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Citizen complaint of the day: The never ending space savers of Dorchester
By adamg on Sat, 02/13/2016 - 2:42pm
People keep calling in and posting complaints to 311 about space savers. A concerned citizen files a report on Church Street in Dorchester:
The city has removed space savers on this street and these residents just keep putting more out.
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Keep taking them
Eventually they'll run out of furniture.
They'll be sitting on the bare floor staring at a TV also on the floor, but dammit they'll have a parking space!
Next snowstorm hits and the
Next snowstorm hits and the family starts eyeing the TV......
I shoveled the fire hydrants on my street.
Maybe I'll start sticking a note to the Boston Fire Department on them. A really big one, with my name and address on it so BFD only saves my building if it catches on fire.
I'll say it
If it was out last week end, after the non-emergency snow, I'd see the point. If it was out Monday, I'd maybe see the point. But even though we've got a foot of snow in the past week, that was about a week ago, and yes, it was warm for most of the week, so it is time to move on from the idea that it is "your space".
Are people being ticketed for space savers?
Because, if not ....
space saver all those large objects the garbagemen won't take!!
just for arguments sake, hash this out with me
as far as i understand it, the city is under certain circumstances allowing people to keep space savers on the streets. forget about the circumstances- thats irrelevant for this particular example. but lets say the criteria the city has set are met on some given day.
somebody rolls up to a parking spot, it has what is literally trash/space saver in it. somebody removes the trash and parks there. theres no actual claim to the spot- merely that the city allows space savers correct? assuming there are no permitting or other issues, legally, in the eyes of the city, etc- my "claim" to that parking spot would be just the same as the person that shoveled it/placed a space saver?
yes
The policy is basically that 48 hours after a snow emergency, it's not considered trash in the street. Otherwise, there is nothing legally protecting the spot.
Notice how Boston hasn't declared
a snow emergency recently, even when they would make such a declaration for identical conditions in past years.
Perhaps that's Mathy's answer to this issue. People can only use space savers if a snow emergency has been declared. So we won't declare a snow emergency.
Just totally ban the stupid things all together and be done with this nonsense.
I dunno about the snow emergencies
I think the Public Works folk would be pushing for it if there were a public safety/snow removal issue. While a few of these storms left enough snow that drivers had to actually shovel their cars out, I figure that the city thought things were in hand, so there was no need to ban parking on numerous streets across town.
If you shovel out a spot it
If you shovel out a spot it should be yours until all the snow melts. Why should you spend hours of your own time shoveling just to have someone come along and steal it. If the city wants to do something about it have them plow out everybody's parking spaces.
What planet are you from, sir?
Because I'm very curious where somebody might have spent "hours" shoveling out a space this winter. Hoth, perhaps? Or Gethen?
take a long look in the mirror
Take a long look in the mirror and tell me what you see? The spot belongs to the public and not you, no matter how many hours you spend shoveling it out and how selfish you are. I wish you luck as society and the world passes you by!
and there's middle ground
Use a saver for 2 days when it actually snows and you actually need to dig out your car. The fact that they're still out nearly a week after it barely snowed is silly.
Both sides are stupid fake moralists
As long as neighbors agree, they should do as they please. I'm sick and tired of smarmy diatribes about how everyone should do what is really just what the speaker wants for themselves.
I suspect this anon
is also this person, who posted several near-identical threads in Yelp Talk last week:
http://www.yelp.com/topic/dorchester-center-shovel-ur-spot
"stealing"
It's not stealing when you never owned it.
It must be hard being an anon tough guy on the Internet.
Not the best use of 311
People need to mind their business with space savers and not use up 311 resources because their neighbor has a different opinion about parking their car in the street when the city refuses to plow snow to make parking spaces. If you feel a space saver is the biggest non-emergency issue facing this city, I strongly encourage you to volunteer with an organization serving the youth of our city, drop off items to Goodwill, donate to a local family on SmallCanBeBig.org, or otherwise use your time investment in city living more proactively.
Karenz, let me help you; you
Karenz, let me help you; you forgot to mention saving starving children, curing cancer, and preventing nuclear warfare as better pastimes than trying to make one's street more livable.
Actually not helpful at all
Because you completely missed my point. But thanks for playing!
It's not an opinion
"because their neighbor has a different opinion about parking their car in the street "
It's not an "opinion", it's a law. People do not own parking spaces on public streets.
311 Takes too long to respond
I put in reports on 311 about the space savers on my street in Dorchester, usually there's already a car back in the spot by the time 311 gets to coming around.
Citizens of greater Boston
Stop obsessing over space savers and get on with your lives. There are children in Syria eating rock soup tonight. Please get a life.