Two stories about meter maids, and some questions for our dear readers:
1) This weekend, Bostonist was briefly a little disappointed with our city's meter maids after learning that one of them utterly failed to come to the aid of a family friend who was getting beaten up after the Fouth of July fireworks. (This friend apparently had the gumption to tell a local youth that it was stupid to throw fireworks into a crowd. The youth, accompanied by seven friends, took issue with this characterization. The meter maid, when called upon for some sort of help by our pummelled friend, said, "I didn't see nothing.") Naturally, we know that meter maids are not cops, they are unarmed (we think), and probably not trained in hand-to-hand combat (although that may change). But with the T-riding public being reminded every five seconds that if we see something, we should, you know, say something, it would be encouraging to see other city employees - especially those who carry walkie-talkies - similarly alert.
2) Today, whatever faith we ever had in meter maids' civic involvement was restored: As Bostonist rode our bicycle back downtown after running a mid-morning errand around Kenmore, we spied one of those all-red, late-model Chevies emblazoned with "Boston Fire," and beside it, a meter maid, waiting with an anxious look on her face. As we drew nearer, we saw a man with some sort of long, telescoping pole (like what you might use to change hard-to-reach lightbulbs) emerging from the Fire car, and heard the meter maid say to him, ". . . sorry to have bothered you, but I though you should have a look at this cat that's stuck . . ." and then we were out of earshot. While we realize that she could have been about to say, "in the fanbelt of my car," we'd like to think her next words were, "in that tree," and that we witnessed some old-fashioned, small-town-style civic goodness happening.
What is the point of all this? As usual, we want to know what you think. Have you had an especially good or bad experience with a meter maid (aside from getting a ticket)? Is it even fair to expect them to help out in an emergency, just because they wear uniforms? Is it even PC to call them "meter maids" (we use the term without reference to sex; the meter maid in the first story was a man)? So many questions . . .
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