Have a seat! Space savers in Brighton.
An irate citizen filed a 311 complaint from Charlestown yesterday:
Was verbally harassed when doing as "the rules state" and removing illegal space savers because the city does shit about them. It's getting to the point where they are getting violent, and guess what not only will I sue them if they touch me but I'll sue you Marty Walsh since you are setting this tone from the top, and perpetuating this culture of entitlement/space saving bullshit/violence.
Walsh, of course, was trying out his latest stand-up routine yesterday when he told Bostonians not to put out space savers, that there was no snow emergency and that all space savers will be collected by trash crews this week.
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Comments
Someones new here
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 9:45am
GO HOME... We'll be fine without you.
Curious
By Carmella
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 9:45am
I’m just curious. Do you even own a car?
Wrong question
By Waquiot
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 9:58am
The better question is if he has a driveway.
This storm should be one where space saving should be allowed. That was an awful lot of snow people had to clear to get to their cars. To say the least, the 48 hour rule should have been invoked.
Of course, Walsh's staff should have been on the ball with the forecasts and declared a snow emergency on Sunday night. But I suppose getting the roads cleared for emergency vehicles to respond to incidents is less important than the space saving thing.
Wrong statement
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 10:05am
Space saving should not ever be allowed. Get a driveway if you want to save a space.
Or better yet
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 10:53am
Move back to the suburb your originally from.
You move to a suburb
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 11:12am
Some us us rational grownups would prefer you did that.
I have a car. I park on the street. I have no problem following the rules.
It's not allowed
By Bob Leponge
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 11:31am
It's not allowed.
Boston City Council passed a law making the practice illegal in 2014.
I interpret the Mayor's non-enforcement as a raised middle finger toward the rule of law.
http://library.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll/Massachusetts/boston/chapterxviprohibitionspenaltiesandpermit?f=templates$fn=default.htm$3.0$vid=amlegal:boston_ma$anc=JD_16-12.43
THIS — public roads are not
By anon
Wed, 03/06/2019 - 7:14am
THIS — public roads are not yours to “saveâ€
people here suck
Bosh
By lbb
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 10:10am
The reasoning behind space savers is insanely selfish. You shovel out a space, you LEAVE the space, and you expect the rest of the world to treat it as some kind of sacred shrine and not touch it? You leave for however long and no one else gets the use of it in all that time? Listen to yourself.
And before you go there, I know how long it takes to dig out a car. I've never owned a garage or a snowblower. I do more digging to get my car free than anyone parking on a Boston street. I know how much work it takes (hint: it's not nearly as much as the bellyaching suggests). I get to park my car in my space after I dig it out because it's a space that I own. If I'm parking my car in a public space, I'm not entitled to reserve that space for my exclusive use, not for any length of time, not under any conditions. It is NOT YOURS.
The POINT is some people have
By JB
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 10:20am
The POINT is some people have to shovel to get their car out. Some people don't shovel and plow out the spot, come home take a clean spot. The person who had to since m shovel has to shovel again!
The POINT
By Bob Leponge
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 11:40am
The POINT is that there aren't enough spaces to go around.
So the nurse across the street works night shift. Overnight it snows. She drives home at 8AM. Every space on the block either has a car in it or has a space saver. You're seriously saying that she has no right to park on the street for 48 hours? Seriously?
It's not that difficult
By Tom
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 10:46am
Really, maybe 10-15 minutes while your car is warming up? Not a big deal at all.
And yes, that includes cleaning the snow off of the ROOF of the car.
Bosh to your bosh.
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 10:51am
I shoveled a space . I will use a spacesaver when I leave. Most of the people on my street do the same thing. It happens to be trash day today so using my trash barrels and recycling container works quite well. I will keep them out there for a few more days. This informal system works quite well on my street and in my neighborhood.
Crybabies will cry but that wont stop me and my neighbors from using spacesavers. Bosh indeed.
You call other people
By Kinopio
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 11:23am
You call other people "crybabies" yet you are the one who wouldn't pass first grade since you don't understand the concept of sharing. You are the selfish little brat that takes all the toys for themselves and then whines when the teacher tells you that they don't belong to you.
You don't even drive, right?
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 3:38pm
I know it's your thing to hate on cars and anyone who uses one, but space saving works perfectly fine in plenty of neighborhoods. You only hear about the bad cases, which admittedly do exist. But come on man, do you even have a dog in this fight? Lazy or absent sidewalk shoveling, sidewalk parking, failure to yield to peds in crosswalks....there are so many other actual motorist bad behaviors to actually care about if you don't have to park a vehicle in the city.
Sociopathic behavior
By Bob Leponge
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 11:41am
Anybody with any education knows that hoarding in time of scarcity is sociopathic behavior.
And what happens if someone moves your barrels?
By fungwah
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 11:45am
Do you just say "oh well, what can you do" and move on, or do you start vandalizing the car that's parked there now?
You have to vandalize it
By Michael
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 12:07pm
Or at least wait and stake out the area with a couple of buddies to beat up the offender. What's the point of the code of the street if you're just going to let someone do what they want without retribution? Six inches of snow, baby, we're in Lord of the Flies territory now
I agree with your main point
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 11:10am
I agree with your main point about space-saving being inherently immoral.
However, I'd like to point out that under some conditions it can be much harder to dig out a car from a street space than a driveway. If there's a big plow berm and it hardens in the cold, and there's nowhere nearby to pile the snow without blocking the street or sidewalk, it can take a really long time.
So?
By GoSoxGo
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 12:37pm
You don't have to shovel the space it all. You can leave the car there until street cleaning starts again (yes, it should be year-round).
Oh, you need to drive your car? Then you can shovel it out and leave. That's it. You don't get to use the space any more once you leave, unless it happens to be vacant when you return. You don't get to "save" it and prohibit others from using the same space.
Whatever
By MYOB
Fri, 03/08/2019 - 3:22pm
So, in addition to not approving of the age old practice of space savers after snow storms, you think that street cleaning should be year round. That makes it clear to me that:
1. You’re new to this area
2. You have a driveway or garage
This is the reality that we live with in this insanely overdeveloped and overpopulated neighborhood, thanks to the corruption and greed of city officials WHO DON’T LIVE HERE. If you have a problem with one of the few coping mechanisms available to us, which AGAIN we have been doing this since LONG, LONG before you showed up to domesticate us, do us all a favor and go back to where you came from.
You don’t get to move to a new place and expect the residents who have been living there for 50, 60, 70 years to abandon traditions that have been successful and respected in order to accommodate YOUR special little expectations. THAT is the very definition of “selfishâ€, Boo Boo.
Cool story, bro
By GoSoxGo
Mon, 03/11/2019 - 2:16pm
But you would be wrong on all counts.
I am a native Bostonian who has been around for more than 50 years.
I live in an apartment, with no driveway or garage. Although I gave up my vehicle within the last five years, I used to live in Southie, drove daily because my vehicle was used with my occupation and did not partake in space saver foolishness.
How is this any different
By RoseMai
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 1:18pm
How is this any different than my driveway that gets a huge plow ridge in front of it? Last winter it took over an hour to clear a giant, solid ridge from the front of my driveway.
It's easier when you're not
By anon
Wed, 03/06/2019 - 3:27pm
It's easier when you're not parallel parked in the middle of the ridge, with other cars boxing you in, and nowhere to put the snow without making it worse for them or the sidewalk or the street.
So
By Waquiot
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 11:21am
When you came home last night and all the spaces that were cleared out, including the spot you spent, what, a half hour clearing out, were full, you had no trouble clearing everything the plow pushed over to the side of the road so you would be able to legally park your car? That's very generous of you. I mean, that would have taken at least an hour of back breaking work, all the while someone who did not lift a shovel of snow was parking in the space you cleared out in the morning.
Are you ready to shovel out a third spot this evening, when a car is parked in the spot you shoveled out last evening. With the melting yesterday and subsequent freezing last night, that's going to be like moving ice. Good luck with that. I'm just glad that your dislike of space saving will be keeping you warm.
You must be very weak, both
By Kinopio
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 11:27am
You must be very weak, both physically and mentally, if you think shoveling a few inches of snow is such hard work. I'm surprised you have the strength to push down the buttons on a keyboard to comment here.
Tough talk from the carless one
By Waquiot
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 12:44pm
But since I am sure you are curious, we are talking about a foot on the ground. When the plows push the snow and compacts it, we are talking 18 inches to 2 feet I think it is also safe to assume that the plow hasn't pushed the snow all the way to the curb (as a pedestrian, that actually makes me happy.) I'd assume the plow leaves the snow 2 feet from the curb. We are talking 2 feet by 2 feet by let's say the length of a parking space is 10 feet. That's 40 cubic feet of ice. At 20 pounds per cubic foot, we are talking moving 800 pounds of snow. You seem to think that it's okay to have one person do that 3 times for their one car.
Now, I don't park my car on the street. I spent a half hour clearing the driveway and cut, but I am done. Were I required to do it again because someone else was too lazy to shovel a spot, I'd be a bit annoyed.
But tell me, how many feet of on street shoveling did you do yesterday? I bet it was a nice round number.
Know what?
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 12:55pm
If fewer people were sloppy lazy apologists for stealing public resources like you and more were non-car owners in a place where cars don't belong, the world would be a much better place!
Even better
By Waquiot
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 2:55pm
If newbies accepted practice, there'd be no conflict.
Kinopio has no skin in this game. Until one has had to clear snow like this from one's car that's been parked on the street, they really don't have any idea as to what this conflict is about.
Well That's Wrong
By Pete X
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 4:19pm
I've got news for you, you'd still have plenty of conflict. It's not just "newbies" who think the use of space savers is absurdly selfish and a giant FU to your neighbors. And yes, I shoveled out my car yesterday and drove to work, but I didn't leave a lawn chair behind on the public street because I'm not a sociopath.
That cuts both ways
By Bob Leponge
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 6:53pm
Just as easily, if oldbies accepted that the facts on the ground are materially different than they used to be, and so that therefore what used to be accepted practice no longer works and so needs to change, there'd also be no conflict.
Back when there were one tenth as many cars as there are now, it made perfect sense to be courteous and not take the space your neighbor had shoveled out. Because there were plenty of spaces, and everyone could have one. That's just no longer the case, except maybe in WRox, side streets in JP and Roslindale, and leafier, less crowded parts of Dorchester. And the funny thing is, those neighborhoods don't seem to be the ones where there's an issue; the issue seems to come up, not surprisingly, in neighborhoods that used to be like that, but that are a lot more crowded than than they used to be.
I did plenty of shoveling. I
By Kinopio
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 5:00pm
I did plenty of shoveling. I did about 100 feet of the sidewalk on my block, which includes in front of neighbors houses. Good neighbors shovel their neighbors sidewalk. Bad neighbors steal public parking spots and leave trash in the street.
Sidewalk shoveling is important
By Waquiot
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 10:07pm
But it is very different than shoveling that which the plow has moved.
I shovel the cut from the driveway to the street. Save one of those really light storms like what we got Saturday, if you start from the sidewalk, there is no different, until you get to a certain point. Then it becomes heavier and wetter. I swear there are other things making it heavier. In short, it’s the worst fucking thing to do. I’d prefer to clear 200 feet of regular sidewalk snow over 15 feet of street snow.
Before I moved to where I live now, I parked on the street. I never put a chair or whatever out, because it was slightly less dense. We respected each other’s work shoveling out cars. I would never take anyone else’s space, and no one would take mine. That was walking distance from where I am now. That’s being a good neighbor. It’s too bad other parts of Boston are less neighborly, but cones or whatever bring a level of understanding.
the problem is talking about it
By cinnamngrl
Wed, 03/06/2019 - 12:17am
I had a friend from quincy. No one on her street ever used space savers. However when some random person took her space, she would block them in. Somehow this would force them to have to dig around her car to get out. It is not a violent response but it seems even more strange to expect someone to not park in a spot just because they did not dig it out.
Honestly, whatever my neighbors do, I do. My car has AWD, so I have just driven away and marked my effortless non shoveled spot. My thing is to not mark it if I am going to be gone more than an hour. But as I have said any moral judgement in this matter is fake.
Seriously, why do any of care this much?
the problem is talking about it
By cinnamngrl
Wed, 03/06/2019 - 12:17am
I had a friend from quincy. No one on her street ever used space savers. However when some random person took her space, she would block them in. Somehow this would force them to have to dig around her car to get out. It is not a violent response but it seems even more strange to expect someone to not park in a spot just because they did not dig it out.
Honestly, whatever my neighbors do, I do. My car has AWD, so I have just driven away and marked my effortless non shoveled spot. My thing is to not mark it if I am going to be gone more than an hour. But as I have said any moral judgement in this matter is fake.
Seriously, why do any of care this much?
Her Space
By anon
Wed, 03/06/2019 - 7:10am
You mean, on private property with a number on it and assigned to her?
Public street = NEVER 'her" space
Why do we care so much?
By Waquiot
Wed, 03/06/2019 - 10:07am
Because it is the internet?
Honestly, my gut is that things work out on this topic much better in the world outside of the Universal Hub than on it. I get my blood pressure up as much as everyone else when Adam posts things and comments start, but offline my obsession is with unshoveled sidewalks. That's a much worse thing than the saver/no saver battles here.
Perhaps if Adam turned his attention to that, we'd have more of a love fest here.
Bizarre theory
By Bob Leponge
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 11:53am
When I clear out my space and drive off, I fully expect someone else to be in it within 15 minutes. It's a public space on a public street. I can't imagine what level of self-centered entitlement it would take, to think that I had any rights to return to that space.
I have no idea if they lifted a shovel of snow or not. Either they parked on the street last night, which means they shoveled out their car same as I shoveled out mine, or they paid to park in a garage, or maybe they were at work because they work night shift. I don't know and I don't care; it's a public space on a public street.
If by some miracle I happened to find an open space with snow in it, then, yeah, I'd be ready to shovel it out, thanking my lucky stars that I found a space.
As I always remind you Bob
By Waquiot
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 12:46pm
Not everyone lives on Beacon Hill.
Other parts of the city have other issues. The reality is that a lot of cars on Beacon Hill will not be moving for the next week or so, which means they just saved their spaces in other ways.
Just stop
By lbb
Wed, 03/06/2019 - 10:45am
You're grasping at straws. What are the "other issues" that you speak of?
It's a figure of speech
By Waquiot
Wed, 03/06/2019 - 12:16pm
Other parts of Boston don't have the parking issues Beacon Hill has, while parts of Dorchester are food deserts yet have plentiful parking. Since we are talking about parking, it was a reminder to Bob, whose opinions I disagree with by whose thought processes I actually admire, that the parking situation on Beacon Hill is different from the parking situation in Dorchester.
Go shovel out a few spots on your street. It will help with this stress you're having.
which Boston neighborhood do you live in?
By anon
Wed, 03/06/2019 - 7:08am
Cause last time this came up, I recall you saying you don't live in this state. Curious how the people who don't have to deal with winter parking are always the most vocal on this issue.
I'll definitely concede that people abuse space savers to a selfish extent, but the binary stance "it's not right EVER" crowd always seems to be the same ones who aren't even playing this silly little game outside arguing about it from their computer.
Space saver
By Jeffrey Pastor
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 12:57pm
Apparently Walsh or his staff don't live or travel on the side streets of Roxbury, JP or Mission Hill where supposedly 2 way streets are barely passable for emergency vehicles on a good day. What's even worse are people who don't shovel the car out at all especially on the street side and narrow the roads even more. Cars should be ticketed if they're not shoveled out within 24 hours whether or not they're moved or not Imo.
You own a car
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 10:07am
You don't own the public street or public parking.
Note the word PUBLIC.
Move or rent a private parking space if you need to store a giant chunk of personal property.
Signed: Responsible Adult Car Owner
Oh yeah? Well I'm going to
By scott
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 9:46am
Oh yeah? Well I'm going to sue god for creating snow in the first place!
Everyone get used to this
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 9:48am
It is only going to get worse with all the development going on around the city. Most of these places with space saver issues are in transit oriented areas and yet there are so many parking problems so the whole "we're developing near public transportation" means nothing and will result in a lot more issues around parking throughout the whole city.
Space savers tend to exist in
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 11:23am
Space savers tend to exist in low to medium density neighborhoods.
Once you start getting actual apartment buildings, a space saver would be a silly joke. You would never see a space saver on West 73rd Street in NYC. Someone would move it the minute they needed the space.
Um, no.
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 2:38pm
In a low density neighborhood, there are enough spaces for everyone so no need to save a space and everyone is happier. Unless there are designated parking spaces for residents of apartment buildings, parking will be a huge issue. There's no way NYC will ever have enough parking for even a fraction of its residents but if a person wants high density like NYC (to avoid parking problems??), then move to NYC. Besides, NYC has much better public transportation if that's what you're looking for.
Is the issue whether there
By anon
Wed, 03/06/2019 - 3:37pm
Is the issue whether there are enough spaces for everyone, or whether the labor of shoveling a space means it's reserved for you? If the labor is your justification, then even a street with twice as many spaces as regular parkers could lead to space savers.
And you don't have to go to NYC to find a neighborhood where density busts space saving. I doubt you'd see a space saver on a street like this, for example: https://goo.gl/maps/y7qJDaxUDM12
I love their use of
By anon
Tue, 03/05/2019 - 10:07am
I love their use of entitlement...guaranteed this entitled person would not have been living in Charlestown back in the day.
I imagine it went something like "I love Charlestown and the vibe. Let's move in and then expect everyone to cater to how we think things should be done now!"
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