Parking wars get uglier

But first you start with your insurance and if you don't have info on the offending party, you're stuck out of your deductible until you can try and get $ from the City.

but this is on the city's website:

http://www.cityofboston.gov/snow/parking/

DON'T
Use space savers more than 48 hours after a snow emergency has been lifted.

While it doesn't explicitly say "you can use space savers until 48 hours after the end of a snow emergency", it can be inferred that is what they are saying. And their actions (not removing space savers) speak quite loudly.

And me and Bob disagree on the issue.

What we are talking about is a policy, not a law.

Here's the background of the policy that will drive people nuts.

Back in December of 2003, the policy was first promulgated. Here's what the Globe had to say on December 20th-

Starting Monday, the Department of Public Works will pick up "any materials designated as a parking space saver" 48 hours after every winter storm, he said.

After blizzards like this month's deep-drifting northeaster, chairs, barbecue grills, and garbage cans materialize at curbside spaces carved out of snowbanks across the city. But Menino said yesterday that he has decided that residents are unreasonably claiming spots long after storms and that recent episodes of vandalism and parking feuds show that the situation is getting out of hand.

"Streets in Boston belong to the people," Menino said. "I respect the tradition of reserving shoveled spaces, but enough is enough. The streetscape has been littered with household furniture long enough."

The new stance is a sharp departure from the city's attitude toward what a Menino administration official once called the "law of the street," dictating that anyone who digs out a spot after the first snowfall holds claim to it.

However, even at the time, the were questions about whether the policy will be enforced (ie removing space savers, not allowing them)

By the big storm of January 2005, things looked bleak for the idea of getting rid of the savers. From the Globe, Jan 25, 2005-

"The 48-hour rule is not the mayor's first priority right now," said Menino's spokesman, Seth Gitell. "Removing the 26 inches of snow is."

So, that's a bit of the backstory. No law. Policy and tradition. Agree or disagree, but there is no law.

Little EDIT- in looking further, Menino did crack down, on the 3rd of February.

As in "Mayor says there is no enforcement"?

I'm wondering what the liability is here, given a the law, given the official pronouncement, and given that municipalities have been sued in the past for not enforcing laws.

If a Mayor of a major city declared that drunk driving or speeding laws would not be enforced over a holiday, what, exactly, would you expect to happen when there was an accident?

if someone felt that Marty was personally liable, could they take him to small claims court? They'd lose, but it would put the issue at the forefront in the media.

The "Haystack ordinance" is being misinterpreted as a law banning these space savers. It does not do that. The ordinance states that only the city and no other entity can manage space reserving. This is the plain language of the ordinance with relevant parts in bold:

No person or entity other than the City of Boston or any of its departments or designees shall have the authority sell, lease, reserve or facilitate the reserving of any street, way, highway, road or parkway, or portion thereof, under the City of Boston's control.

http://www.masslive.com/news/boston/index.ssf/2014... (ordinance at bottom of article)

That language is clear that only the city can facilitate the reserving of parking spots, as opposed to a private entity or person. And the city is in fact doing said facilitating by having a policy where it grants residents the ability to reserve spots after snow emergencies. What they're doing is consistent with that as I see it. People can argue over whether it's good policy or not, but it's not a situation where they're acting outside the scope of their authority. And the city is well within its discretion to adjust its policies on a situational basis and expand that written-down 48 hour window if it deems it more practical and efficient to focus its limited resources on snow removal or ticketing, etc.

But usually you stick to bashing the local sports teams.

Please find another city to assimilate your boringness into like and stop desperately trying to turn Boston into a midwestern amalgamation of monoculture.

I'm sure you're enjoying your first day in Boston, but in fact, it *is* that hard, as decades of evidence indicate.

Would year-round street cleaning be the end of space savers? In the winter, it could just be street plowing, but making everyone eventually move their car would certainly change things.