly and disturbingly delusional. I simply put a spacesaver in my space when I go to work. Never had a problem, ever, and I've lived here since 1976.
Entitlement
"My space." If it really were yours -- as in, owned by you -- you wouldn't have to put anything in it. If you've been saving a space since 1976, and it doesn't belong to you, I'd say you owe some rent.
Brave words, anon
Why don't you tell us the make, model, and license number of your car? Then the rest of us can also "consider an appropriate reaction."
Wow anon!
Threatening another anon. And demanding my personal info. Now that's cute, but not very brave. If you show me yours, I'll show mine.
Leaving your car on the
This same statement can apply to people who haven't dug out their car since the first storm. Weird how there's never any uproar over what are essentially abandoned vehicles taking up public parking, but as soon as someone acts "responsibly" to dig out their car and go to work, it's a huge deal if they save the spot for a couple days.
Street Sweeping in Winter
That would solve both problems - removal of litter used as territorial pissings, and cars that have not been dug out.
It would also mean that you would have to move your car elsewhere so that the street could be cleared. How do you propose that the city clear snow and "do its job" otherwise?
No argument there
The city just sent a loader down my street. It took them almost a week from the time they put "tow zone" signs up, but they did a great job. All the snow and space savers hiding in it were piled into trucks and taken away. Everyone is happy now. There's no need to save spots because everything was cleanly cleared to the curb.
I think the biggest problem is that this doesn't happen all that efficiently in Boston.
There are people who have
There are people who have been hoarding a public parking spot for over a month now. "A couple days" was weeks ago.
A simple solution to this is
A simple solution to this is to enforce street cleaning restrictions year-round. Once a week all cars must be removed from one side of the street or another. Too lazy to dig your car out? Wait for the tow truck to pull it out of the snowpile on street cleaning day and pay the tow charge. That gives the city one chance per week to remove snow as well as any space savers left by the lovely inhabitants of Boston.
Wrong anon
Only in some downtown and more congested neighborhoods and streets is there street sweeping every week. Many of us live on streets that don't have parking restrictions for street sweeping.
Do you even know what that
Do you? Garages are discounted during snow emergencies. Lots of people -- myself included -- think a couple bucks is worth not having a speck of snow on your car. I do dig out my own spot when I get home, though.
This applies to Boston. Not sure how it's handled up in your neck of the woods, but I do know there are some cheap garages there as well. Hundreds of dollars is hyperbolic.
Or even better...the folks
Or even better...the folks that leave their car under a mound of snow until it melts in April.
Huh what?
Translation: They spend money to take their own car off the road and take themselves out of competition for the small number of available spaces, thereby making things better for everyone else.
umm.... isn't pretty much every space out there except for the space you dug your own car out of, a space that someone else has shoveled?
I shovel. I understand the attractiveness of space savers --- I'd love to have a personally reserved space waiting for me, irrespective of whether it's winter or summer. But I also understand that hoarding more of a scarce resource than you need is antisocial behavior, and I don't do it.
The real problem is that there are more people trying to park cars than there are spaces.
Brighton solution
In many parts of Brighton near me, where snow was never plowed even back to the edge of the parking lane, people have taken to head-in angled parking instead of parallel parking. The road is normally 2 lanes wide with parking on both sides. They only ever plowed one lane down the middle leaving huge amounts of snow on both sides. People started parking in at an angle because they couldn't parallel on the ice they refused to remove and with the distance from the curb that the ice came out to. More people followed suit.
One more example of the City of Boston not finishing the job
I know they are working on it, and I know it costs money and takes time. I know they have made progress as noted by Adam and others this morning. Dorchester Ave is getting better every day, but it's still not completely done.
But in the meantime, I am not going to remove my spacesaver. It is the only thing that is preserving my sanity.
Note to Marty-Finish the snow removal job first and then you wont have to remove the spacesavers because we wont need to use them anymore.
Space Savers!!!
On my block in Southie people put out space savers as the first snow was just starting and declared this space theirs till spring. These people don't even live on the block. This is not fair! At this point the mayor should have the space savers removed.
But in my neighborhood
in Dorchester, people work very hard to shovel out their spaces, and the spacesaver system actually works quite well.
Sorry the system doesn't work for you in Southie.
Enough already
Good god...who are these people with all the time to type up a friggin novel and leave it up to express their feelings? I understand that these exercises can sometimes be cathartic, but a good deal of them have to be straight up self-congratulatory knobs who need a hobby. In the time it took them to format a business letter, they could have shoveled an elderly neighbor's steps.
"Not in Cambridge. Not in this neighborhood" cringe. Get over yourself, and maybe take your own advice of "soldiering up a bit" if parking spots have you butthurt enough to draft a treatise.
At least the first note is to the point.
Suggestion to all of you commenters
People, give up the practice of psychoanalyzing other people you don't even know, let alone entire neighborhoods and demographic strata, based on a note. All it's doing is feeding your own neuroses.
Coming from the guy who's
Coming from the guy who's been the most vocal about space savers on UHub...
If you were even within two orders of magnitude of right...
...you'd have a point. But you're not, and you don't.
I dunno
I think that if you were to show the 3 notes to people and have them guess Brighton, Cambridge, or Southie, they would probably guess well based on stereotypes. Yes, different types exist in different places, but there is some truth behind the stereotype.
Now, on the other hand, I could imagine all three of these things going up in Somerville, perhaps even on the same block. (And yes, I know that savers are banned in Somerville, but still.)
And the useful purpose served by this exercise would be?
Reinforcing stupid and limiting stereotypes? Encouraging territorial hydrant-pissing and adversarial behavior? Help me out here.
Welcome to the internet
It's showing that slice of life thing. This is how things are done in Brighton, this is how things are done in Cambridge, this is how things are done in Southie. Yes, broad brushes. Yes, there are people in Southie who express themselves like the note writer in Cambridge (and vice versa) but you asked about the neighborhood comparisons and that's what I've got to say about it.
The UHubivrese is full of stories where the stereotypes of neighborhoods are laid bare, and a lot of them do not involve snow. Let's talk come St. Patrick's Day, or when some development project is proposed, or when a fast food place in Allston wants to stay open until 3 AM. Same stuff, less snow.
Why thank you, old-timer
I'm still getting the hang of this internet thing.
Seriously, because you can wallow in a pile of shit, doesn't mean you should.
You're welcome
Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to.
Are you being held against your will?
Last time I checked, no one was forcing you to read these posts, read the comments on these posts, and reply back to the comments on these posts.
It's easy - you can just ignore them and go about your day, such as it is.
Unless you're being held at gunpoint. Are you? Text back "Y" "E" "S" and
we'll see what we can do to help.
That's not all
It's also feeding the page view count....
Pot... Kettle.
Pot... Kettle.
I love these notes so hard.
Sadly, not having to deal with all that garbage was one of the reasons I was happy to leave Eastie. Space savers give me agita.
Just had a dramatic reading of the Cambridge note in the office.
A+, would read again.
Fuck the dickhead who made
Fuck the dickhead who made the top note.
Brighton's residental areas are filled with BU and BC kids who just abandon their cars on our neighbourhood streets because they don't want to pay for their school's overnight parking. These become giant snow mountains.
The passive aggressive nonsense in it is ridiculous. "Benefit of the neighbourhood?" Please, Everyone here knows the troubles we have with the college kids. Obviously that guy does not live here.
Until Monday, everyone has a right to use a space saver in this neighbourhood. This self righteous shit doesn't make the rules.
How does claiming a piece of
How does claiming a piece of public property as yours "benefit the neighborhood"? You claim to know the rules yet are supporting a system based on stealing public land, making threats and vandalizing private property.
If you were unaware that Brighton had a lot of BU and BC students for the past 100 years or so that is your fault.
College kids that don't live
College kids that don't live in our neighbourhood shouldn't go into our neighbourhood and abandon their cars on our side streets in front of our homes for entire semesters because they are too inconsiderate to pay for parking their campus provides, especially when it snows 8 feet and causes gigantic snowbanks.
An adult going to work wanting to make sure the spot in front of his house that he shoveled out is still there when he comes home is not "stealing." The mayor has said so.
Some 18 year old from new york who wants to play in the city for a semester and parks his hooptie in the same spot and lets it get burried, that's stealing parking.
If they don't live there
How, exactly, do they get resident permits?
You can legally have a car in MA with out of state tags if you don't live here, but you won't get a resident permit.
Brighton doesn't issue
Brighton doesn't issue permits, at least in Brighton Center/Oak Square.
How long have you been there?
I remember, when I was a student in the 1980s, people in Allston and Brighton working very hard to prevent the universities from building dormitories.
Reap ... sow.
Only since July but I've
Only since July but I've gotten to know my neighbours pretty well and none of us know the mysterious cars with BU stickers that appeared conveniently the weekend BU's classes started.
Reddit also recommends kids park their cars here because "it's free!".
Local Man Who Just Moved To
Local Man Who Just Moved To Neighborhood Is Already Telling Kids Who Have Been There Longer Than Him They Can't Park There Because He Moved Some Snow Around Two Weeks Ago
I integrated into the
I integrated into the neighbourhood by talking to the neighbours and learning about the community. It's called being a good neighbour. I also don't have to be there forever to know that this part of brighton doesn't have parking permits.
I also don't own a car but still respect the right for people to use space savers in areas where it's allowed and discourage the co-opting of residential parking by freeloaders.
A few neighborhoods in Boston
A few neighborhoods in Boston don't require permits. There are tons of ditched out of state vehicles on my street in Dorchester.
Hate to nitpick
But BU and BC students didn't really take up residence in Brighton and Allston until about the 1970s, with John Silber and Doug Flutie respectively to thank for that.
No comment on the substance. I have been doing that too often. And I'm not from A-B.
I feel forced to use a space saver
I didn't used to use a space saver. But after having three tires slashed in a neighborhood where most people "just know" whose space is whose so they didn't have the courtesy to consistently use space savers, it became clear that the only safe spot for my car is the spot I was previously in. Any other spot, and I risk ending up with no car for a day and hundreds of dollars of damage.
If there's a moderate amount of snow, there are other spots I could move my car to by shoveling out a new spot. But for the past month, there have been no unshoveled spots that aren't covered by a plow mound of ice almost as tall as a car. So the option of shoveling out a new spot doesn't exist. It takes heavy equipment to move these piles.
There are big-picture approaches that could improve things. Plow to the curb and remove the snow. Tow the cars that have been sitting under a snowbank for the past month. Set some rules about space saving and enforce them. Set some rules about vandalism and enforce them. But I can't implement any of those myself. I can just try to find a workable solution in the environment that I'm in right now.
So when I don't have my toddler with me and can risk someone else parking in my spot forcing me to walk four blocks (mostly in the street since the sidewalks aren't shoveled) to the closest parking lot where I could safely park my car if "my" spot is taken, I don't use a space saver. When I do have my toddler with me, I've used a space saver. Reluctantly, regretfully, fully aware of the stupidity of blocking a space when I'm not using it, and knowing that my wonderfully thuggish neighbors have left me no choice.
Your slashed tires are proof
Your slashed tires are proof that the current system is utterly broken and ridiculous and the inmates are running the asylum.
Nah.... Most people who use
Nah.... Most people who use space savers wouldn't vandalize someone's car. The people who slash tires more than likely have a few screws loose.
Don't confuse the poor guy
The fact that almost all drivers who mark their spaces are nonviolent and law abiding just won't stick in that cranium.
Then what's the point?
What's the point of saving the space then? If nobody is going to vandalize a car, then nobody is going to leave your space saver in place and let you have your space. If they still do even though there's no concern about vandalism, then aren't they the kind of person you'd rather reward with a space? However, it's only the people who would park in your space by moving your space saver who will do so because they know there's no threat of vandalism...so in reality, you're keeping the good people from parking in your spot and the bad people don't care because you won't vandalize their car anyways so you reward them with an empty space that a good person might have been able to use first but passed up.
If you're not going to vandalize a car that moved your space saver, then you reward the jerks and punish the good. What kind of sicko does that make you?
I'm going to bite on this one
Even though we are on opposite sides of this, you're good people.
You have to work on the assumption that this is a part of the fabric of the culture of an area. In a case like this, good thinking people understand that the space was marked due to the work put into clearing the space. They also see it as a sign that the car will be back, and the driver will need a place to park, and since, in the snow sense, they created the space, they should be rewarded for this. Visitors are directed away from said spaces, excepting of course short, midweek visits (I've had a visiting nurse leave her car at the foot of my driveway so she could visit a neighbor for this reason)
When everyone is in agreement with this system, it works. It breaks down where consensus does not exist, and aparentally where parking is at a premium year round. Where it breaks down, unfortunately things ranging from ugly notes to light vandalism to slashed tires and broken windows occurs.