Bostonians to fight for staked-out parking

[Baz]

Bostonians who took the time and expense of shoveling out their curbside parking spots are sticking stuff out there to reserve them.

I just saw a news report the city is hauling their stuff away now.

Doesn't look like they are expending any effort to plow the snow away though.

Seems like a raw deal for the residents.

But some residents are worried that removing parking savers will just cause problems among neighbors, who, saver or not, believe the space is theirs. The controversial practice has sometimes turned violent, resulting in vandalism including broken windows, slashed tires, and worse when drivers park in the claimed spaces.

“If we leave and put our saver out, the saver gets taken [by the city], someone else takes our spot and we have to take someone else’s spot.  . . . We worry about what people are going to do to our car,” said Nathan Kono, 26, who lives on East Fourth Street. “It’s a little scary.”

Kono, who has used a white laundry basket to claim a space for his silver Mazda CX5, said he’ll take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to whether he will leave his parking saver in the spot.

“I have a feeling people will keep using their space savers here and just ignore it,” he said.

That’s what James Ross, 52, plans to do.

“Damn right and that’s not being selfish,” Ross said. “I’m the one who cleared it. [The mayor] didn’t think about the thousands of people in this city who have a spot because they cleared it out. It’s not fair.”

Some Bostonians ready to defy space-saver removal - Metro - The Boston Globe

[Rick V]

If I dug out a spot in that much snow, in front of my house and I cam home to someone parked in it, it would be on like donkey kong. But it would be a rather easy way to get rid of some stuff around the house, ust use it as a space saver and the city will haul it off for ya

[Baz]

Shoveling out all those spaces seems like a good job for those who are incarcerated.

They are being supported by tax payers - an opportunity to pay some of it back.

[Rick V]

Great idea but I am sure some PC goody goody would consider it cruel and unusual.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by baz

shoveling out all those spaces seems like a good job for those who are incarcerated.

They are being supported by tax payers - an opportunity to pay some of it back.

+1

[JJ 911SC]

Originally Posted by Baz

Shoveling out all those spaces seems like a good job for those who are incarcerated.

They are being supported by tax payers - an opportunity to pay some of it back.

Baz,

You know the routine, its not their fault so we pay and then they get release by some Criminal Code Review Board so that they came become repeat offenders

Our society is fock...

Greyhound bus beheader Vince Li wins right to leave mental hospital without an escort | National Post

[Baz]

JJ: I do believe there are too many repeat offenders...our criminal justice system does not work as well as it should, IMHO.

One reason, IMHO we do not have as many chain-gangs as we should is it would take jobs away from regular government workers and that would mean budget cuts.

And NO government wants to cut their budget!

[Hugh R]

Marking out and protecting your dug out parking spot is nothing new in Boston/Cambridge. We did it when I lived there 35 years ago.

[aigel]

I would sooo move out of that place and any other snow hole. Why are people living in such painful conditions? And paying high $$$ too, in Boston.

G

[wdfifteen]

It happens in front of my building. The space is public parking but not public maintenance. It sucks. The city should be hauling snow away, not people's possessions.

[Eric 951]

Happens here in the South Side all the time--everyone knows you don't mess with the "parking chairs"

[David McLaughlin]

My girlfriend lives just outside the city in Chelsea . They announce a parking ban so they can plow but don't get anywhere near the curb. I went down with my son to help after a couple storms. Took he and I an hour and a half to dig a spot just big enough for her car. Parking band was lifted, two days later a plow came by and pushed more snow into the spot, taking away her chair. She found some else there. I was irate!

At the end of that storm, the snow was more than 4 feet from the curb on both sides of the road and over 5 feet deep. That's a lot of shoveling.

[fastfredracing]

I was going to say that Eric. Just a normal day in the burgh. City people are funny about their parking spots on public streets here.

[VincentVega]

Happens here in the South Side all the time--everyone knows you don't mess with the "parking chairs"

Funny, this is something baltimore and pittsburgh can agree on

[Heel n Toe]

Is it okay to shovel/clear a spot, put your car in it, and leave it there?

If so, that seems like a decent option... just take a cab or bus or call friends who have no parking problems for rides to work, grocery stores, etc.

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by Baz

Shoveling out all those spaces seems like a good job for those who are incarcerated.

They are being supported by tax payers - an opportunity to pay some of it back.

They used to teach them wood working in Thomaston ME. They have a prison store there where you can buy wood products, but I don't think they are set up to put prisoners to work in MA.

BTW 3 more inches, and this will be the most snow in Boston EVER. In spite of the pain of it all, a few more inches never hurt anyone.

[ckelly78z]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

Is it okay to shovel/clear a spot, put your car in it, and leave it there?

If so, that seems like a decent option... just take a cab or bus or call friends who have no parking problems for rides to work, grocery stores, etc.

Kinda defeats the purpose of having a car so you can be mobile, and paying all that money to buy, maintain, insure a car that isn't being used in favor of paid delivery services ?

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

Is it okay to shovel/clear a spot, put your car in it, and leave it there?

In our village you can leave a car for 24 hours, then you have to move it so the village can clear the parking area, except they never do.

[HardDrive]

People in Boston don't need parking issues as an excuse for being horrible to each other.

[Jay Auskin]

Ahh yes...an annual event in Chicago, known as "dibs". I always had one specific issue with dibs. In the summer, my street in the city was bumper to bumper with cars. No open spaces. Now, some guy who shovels a space (much bigger than his car), puts the piles on each side, and thinks his one car now has winter rights to the equivalent of 2-3 spaces.

Luckily, I always had a garage space.