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
Here's one thing that gets me
By Waquiot
Tue, 01/26/2016 - 11:46am
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 ...
By Michael Kerpan
Tue, 01/26/2016 - 12:57pm
... 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
By Waquiot
Tue, 01/26/2016 - 1:25pm
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
By Waquiot
Tue, 01/26/2016 - 2:39pm
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...
By Michael Kerpan
Tue, 01/26/2016 - 3:27pm
... 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
By different anon
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 9:29pm
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
By fefu
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 1:38pm
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
By cden4
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 2:23pm
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
By Kinopio
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 2:54pm
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
By anon
Tue, 01/26/2016 - 10:35am
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
By adamg
Tue, 01/26/2016 - 10:58am
And have two cars, even, think things have gotten out of hand.
Space Savers Don't Make Sense Anymore
By Tim
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 4:49pm
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
By Pahking Police
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 6:30pm
There is no "their spots" with street parking. End of story. You lose.
Shoveling isn't hard work. It
By MikeIP
Thu, 02/18/2016 - 11:38am
Shoveling isn't hard work. It is monotonous, but not difficult. Try using something bigger than a tablespoon.
And the people who park in
By anon
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 11:26am
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
By anonon
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 12:54pm
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:
By mplo
Wed, 01/27/2016 - 2:01pm
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
By adamg
Wed, 01/27/2016 - 2:27pm
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
By ZachAndTired
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 10:05am
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?
By anon
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 10:12am
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
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 10:34am
You or your insurance company could sue the person if they were clearly identified.
Probably falls under comprehensive
By KSquared
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 11:07am
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
By anon
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 11:41am
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
By adamg
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 10:36am
Our first tire slashing of the season.
That Southie Link
By Jontramos
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 11:46am
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
By adamg
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 12:23pm
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
By anon
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 4:38pm
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
By anon
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 11:55am
!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
By Michael
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 12:59pm
I'm gonna leave one of these on every car on the street
time to make stickers
By greenlinetobrooklyn
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 1:25pm
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 ?
By j s
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 1:25pm
Even the spare in the trunk ?
City crew driving around South Boston, removing space savers
By adamg
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 2:25pm
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
By Tim
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 4:40pm
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
By anon
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 5:19pm
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
By bannedinboston
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 8:17pm
E-mail every note you find to the Mayor's office.
More parking
By anon
Mon, 01/25/2016 - 9:24pm
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
By Bob Leponge
Tue, 01/26/2016 - 1:47pm
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
By cden4
Tue, 01/26/2016 - 4:55pm
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.
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