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Citizen complaint of the day: Temper, temper
By adamg on Mon, 01/25/2016 - 9:14am
Man, remember the days when we waited for the snow to get at least two feet high before getting this angry? A disgusted citizen on Prescott Street in East Boston complains:
This is the note we found on our window this morning. Please address that space-savers are not allowed after not shoveling and only getting 4 inches of snow.
Meanwhile, over on Border Street, another fed-up citizen complains:
I hope the sanitation dept throws away all the chairs and space savers tomorrow. There is no place to park in East Boston now. Somebody actually had the nerve to hold the spot I shoveled out.
And down in South Boston, looks like two residents are getting ready to throw more than shade.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
If I received that note...
I'd be mad enough to park there again with a well concealed go-pro to catch the tire-slasher in the act.
Thanks Mayor Marty for
Thanks Mayor Marty for keeping Boston a hick-town backwater of civility. These people need to be put in their place, not encouraged further.
Let me correct that for you
I think you meant to say
You can feel free to edit your post by cutting and pasting this if you want.
Details needed...
Doing a good job of what exactly?
You know
I was going to be even more of a wiseass and note a few things where Walsh has been truly falling short based on his campaign promises, you know, things that actually matter, beginning with "Good luck with..." but I opted against. I mean, Shirley Kessel can do a much better job at that than I can.
What? Boston is one of the
What? Boston is one of the nicest places to live in the country primarily because of the people who lived here for generations because of the great education that has been cultivated, transplant. The space savers aside, you are free to move back to whatever place you came from if that is how you feel about it.
because the car will get out
because the car will get out of "your" spot a lot faster with four slashed tires.
hurrrrr
How sweet
How sweet
BPD could put an end to this
Park some decoy cars in space saver spots with cameras and motion detectors disguised inside them. Wait for someone to come slash the tires. Have a cop run out and arrest them, and make them sit overnight in jail and think about what they've done. Publicize the hell out of it; it will make the 5% of people who think this is okay think twice about doing it again.
They do this in Brookline with goddamn bikes, you'd think they could figure out how to get a '02 Altima for this type of sting in Southie.
>implying the BPD cares
>implying the BPD cares
Also implies that the Mayor cares
but we know he would side with the note writer in this case. This shit is going to start making people think twice about living here, which is pretty sad.
Last winter was the last
Last winter was the last straw for me. No snow out here in Los Angeles. Couldn't be happier with my choice to leave. A better way is possible!
We do have a housing problem
Totally against space savers and I move my car everyday, but if people don't want to live here maybe we will have fewer places selling for a million+ or renting for 4K+ a month.
So does anyone want to guess if the note writer is a new or old resident of Eastie?
If only
You are assuming that off-duty cops are not leaving notes like this themselves.
Seems unlikely
I would expect cops to have more compelling methods of intimidating and coercing strangers. It's pretty much their job description, after all.
Rather than deal with the
Rather than deal with the root of the problem (piss-poor snow removal policies), just punish people who try to deal with it themselves. Your government at work.
Some people who do try to deal with it themselves
Unfortunately, some of the people who do try to deal with it themselves, in rather nasty, vicious ways, do have to be punished for their actions and behaviors.
oh please, please let this be
oh please, please let this be the year that someone retaliates with something so incredibly stupid and illegal that marty finally wakes up and put this space saving nonsense to bed once and for all.
You are missing something
Mahty doesn't care unless any said action makes him special or gets him more economic brownie points and more places to brown his nose.
The only stuff he says to regular folk involves scolding that it isn't "Loon Mountain". He thinks this makes him look like he's in charge or something.
risk
And risk pissing off his base? Mahty will need that space saver vote in the next election.
It means, that, like his predecessor(s),
Mayor Marty Walsh, like the vast majority of politicians, is too chicken to stand up for his principles (assuming that he has any).
Or conversely
Walsh, like his predecessors, is heeding the wishes of his constituents.
I'd put it in a somewhat different way:
To be more exact, Walsh, like his predecessors (and most other politicians), is pandering to the absolute worst elements among his constituency.
Well
If those elements can get him reelected, while those on the opposite side wouldn't vote for him even if he changed course on this (since they didn't vote for him in 2013,) I would say it is good political calculus to keep on pandering.
70% of Bostonians have no trouble with someone putting a chair out after shoveling a car out after a big storm (as oppose to a dusting, or in July.) Those are some tough numbers to work against.
Fixed that for you...
Mahty doesn't care unless any said action results in a parade.
Do they know what an
Do they know what an apostrophe is?
Random use of upper and lower case
The note writer also randomly uses upper and lower case for the letter "a".
Honestly, at this point I'm just surprised/impressed
That they used you and your instead of u and ur
Not sure what's worse;
this note, or all the passive aggressive notes that have been posted and discussed on Uhub.
I think this note writer means business.
From a handwriting analysis point of view...
The double and triple tracing over of letters indicates aggression.
spot/slash
Given that Spot and Slash are capitalized, I have to assume this gentleman had his dog stolen, and he has no choice but to unleash a sweet, November Rain-esque guitar solo on the culprit's...tires. Nothing to see here, folks.
I'd prefer the breakdown portion of Rocket Queen.
but I love the sentiment!
Great summation of the
Great summation of the entitlement of the average Boston driver. Anyone who defends the space saver "system" is a part of this and should be embarrassed.
actually just a minority
But don't let your universal hatred of all things car and driver get in the way. Try owning a vehicle in the winter in Boston. People overall are actually pretty civil and helpful to one another in many neighborhoods. We had a lot of shoveling parties last year, helping out the older folks, and a really great neighbor who was generous with the snow blower. I'm sure you love seeing this kind of stuff as some sort of bizarre validation for your anti-engine fetish, but "resident comes home from work and parks with no issues" isn't as fun to talk about.
public parking is public.
public parking is public. everyone who parks in a public spot needs to shovel out because they parked in a public spot. that gives them no right to mark the spot to be used exclusively by them at a later time. the price you pay for FREE public street parking is shoveling your car out when it snows.
if space savers can be used in january, why not just use them year round. if your logic determines that you "earn" a spot in january when it snows, why have you lost your "earned" spot in july.
Thats right, because its ridiculous.
Let me explain it to you then
Usually in the non winter months I park in the same spot, in front of my house. If someone else is parked there, I find another spot.
When it snows, I shovel my usual spot .
But when there is snow on the street, especially a lot of snow, if someone else is parked in my usual spot I have no place to park. This actually happened to my next door neighbor last winter. She went out for dinner, didn't use the space saver she usually uses, and arrived home at 11PM with literally no place to park. I and another neighbor helped her to shovel while her car was parked in the middle of the street (the one lane that the city plowed).
So I use a space saver, and so does my neighbor. If you owned a car adn lived on my street I am 100% sure you would use one too.
Why not?
Why not? Did all the other spaces magically disappear? They don't stop being parking spaces just because there's snow in them, you know.
It's unwise to be 100% sure about anything that other people do. I used to carry my shovel around in my car. If I arrived back home and there wasn't a cleared space, I made one. So did my neighbors. That way, within a few days, all the spaces were cleared. I'm sure some people would bellyache about how some others were not doing their fair shares, but there will always people who would rather complain about a problem than solve it.
How do you "make a space?"
What you aren't acknowledging is that in much of the city, there's no such thing as an empty space with snow in it, that could be yours simply by shoveling. Every single space has a car in it.
Every single space has a car
And the ones that don't have cars have space savers, which is the entire problem.
Let me explain something to you
There are two different issues at hand here. It sounds like your neighborhood has enough parking for everyone who needs it, because you wouldn't be able to park in the same spot in front of your house otherwise. So really the problem in your case is the act of shoveling. You shoveled a spot, so you don't want someone else to come in and take your spot and not shovel one themselves. I get that, everyone should shovel their own spot, seems reasonable
The other scenario, in neighborhoods where there are major parking issues, like Southie, the South End, parts of Dorchester, parts of East Boston, etc., the problem is not the shoveling of the spot, it is not being able to find another space when you come back (shoveled or not shoveled). In those neighborhoods there are more cars than parking spots. So when you get back at 11pm and the only open spaces are shaved, you have no other options because there are no spaces left to shovel out. So those people who put down the space savers get to come back and park with no problem, while everyone else is screwed, all because they took 30 minutes to shovel some snow.
They are two different problems, and frankly I don't think people here really care or have an issue with your scenario, its the other one.
This is a class example of
This is a class example of the "tragedy of the commons"/freeloader situation. Why should someone shovel out a spot that someone else will just come along and use? Until the city figures out how to effectively manage public property so people don't have to maintain it themselves, you're going to have this problem.
I'm not embarrassed at all
Everyone needs to calm down. One idiot posted an idiotic note and another idiot had an online fight with another person. That happened. And that happens even when the subject is not space savers.
The fact is that space savers work very well in most cases, in most neighborhoods. If I shoveled the space in front of my house where I park every day, I'm not going to shovel a new space every time I return to my house because someone else (who never lifted a shovel) is in my space. Most of us who have cars and shovel spaces believe that if we shovel it ,it's ours until the snow melts enough so anyone can park.anywhere. (Posted and metered spaces being the exception). And most people respect the space savers and it isn't a problem.
All the usual suspects who don't own cars , don't have to park on the street, and don't have to shovel a space, please chill.
Doesn't work
Your system would work in any neighborhood that has enough public parking spaces for all people who want to use them. If that is not the case, we rely on a system of musical chairs where we "share" spaces and rely on someone not needing to park (occupy the space) at any given moment.
Please check out the stats on the number of residential parking permits to get a sense of which world we live in.
"So anyone can park anywhere?"
On what planet are there enough spaces so that anyone can park anywhere?
If there really is a neighborhood in Boston where there are enough spaces to go around, and anyone who wants one can have one just for shoveling, then space savers aren't a completely crazy idea, in that neighborhood.
But not in any of the downtown neighborhoods, Charlestown, South Boston, or East Boston. In fact, I'll bet, not in any neighborhood where parking is in short enough supply that there is a resident sticker program.
Uhub Winter
Ahh yes.. it's winter. It snowed. Now for a parking space saver thread. Let me get the popcorn...
Popcorn
I removed a bunch of spot
I removed a bunch of spot savers today on my street and pointed my go pro camera out the window, I just hope someone does something stupid and I catch them on camera!
Anyone who saves a spot is selfish and backwards!
I removed
20 in southie on my walk to work this morning on top of everyone that I came across yesterday. I usually take any cone that I see around my house; another dusting and I should be able to organize a pretty good youth soccer practice.
We should
We should collect them for the biker who puts them in bike lane buffer zones during the summer!
See? Win Win for everyone..
Well arent you special !
You removed 20 space savers while you walked to work? How special and entitled you are. If we actually believe you, you unilaterally decided that the hard work of 20 people who shoveled their spots is worth nothing to you. And where pray tell did you do with said 20 savers?
This posting, if true, just confirms what those of us who use space savers already know. Most of the people against space savers don't have a car, or have one but don't park on the street, and don't ever do the hard work to shovel a space. Mind your own business zetag.
How am I entitled?
For thinking that it's not ok to claim public property after less than six inches of snow?
And I really don't need you to believe me, everyone impacted would know when they got home, and that was the point. Most of the spaces weren't actually shoveled anyway. Most of the space savers get dragged over the snowbank, and stashed behind something so there's no confusion ... unless there's a fence around, because there is something so satisfying about tossing one up and over a fence.
Until you have owned a home
Until you have owned a home on a said street for home than 10 years, you are indeed acting entitled. Until you can walk or drive or live in a way that you can relate to the entire street/ neighborhood, you are indeed judging and your actions state that you indeed know more that anyone else and therefore you have the right to remove what you did not place . ....
Trying raising at least one generation where you act like God and paying off a mortgage
I have no idea what you're talking about
But apparently the city is clearing them out now too, and I will continue to be a good neighbor and clean up any trash that I see in street.
As per the Honorable Thomas M. Menino, space savers are allowed for 48 hours after the end of a snow emergency, and last time I checked we haven't had one of those this winter.
Thank you Zetag!
Anon, piss off.
Good news!
Hi anon! Good news! I meet all of your insane, arbitrary criteria for whether I'm allowed to express an opinion on this delicate matter! I not only own a home in Boston, but I park on the street, am in the process of raising another generation here, AND I have an elementary-school-level education of public vs. private property!
Which is why I feel very comfortable in my assertion that blowhard townie assholes like yourself are a pox on our fine town, and I can't wait for the day when you move your entire band of like-minded lunatics out into a suburb where you can pay for your own damned private parking spot. Alternately, I'm getting my popcorn ready for the day when one of you unhinged fools decides to act on your self-righteous twaddle and actually do retaliate against someone who has the gall to question your kindergarten-level-grasp of the commons. The age of surveillance is here, anon, and it does not bode well for the sad neanderthal mindset that makes spacesaving possible. The camera I have running 24/7 in my car has already saved me the cost of a deductible in a fender-bender, so when it catches you slashing someone's tires, it'll just be icing on the cake.
Fellow beacons of sanity: join me in my glorious quest to hurl every space saver you see into the nearest dumpster! Let us live free of the tyranny of these chuckleheads and their crappy lawn furniture in the street, and let us embrace the glorious future of the common good!
Lmao, no, you will be out in
Lmao, no, you will be out in the burbs in 10 years.
I am the only "townie" on my
I am the only "townie" on my street and the only person who didn't put a saver out for the 3 inches of snow shoveled. Every other spot had a saver in it put there by newcomers. I guess some have learned to embrace it.
Oh That's Right— There's No Property Tax For The First Ten Years
( if you're GE )
Do you have a car?
Do you have a car?
I bet you aren't originally from Boston, are you?
What are you trying to prove? Do you want us to applaud you for being a self appointed vigilante combating space savers? Yes, you do seem entitled.
I rent an off street spot to avoid snow issues, as I live in a very dense neighborhood and even with a sticker it can be challenging to find a spot any time of year. I'm really lucky I can afford it at this point.
I used to live in a different part of Boston on a small street and most of the residents used savers on the street when we had huge snowstorms.
That said, I think it is insane to threaten to slash someone's tires or retaliate in anyway however if one's space saver is removed. And I don't think this last storm made it necessary to save a spot.
1) I own a car
1) I own a car
2) No I'm not, but that is hardly relevant.
3) I'm not trying to prove anything. I'm cleaning trash off the streets.
4) If we get 2 feet and a snow emergency is declared I abide by the 48 hour rule.
Explain
you also noted you were throwing the space savers over fences ... so you were littering elsewhere?
Just trying to understand.
People put trash in the street
And think that entitles them to a parking spot when they return. I remove this trash from the roadway. Pretty simple.
The fence part was mostly a joke, although I will sometimes deposit a cone over the fence of a construction area if it's too far for me to carry home. I don't consider that littering, more of a donation. Cones always come in handy on job sites.
You need some hobbies,
You need some hobbies, because carrying other people's garbage home because you just can't stand the idea of other people saving spots in streets that you don't even live on is pretty pathetic.
Resentment of the transplants is so amusing.
That should "resentment from"
That should "resentment from"
No they don't
I've been on plenty of job sites. No they don't.
Good try, though.
maybe put all that energy
maybe put all that energy into something that is useful. Maybe carry a older persons groceries instead of a cone? Try doing something that really makes a difference in the community. Moving 20 cones...not so much.
for the record
It ended up being around 50 by the time I made it home that night.
Awwww
Did you put a gold star on your calendar, too? What a special day for you!
"2) No I'm not, but that is
"2) No I'm not, but that is hardly relevant."
If explains your overall contempt and feeling of superiority of the people in Eastern MA which is one of the better places to live in the entire country precisely because of the people who've been here. You moved here and are unhappy that others have gotten to live in their desirable place for many generations and you have to pay a premium for it.
This is your little way of lashing out, as immature as it is.
"Eastern MA"
Please don't put this space-saver crap where it doesn't belong.
Here's one thing that gets me
They have space saving in Chicago. Big, cosmopolitan Chicago, yet when it's done in Boston it's a sign of our provincialism.
No space savers ...
... on the South side of Chicago back when we lived there (1974-1990) -- and I don't remember reading about (or seeing any) on visits to the North side (but apparently there was some of this in the aftermath of the 1979 blizzard -- but we didn't get around much to check). What I do remember is that the city moved cars around via towing (in our neighborhood) on a wholesale basis after major storms in the 1980s, so they could remove snow as completely as possible. You might have to spend half an hour or so looking around to figure out where your car had wound up (but no ticketing, as the city knew there was no place for the cars to go except on the street).
Apparently the practice became much more common, for samaller and smaller amounts of snow, after we left Chicago.
I'll get you more later
But for now, google "Chicago parking dibs". They were doing it as of last winter, with the same junk we deal with. I have seen that some neighborhoods have banned (or tried to ban) the things.
In short, we are not special, nor are we provincial.
Here we go
What I like about this article from Straight Dope Chicago is that it notes all the cities where dibs or space saving has been seen, backwater burgs like New York City and Washington DC. But yes, world class cities like Los Angeles and Rio de Janiero do not have such practices. And lest one might thing that 5 years ago is ancient times, here's an article from last winter.
As always, there are arguments on both sides, and of course I think my side has the better argument, but let's not pretend that this is a Boston or even Eastern Massachusetts thing. Read the second link; it's the same thins we were going on about at the exact same time.
All I'm saying...
... is that widespread space saving is a relatively new phenomenon in Chicago -- and it is apparently expanding in the same fashion as in Boston.
How about volunteering for a
How about volunteering for a year round city beautification program, oh right, because then you wouldn't get to engage in passive aggressive behavior.
Lots of car owners hate space savers
I own a car and park on the street. Space savers are utterly ridiculous. I would never steal any and I respect the ones I see (that is, I don't park where there is a space saver). But I'm against them. So, you don't speak for everyone with a car who parks on the street.
Space savers are only allowed
Space savers are only allowed if the city declares a snow emergency. In this case, the city did not. Therefore, your claim to the public parking space is invalid.
If you think brushing off 5
If you think brushing off 5 inches of snow is "hard work" then that confirms you are another lazy space saver user.
And if you think "brushing
And if you think "brushing off 5 inches of snow" is the only situation where people might be using a saver, then that confirms you have never dug a car out after a real storm. Not surprising, since the most vocal commenetrs on here about the space saving system seem to either not drive or live in the city.
And some of us who do live in the city
And have two cars, even, think things have gotten out of hand.
Space Savers Don't Make Sense Anymore
There are too few spaces and too many cars now for people to use space savers anymore. I lived in South Boston 20 years ago, and at that time it made sense. At that time, there were almost always more empty spots that could be shoveled out, but not anymore.
South Boston was a great place to live back then, and it still is. Most of the people are perfectly nice, but you're the kind of person that gives the place a bad reputation, one it doesn't deserve. The neighborhood doesn't need or want you to drag it down to your level.
"their spots" <--- is where your argument goes out the window
There is no "their spots" with street parking. End of story. You lose.
Shoveling isn't hard work. It
Shoveling isn't hard work. It is monotonous, but not difficult. Try using something bigger than a tablespoon.
And the people who park in
And the people who park in spots other people took the time and effort to clear out are selfless, progressive-thinking altruists.
You want to solve the problem, get the city to take responsibility for clearing snow, quickly, from parking spots, rather than supporting parasites and freeloaders like you're doing now.
In theory this is a wonderful
In theory this is a wonderful idea. In practice it is not. Where will all the cars be moved during the cleaning? There are not enough spaces in the city nor city lots for this to happen.
The city should also be responsible for cleaning all sidewalks, including residences. But no one wants to pay for that.
Public garages, school and municipal parking lots:
The city could/should make public garages, as well as school and municipal parking lots available to residents to temporarily park for the duration of the snow removal. That works, imho.
No it doesn't
The city of Boston does do that for snow emergencies.
But there aren't enough spaces in all those garages and lots for everybody with cars in Boston - especially in neighborhoods such as mine that have no municipal lots or garages.
I hate having to pay $200 a
I hate having to pay $200 a month for an off street parking spot, but it's worth it to not have to deal with this garbage anymore.
Does insurance cover vandalism?
If somebody gets their car trashed by trashy townie garbage like this, does insurance kick in or are you SOL? Might almost be worth it if you had a dashcam to catch the dude, although lord knows the BPD won't do shit about it....
If the BPD doesn't care
You or your insurance company could sue the person if they were clearly identified.
Probably falls under comprehensive
Someone knocked off my car's passenger side mirror one day in Southie, and my insurance would have kicked in had it surpassed my comprehensive deductible. Which, for replacing a side mirror, did not.
Yup, vandalism goes under
Yup, vandalism goes under comprehensive, which has a deductible. Except typical policies around here have no deductible for glass, so if someone smashes your window, you don't have to pay for the repair.
And typically they don't raise your rates after a comprehensive claim, unless you have a whole lot of them (like more than 4 in a year or something).
What also happens when you move a space saver in East Boston
Our first tire slashing of the season.
That Southie Link
That's me in the last link (the southie link). That post was just sarcasm between me and my neighbor. U-hub, Did you not see the smiley face? lol
Oy
Easy to miss, and I obviously wasn't alone, since somebody screen-captured it and submitted it to 311 along with this note:
Or was that part of the joke, too?
If you finished reading the
If you finished reading the whole thread you would see the Southie humor that use to be part of our neighborhood until everyone got do uptight.
!Maybe people should finish
!Maybe people should finish reading the whole segment before judgements and reporting and they would see the joking sarcasm. The post was taken down but we were making fun of people and once again people take it out of context for their own purposes.
First time it really snows
I'm gonna leave one of these on every car on the street
time to make stickers
Time to make stickers that say "This is my space saver, and I am embarrassed by the decisions I make."
Slap 'em on any space saver you see.
Even the spare in the trunk ?
Even the spare in the trunk ?
City crew driving around South Boston, removing space savers
According to the city answer to a complaint about space savers in the area of Marine Road.
Once, Space Savers Were a Reasonable Solution, But No Longer
I think that space savers were once an acceptable solution to a real problem, but no longer. I used to visit my grandmother who lived in South Boston (our family never called it Southie) back in the '80s and early '90s, and there was a reason why space savers worked then. There were a lot more parking spaces available.
I remember my grandmother always being able to find a spot on her block, right in the middle of South Boston. When it did snow, there were always many empty spaces that they weren't all piled high with snow (shoveled out of a neighboring space). It was a relatively small inconvenience to shovel a few inches out of a new spot in order to park your car. Using a space saver to protect a spot that you had put some work into was reasonable, because you weren't necessarily depriving anyone else of having a place to park, provided they were willing to do a small amount of work.
Nowadays, there are way more cars, and it's pretty tough to find a space at all in some areas of Boston, let alone a space that has been cleared of snow. Any and all empty gaps that might have existed are piled high with snow. This has raised the stakes so much, that people are willing to resort to destruction of property or outright violence. It's time for space savers to end. From now on the city should get to work removing them the minute the snow has stopped falling and the plows have done their work.
South Boston
Funny how this event took place in East Boston, yet practically the entire thread has become about South Boston.
E-mail every note you find to
E-mail every note you find to the Mayor's office.
More parking
The City of Boston needs to provide more off street parking for it's residents. They need to mandate more off street parking for all the developments in the city. People have cars, people need cars and people need parking.
"The city" is us
Which translates to, "taxpayers should foot the bill for acquiring and maintaining property that people can use to store their automobiles at below-market prices."
As a taxpayer, no, thank you.
Or they could start charging
Or they could start charging money to park on the street instead of letting people park there for free. Have you noticed how many cars go unshoveled for days or weeks after a snow storm? If anything, on-street parking should be prioritized for those people who really need a car from day to day, not as free long term storage for people who don't want to pay for an off-street space.