December 18, 2007
Snow Parking Gets Ugly in East Boston
When it snows in Boston, the rule is clear--you don't park in a spot that another person has shoveled out. The Mayor's Office backs this up:
Any Space-savers in on-street parking spaces that have been cleared should be removed 48 hours after a snow storm has ended.
WHDH reported on an East Boston resident who found out the hard way what happens if you park in a spot that has been shoveled out and is clearly saved with a chair (aka "Space-saver") or other object. The woman, known only as "Nicole," couldn't find a place to park and eventually moved a chair and parked in a saved spot. WHDH noted that this is her first winter in Boston.
When she returned, her tires had been slashed. Obviously, the person whose space had been saved went overboard. But Nicole could have been neighborly and knocked on doors to see if maybe a person could give up a space for a few hours. Was she in the wrong? Does the space-saver principle do more harm than good? Or, if snow is coming, should everybody just automatically take public transportation and leave their cars where they are?
Beyond tire-slashing, Platinum Elite has a hilarious photo up of a South Boston space-saver with a near-tropical theme.
Image of Heavy Metal Parking Lot from Amazon.
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I'm ashamed to say it, but Nicole is a total freaking idiot and is lucky that it was only her tire.
The law for as long as I've been alive is if you shovel it, you and only you (or maybe your cousin) may park in it.
You either take the T when it snows or you shovel out a spot and save it with a chair like everyone else.
Even the Mayor had to give in and publicly allow 2-days of chair saving.
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OK, it's been 48 hours now. Should I just run down the streets and toss the space-savers on to the sidewalks?
One problem is when some people don't even have to shovel out but they still put a chair or cone there.
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It would be within your right to toss the chairs, but try reasoning with the person who put them there. That would be scary.
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I'm hoping for an armed squadron of shovel-wielding vigilantes to emerge, which will relocate snow from sidewalks and other areas into marked spots. You think you're Davy Crockett because you spent 15 minutes moving 6" of snow, wait till you come back and find the tip of your lawn chair sticking out of a 2' pile.
Unfortunately, I have a thing against getting stabbed, so I probably won't be the one to rally the troops.