February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
In January, Menino ordered city trucks to remove any objects left in the street 48 hours after a snowstorm, thus ending a hallowed South Boston tradition which holds that if you shovel out a parking spot and mark it with a cone, barrel, crate or piece of furniture, you own it until the snow melts.
Menino said that the order was prompted by complaints he had received about clutter in the streets and about vandalism by irate citizens who found others parking in their spaces. Because of the massive amount of snow that fell during the recent blizzard (more than 3 feet in some areas), he recently extended the deadline for removal of objects from 48 to 96 hours. But that extension did little to stifle that public outcry that has ensued over his new policy.
Leading the charge against the new policy is City Councilor Jim Kelly, who has said that the mayor will find that residents have more garbage barrels than the city has garbage trucks.
“People have a right to be upset if someone takes a space they’ve spent hours shoveling out,” he said.
A tour of South Boston following the 96-hour deadline revealed that many residents are continuing to defy the mayor’s ultimatum, and many DPW workers are facing angry confrontations with the residents. Other problems arising out of the new policy include ongoing vandalism that can occur when someone takes an unmarked spot after a truck has removed the spot-saver. A resident arriving home after work may be unaware that a city truck has removed the object, thus prompting him to take out his ire on the vehicle found in the spot.
A recent letter writer to a local publication complained bitterly about having her tires slashed recently after she parked in a spot that evidently had been shoveled out and marked by someone who was apparently unaware that a city truck had removed the spot-saver earlier in the day. Other writers are complaining about the city’s slow response to getting rid of the mounds of snow that make winters in South Boston exasperating for owners of automobiles.