I just hear that Boston will only allow people to “reserve” their freshly shoveled-out parking space for 48 hours by setting up an orange traffic cone. This seems to imply that they used to be able to reserve it for much longer, which I think is totally wrong. Your private property is yours of course, but a freshly-vacated curb space is up for grabs as soon as you leave it.
And before anybody asks, yes I have been on the bad end of that situation. Shoveled myself out of some pretty serious snow banks in years gone by (DC DPW loves to plow mountains of snow up against street-parked cars).
Boston has historically had this ‘system’, where the shovelers putting something there to ‘reserve’ their spot (sometimes toilets). I think it’s wrong, but it’s hard to stop a long time practice. Perhaps 48 hrs is a way to ween the people away from this practice.
We do it in Philly, and I don’t have a problem with it. In fact, last snow storm, someone declared by “dibs” to be over and just moved the trash can – really pissed me off.
A guy was shot in Philly for taking his neighbor’s shoveled out space!
If I shovel the space in front of my house, I expect it to be mine as long as the snow is an issue. I would never dream of parking in a space I knew a neighbor spent an hour shoveling out.
I think the spot should be free as soon as you leave it. I have moved cans, chairs, and other various items from parking spaces… if someone wants to argue with it, fine. The stupidest arguement I ever had was when I removed the chair from a spot that I had shovelled out that morning. A guy from upstairs stated yelling at me, and I told him to “F” himself, that I had shovelled that spot out.
When I first moved back to Boston, I parked (unknowingly) in what someone regarded as “his” spot. I came back to find two flat tires. And this wasn’t in Boston proper, but a suburb. Boston drivers are incredibly territorial. I suspect this “48 hour” rule (That I just heard about last night) is a practical reaction to this. There really shouldn’t be any time allotted, as kanic says. Bjut they’d have a riot on their hands if they tried to enforce it.
In fairness, Boston is a city with a severe parking problem. There aren’t enough parking sdpaces here deliberately – they want to encourage public transportation. There aren’t enough parking garages, and the rates are outlandishly high. I’m amazed that anyone who finds a parking space in Back Bay ever has the guts to move their car – the odds of finding another when you get back seem infinitesimal.
Of course people should not be allowed to reserve their spots after they’ve shoveled, just as you shouldn’t be able to go out and reserve a spot on the street at any time. They’re public streets, period - first come, first served. Snow is a fact of life, and one of the pains-in-the-ass associated with owning a car. Adding a whole tier of pseudo-vigilante bullshit to the situation only makes things terrible.
Here in Chicago, “dibs” are apparently a time-honored tradition, though thankfully not in my neighborhood. The idiot mayor recently made a joke about his inability and refusal to do something about the violence that results from them.
The main problem is people’s complete inability to enact and conform to even the most basic system of “dibs” - you get people trying to claim spaces that other people have shoveled out, then getting mad when those people return to the spaces!
I’ve heard about this, too and think it’s odd. Is there no alternate side parking in Boston? That gets all the cars off one side of the street, allowing the plow to clear that lane. The next night. the plow clears the other lane.
They actually tried to prohibit the “reserved” street space thing in Boston a couple of years ago, but the people who do that sort of thing were very upset about it, and were putting all kinds of trash out in the street. So the city gave in.
During a snow emergency, this is what happens. Unfortunately, many places, there are just too many cars to all fit on one side of the street. God only knows where they all go. The situation is aggravated when you have a series of snowfalls, and some parking spaces are simply lost under massive piles of snow.
Reserving a spot you have cleared out is a long-standing tradition here. To my knowledge it’s always been illegal, but enforcement is spotty. I sympathize with both the person who clears, and the person who can’t find a spot. And yes, the situation can get ugly. I’m lucky enough to have a garage.
Hey, it’s better than revenge. I used to know a guy who found himself in the same situation. He talked to the chair’s owner and got the Bitch Princess Routine, so he simply buried her car one night. Hey, she claimed the spot, she claimed the snow that came with it. Apparently some of it turned to slush (that’s the official explanation anyways), because a lot of it had frozen solid by morning.
He didn’t mention anything about retaliation, but that can’t make for good neighbors.
Okay, I get that, but then how often could this be an issue? I know you don’t get more snow than we do, and I can only remember two days where this would have been an issue. In no case would a 48-hour time limit be of any use. I do not believe alternate side parking has been cancelled for 48 hours at a time since I was a child.
Your mistake is in searching for a rational explanation for this behavior. There is none. And lest I get blamed for being anti- any ethnic group (Italian or Irish), this reserved space thing generally occurs in neighborhoods that have a big traditional Mafia connection going on.
There are deeded parking spaces in the more affluent Boston neighborhoods, but 1) they’re far and few between, and 2) the fees would probably cost as much as your monthly mortgage payment :eek:
I suppose in the overall realm of justice, it is wrong, but, yeah, it’s tradition. Try grabbing an on-street parking spot in Southie or any other close-to-downtown neighborhood that’s been “reserved”. It gets ugly. Very ugly.
Please explain this to me, because I’ve never understood. I live in Queens , NY where people frequently try to save their shoveled-out spaces. So I shovel my spot out and put a garbage can there to save it. What do I do when I get to my destination? If I’m going to Home Depot, they have a parking lot. If I’m going to my mother’s house, my kid’s school, the library, the doctor, to work or to a local store, it’s on- street parking. Which means if I can’t park in a spot someone else shoveled, I’m staying home and didn’t need to shovel my car out to begin with.
If you’re going to work, or shopping, it’s all set. If you’re going to another neighborhood you have to think long and hard about finding a space.
I think it’s a very ugly habit, and I’m glad I have a driveway out where I live. There’s no onstreet parking in my town. Last year when the mayor instituted the first 48 or 72 hour rule, people were putting out hazardous waste (paint, old computer monitors, etc) so when the DPW came by and cleaned up the spots they at least got rid of stuff that is hard to dispose of. The townies are smart in their way.
People don’t save their spots so that you can’t go to the doctor. They save them so that they don’t get home and find out that some slacker has parked in their spot for the night.
I don’t even own a car, but I know that if I spent an hour shoveling eighteen inches of snow out of a parking spot in front of my house, and then got home and found that spot occupied by someone who lives across the street and didn’t bother to shovel out their driveway, I’d be, as they say, wicked pissed.
There is a parking lot behind my house that is plowed after every snow but isn’t used much. I think I’ll make a suggestion that they rent spaces to neighborhood residents for some nominal figure so they can recoup the cost of their plowing. This way, we don’t have to worry about digging out or some asshole taking the space.
