Saving parking spots during snowstorms

Common practice in Boston. You shovel it, you get it for 2 days until after the snow. I think that's a fair policy.

Stealing a spot is a pretty big offense here, and if you get caught you'll pay a price. There have been murders over spaces. In a neighborhood people are better at knowing who owns what car than you'd think.

I had a spot stolen once in Boston, and I didn't slash tires or anything like that, but my buddy had a plow on his truck, and the car that swiped my spot found it very, very, very difficult to get out. We just plowed it in and sprayed the whole mess with a hose. Icebox.

Very mature of you. Your mothers must be so proud.

KnowItAll wrote:

Very mature of you. Your mothers must be so proud.

They were. You know how long it takes to shovel a car out of two feet of snow? My labor was stolen.

It's a community norm here that you don't steal shoveled spots. People who violate the norms get punished. If you don't like that, not sure what to tell you.

No, you gave it away. And to top it all off, you gave more labor away out of spite. What happened to giving back to your community? You're just a petty little bitch. If you want a reserved spot then buy a house with a garage, princess.

KnowItAll wrote:

No, you gave it away. And to top it all off, you gave more labor away out of spite. What happened to giving back to your community? You're just a petty little bitch. If you want a reserved spot then buy a house with a garage, princess.

Eh, don't know what to tell you. I assume you live somewhere warm.

Total nonsense.

I live in Boston and the more lawless the neighborhood, the more seriously people take these make-believe rules. There are laws about driving and parking and if cities want to pass laws about shoveling, let them, but otherwise shovel yourself out and find a space when you return. However, some of these idiot neighborhoods, like South Boston and maybe yours, do pose real threats to yourself or your car, so beware. Take it as an indication that you live in a bad neighborhood, don't ever buy or raise kids there, the people are lazy morons.

Your Supervisor wrote:

Total nonsense.

I live in Boston and the more lawless the neighborhood, the more seriously people take these make-believe rules. There are laws about driving and parking and if cities want to pass laws about shoveling, let them, but otherwise shovel yourself out and find a space when you return. However, some of these idiot neighborhoods, like South Boston and maybe yours, do pose real threats to yourself or your car, so beware. Take it as an indication that you live in a bad neighborhood, don't ever buy or raise kids there, the people are lazy morons.

Dude, it's the law in Boston if you shovel a spot, you get to keep it for two days. Look it up, it's on the Boston city government site. It's not a made up rule.

Rip on neighborhoods if you want, but it's a perfectly reasonable policy. You work your ass off in the morning clearing a spot, why should someone else get it when you come home?

And at least 5 Harvard professors live on my block, that I know of. Not really a neighborhood of morons.

.................... wrote:

Stealing a spot is a pretty big offense here, and if you get caught you'll pay a price. There have been murders over spaces. In a neighborhood people are better at knowing who owns what car than you'd think.

I had a spot stolen once in Boston, and I didn't slash tires or anything like that, but my buddy had a plow on his truck, and the car that swiped my spot found it very, very, very difficult to get out. We just plowed it in and sprayed the whole mess with a hose. Icebox.

Why is this ok?

So you just don't respect the work that someone put in to clear a spot.

Or you are saying that if you shoveled yourself out, went to the store and came and found a car in your spot you'd just shrug your shoulders and go find another spot to shovel.

Man, city life is not for me. I like my driveway in the suburbs and my office off of the beltway with the big open parking lot.

Well for starters the spots are not private property.

Please produce the law you are referring to. I believe you are talking about an ordinance which REQUIRES the douchebags who leave chairs in the spots to remove them within 48 hours of a snow emergency....I don't think it gives them the right, by law, to put them there or to kill people or damage property if they are inconvenienced by the snow.

Nobody does this in my neighborhood, ever, and I would rather have the first 5 people in the Boston phone directory living in my neighborhood than 5 Harvard professors.

.................... wrote:

Dude, it's the law in Boston if you shovel a spot, you get to keep it for two days. Look it up, it's on the Boston city government site. It's not a made up rule.

If this is true, it makes your actions even more childish. If this is actually the law, you had the option of going through actual legitimate channels to deal with the issue. Instead, you shoveled snow on a guy's car.

In fairness to flagpole it could have depended on where in the area he was living. I'm in Montgomery Co. and we definitely got at least 30 inches in the '93 blizzard, but it melted very fast.

Horacio wrote:

In fairness to flagpole it could have depended on where in the area he was living. I'm in Montgomery Co. and we definitely got at least 30 inches in the '93 blizzard, but it melted very fast.

I take it that someone posted something questioning my claim? Well, we lived in Gaithersburg, MG (Montgomery County) at the time, and the total after 3 days was listed as 36 inches by at least one news station. All it takes is a Google search to confirm.

Yes liar liar questioned your claim of 36 inches but I think that sounds about right. DC probably got in the low 20's then. As you know, there is usually a huge disparity between snowfall totals in the city and in the north and west suburbs.

I remember the '93 snowstorm - I was in college in southern MD and it was during our spring break - we got about 14 inches, and that's about 3 hours south of Gaithersburg.

To the Boston dude who plowed in and iceboxed the space stealer's car: Awesome - good work!

....... wrote:

Dude, it's the law in Boston if you shovel a spot, you get to keep it for two days. Look it up, it's on the Boston city government site. It's not a made up rule.

Not quite In 2005 Menino actually ordered workers to remove all such "reservations". When there was a huge public outcry, he relented but did say they had to be removed within 48 hours. However there is no such law the authorities officially discourage the practice of reserving a spot.

If we are lucky, they will pass a law banning the practice.

why does there have to be a law? why can't people just show common courtesy? stop being so lazy/ i'm sure half (most) of you are just disagreeing to be disagreeable

I am all for common courtesy. On the other hand, people will use an inch of snow as excuse to reserve a spot. Not much common courtesy there either. And no amount of shoveling a spot certainly should entitle you to a spot for more than a couple of days. In some places you have to fight for parking even with no snow, so people keep those chairs there for weeks.

wilfredo wrote:

why does there have to be a law? why can't people just show common courtesy? stop being so lazy/ i'm sure half (most) of you are just disagreeing to be disagreeable

With all due respect, you must not have spent any time in a big city. Parking is a MAJOR problem.

That being said, I posted a few anecdotal posts on this thread that have gone missing. They were on topic, non-offensive and actually kind of interesting. Where did they go?