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The city has a message for space-saving Facebook users
By adamg on Mon, 01/25/2016 - 2:36pm
If you don't use Facebook, or haven't been on it in a couple of weeks, then you have no idea what the city of Boston today is riffing on. And you're probably better off for that. And enough with the space savers.
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Comments
ROFL!!!!!
LOLOL
This is the new bitstrips btw.. or essentially the new bitstrips on Facebook (you know, something everyone does..)
Space Savers!
It does not matter if a snow emergency or not even though that is what the city states. If someone saves a spot regardless of a snow emergency and you move it/take that spot, you become a victim of slashed tires, keyed cars, broken windows and nasty notes (which is the least of it) - especially in South Boston
City was out picking up savers today
No snow emergency, no saver. I'm glad they're enforcing the rule, even if I think it's a terrible one.
It's super simple
When there is a small-to-medium storm like this weekend, you need to shovel your car out. Shovel it out, clear the space to the curb, and use as little area as possible for the pile of snow resulting from this action. DON'T just pull out of the spot without shoveling and leave a snowy, slushy, frozen mess that no one will now park in.
If everyone just shoveled out their spots the first time, and did it well, the whole space saver thing wouldn't even be an issue.
And if there is a snow emergency I'd love to see the city propose an alternate side of the street closure (ala streetsweeping) so they can clean that stuff up with the plows. The major arteries are usually great after a snow emergency because they can plow to the curb from the beginning.
I don't know tmrozzie
but my experience of living in or near Brighton for 20 years tells me that people will park on any snowy, slushy frozen mess that will not result in flipping their car over during the parking process.
Well, true
But it doesn't mean it helps the situation at all. Just clear your space people. Clear it and then move on.
That's the thing, it isn't
That's the thing, it isn't "your" space. I'm willing to bet that in the small/medium storms, less people put the effort in to clearing the space well, since they aren't able to claim said spot. Sure, you might have to park in some icy snow slush mess, but, as long as someone didn't come along and steal that spot it took you 10 minutes to shovel, it's ok!
It's not "my spot"
Poor choice of words on my part. My argument is simply that if everyone properly shoveled out the space their car was in immediately after the storm, there wouldn't be the absurd jockeying for spaces and people declaring public space as their own temporary fiefdom.
Generally the amount of cars on a given street stays the same -- the people living there, and perhaps a few visitors. If everyone just shoveled the sports the first time no one would be busting an aneurism over "their spot" which isn't really theirs in the first place.
And 10 minutes of work is really not a lot of work.
I totally get what your
I totally get what your saying. I don't even think it's laziness most of the time. A lot of people have the attitude of "why should I clean a spot for someone else (or multiple people)?"
There are people who never put the effort in to shoveling a spot and will park in the cleanest spot there is, that's what people get angry about.
The 10 minutes part was sarcasm, I should have indicated that!
jeep parking in boston
I had a few jeeps in my day, it made parking a breeze in snow. just pull up onto any big old pile (usually corners) and your done! just had to be sure I wasn't blocking anything from getting thru. it was the only time I ever really needed my 4 wheel drive but it was much better than shoveling or worrying about someone murdering my tires. 96 jeep Cherokee, and now a song.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyEhb0erzW0
jlaw_ok.gif
aaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Maybe not last year
But for the many snow emergencies back when I lived in Charlestown, Warren, Austin, Main and Bunker Hill streets were the best places to park afterwards because it was as if the snow was never there.
Side streets obviously a different matter, because people often refuse to do more than the absolute bare minimum to get their car out.
No on the request to drivers
I swear, I promised I wasn't going to get sucked into this again this year, but your post screams explaining why this space saving stuff makes sense.
Why would someone shovel the snow, from the pile the plow left next to their car door to the sidewalk and all around, just to come back and find that someone else has taken the space they nicely cleaned out? The reality is that each driver clears enough room for a vehicle and no more. Look at streets where they have snow emergency parking (I mean, don't look now, since there was no snow emergency) after a storm and cars basically jam in, about 18 inches from the curb, without any shoveling done.
In short, there are arguments against the practice, and some of them are good, but asking people to clear street spots to the pavement is basically saying to put in a lot of effort, which is an argument for the practice.
Solution
Ticket people who park more than 12 inches from the curb. We already have a law on the books that addresses your argument.
Perhaps
But the argument I intended to make is that if everyone does a reasonable amount of work, then no one has to fight over the spots that are well-shoveled vs. the ones that were half-assed or just pulled out of.
I guess my takeaway from last year's snowfall was that if people cared enough to do a good job the first time things wouldn't spiral out of control with each subsequent storm.
Same goes for the folks who think shoveling a sidewalk a single shovel width is just fine. Not only is it against the city code for such things, it's just forgetting that more snow will eventually fall and make the sidewalk 20x harder to shovel next time.
Privatization
I understand your argument about privatization providing the incentive to care for "your" property, but there is a balancing between providing incentives to make citizens clear the streets and the desire to keep a public good public. I mean to suggest that our parking laws already provide the incentive for a lot of the desirable behavior and therefore, we can lean toward keeping parking public.
I think this is funnier than City Hall thinks it is.
The way I read this, the City is telling people who use space savers to go away (permanently?) 48 hours after a snow emergency is over.
I think that is a sentiment that many (many UHubbers, anyway) could get behind.
That's your own wishful
That's your own wishful confirmation bias. The cities rules make sense.
Godspeed, Boston Facebook page.
It's good that the city is out there, spreading awareness about its bizarre and arcane policy that sometimes get enforced by the municipal sanitation services but has been acknowledged by the mayor himself not to apply when there's been too much snow, which is also not quantifiable in any way whatsoever. It's not like they could just shut down this insane dick-measuring contest tomorrow with a simple statement that all debris left in the street will be confiscated, and houses abutting the spaces of chronic offenders will be fined for it. No, it's definitely better that the mayor keep talking out of both sides of his mouth, while townie assholes keep asserting their right to public property. It definitely won't end in vandalism, violence, or endless griping on UHub.
Modest proposal
Limit the number of permits to the number of spaces available.
Limit the number of permits per unit to one.
No permit? No parking.
Want a numbered space to call your very own? If you have a handicap permit, that's free. Otherwise, $600 a year.
It ain't rocket science. Too many cars is too many cars is too many cars no matter how you stack it.
No
No. No "numbered space to call your very own", not for $600, not for $6000. Public streets are a public resource, not a semi-privatized resource for those with the scratch to pay for them and to hell with everyone else.
Say hello to Marty
Marty believes in wasting employee time and your tax money by having them send cutsey messages on social media sites instead of solving the real and pressing problems this City has.
Marty is under the delusion that he needs to remind our citizens about policies that encourage entitlement when followed, and violence when they aren't. The good thing is this - Marty will eventually be facing re-election.
Well, come election time
You can sit at home in the suburbs and see how things play out.