Snow Grateful...

[witchdogtor.livejournal.com]

So, thanks, Davis and surrounding neighborhoods for not feeling the need to put traffic cones or remnants of your kitchen furniture out on the street after shoveling yerself out.

I work in Southie and a coworker was baffled tonight as we were locking up the store.
"Don't they put cones out in Somerville?"
"No. The streets are public roads."
"No one takes your spot?"
"It's not 'my' spot. I shovel, everyone else shovels; if there's another car where I shovelled when I return, I find a new spot. We all shovel and we all park. It all works out."

She was baffled.

Thank you for civility.

Comments

[thespian.livejournal.com]

don't get over to Winter Hill much, huh?

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

I was about to ask if you'd lived here long :) Not everyone does this, but a lot of people do here, and I've seen tires popped and cars keyed for taking spots in front of houses that were already shoveled.. but, that said, if you have a neighborhood that doesn't do this? Awesome :)

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

i'm surprised more people don't escalate. that's not behavior that i'd want to encourage by giving in to the vandals.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

I know that if you see people leaving things in the road in their spot you can call 411 and report it as trash in the road and they'll remove it, that was pointed out last year or the year before in a DSLJ entry abot this... I've never heard of anyone, nor seen anyone catch anyone else in the act of vandalism, so aside from reporting it, I have no idea what escalations have taken place.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

311, not 411, i think.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, not enough coffee yet, though they'd probably give you the number for 311 ;)

[findingthegirl.livejournal.com]

I called 311 to report this several times last year and was told I could move the stuff myself but that I was responsible if my partner's car was vandalized. We live right across the street from the police station in Union Square too.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

"Responsible" if someone else breaks the law and vandalizes your car?

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

see my post below on someone i know nearly being beaten...

if i see trash in the road, i pick it and dispose of it :)

couple years ago now, but still fresh on my mind, i found a likely spot to park near Davis, but there was 3 feet of snow. well, i had a shovel in the car. made me a nice space, and pulled in. after i got out, some guy who had been watching said "you have to move, that's my spot" and i replied "whut? clearly, you saw me shovel it, it's mine, i'm going to be parked here for 4-5 hours, and if ANYTHING happens to my car, we'll have a talk about that, okay? you can have it when i leave" and he screamed at me a bit and left. nothing happened to my car. though when i did leave, i filled it back in. bwa hah hah.

#

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

That last part was a bit of genius. :)

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

it made me think i need a foam or inflatable snowbank :)

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[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Even if Somerville isn't uniformly as utopian about this as you suggest, it still warms my heart to imagine the reported conversation as ending with your coworker walking away muttering, "Freakin' pinkos!"

Happy shoveling, y'all.

You nailed it

[witchdogtor.livejournal.com]

That is exactly the phrase I have heard and, yes, it warms the cockles of my heart as I chuckle...

I agree...

[she-of-emeralds.livejournal.com]

... good manners and civilization are Good Things. Glad to hear about this instance of them!

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I''m glad this is your experience! My neighbors are old skool and they do put out trash cans for their spots, but they are older and I guess it's ok. They yell if you take their spot ALL year round, too, so at least they are equal opportunity about it. :P

We had a good experience living on Willow closer to the square about this as well.

[nonnihil.livejournal.com]

I expect it matters more than a bit which side of the street you live on. Over here on the even side, civilized parking behaviour is our compensation for shoveling plow-ice barricades from our driveways. Over on the odd side of the street, things get a bit more tooth-and-claw.

[ahsu78.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I too, have always loved this about Somerville. True both when we lived in Davis Sq and where we are now (off of Highland near the Armory). This is the world I want to live in.

Oddly I'm looking for a historical perspective

[jovianconsensus.livejournal.com]

Back in the day, settlers would claim, and respect, cabin rights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_Rights), giving each other the right to "own" land on which you had made improvements (built a cabin or raised a crop). This first arose as an informal custom, with no basis in law, and legally the land remained the government's. But the settlers took it seriously. In the territory of Maine, a jury refused to convict a man for shooting a sheriff who was trying to clear out the squatters.

Eventually many governments gave in and cabin rights became law, giving the squatter either the right of first refusal to buy the land, or the right to compensation for those improvements.

Perhaps shoveling snow does not constitute the same degree of improvement. But it's interesting how long we've exhibited this impulse to claim ownership in spite of the law.

More on this in chapter five of Hernando de Soto's The Mystery of Capital.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

This was not the case when I lived on Hancock Street. I don't drive, so I don't care about parking spaces, but I was annoyed by all the flotsam and jetsam that littered the street to "save" shoveled spaces.

Ironically, I live in Southie now, and I have never seen anyone save a space by putting crap in it like they used to when I lived in Somerville. I must not live in the right part of Southie.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Just over the line in my new neighborhood in Medford, not only have I seen more people marking "their" spots than I ever saw during my 11 years living by Davis Square, but I see people leaving their markers in spots even when the snow emergency is over and most of the snow has already melted. I find that especially obnoxious and loathesome behavior and expect that people who would do such a thing would also not hesitate to vandalize someone else's property.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Two winters ago when I lived in Clarendon Hill, our downstairs neighbors put a trash can in a spot *before any snow fell* to reserve a correct-side-of-the-street spot when they came home. They then continued to reserve it for a week after the heavy snowfall. In my new neighborhood (also just over the line in Medford, hello neighbor) only one person uses a trash can to reserve his spot and after the last heavy snowfall (two weeks ago or so?) he reserved it for 5 days afterwards. No one else reserves a spot and some of the middle-school aged children actually shovel/unearth cars on the street for fun. I caught them doing it last winter ("hey what're you doing?") and they said that it was "fun to help." So, I guess their great behavior counterbalances the one oddly territorial neighbor.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

one of these days, people are going to go on patrol and pickup all that trash :)

imagine, trucks of all kinds quietly and carefully removing all that debris :) not a single cone, can, box, chair, or other garbage littering the streets. a clean city! with clean parking spaces! woo! ;)

the other day, a FOAF was nearly club in the head by someone bearing a rock, because he parked "in their spot", on a public street, that was completely free of snow, and no markers to boot. the only reason he wasn't harmed, was due to the perp thinking (rightly) that he was armed. nice!

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[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

The mayor actually did that in Southie a couple (?) winters ago. Set a time limit for how long markers could stay out and then sent out DPW trucks to collect the "trash." I've been tempted to re/move markers myself but a friend pointed out that if I did that and then someone unknowingly parked him/herself in a "marked" spot, I could be setting that person up for vandalism. On the one hand it seems like enabling the spot markers but on the other hand I don't want to feel responsible for a keying/tire puncturing.

We have this one woman next door and everyone who's come to visit has been accosted by her yelling "where do you live?" at them. One time I was coming out to meet my mom as she was yelling at her and so I talked with her. Apparently, she is convinced/concerned that "everyone" is coming to park on "her" street. Mind you, I live on a side street in *Medford* just past Tufts (so, nowhere near the train). She went on to complain about how various cars in the neighborhood park ("they take up so much space). The kicker is that she lives in a single-family house, they have one huge SUV and they park it in their driveway -- she doesn't even have a need for a street parking spot! To shut her up, I just droned on and on about how I had just moved from Somerville and how tight parking is there and how strictly it is regulated and how I am so grateful to even be able to park on the same block as my apartment -- I fought crazy with excessive blabber and now she doesn't bother me anymore.

Sorry...

[el-cubano-15.livejournal.com]

I put out a trash can. In the past people have parked in front of my house for days after I spent a long time shoveling snow. Not cool. I make every attempt to avoid parking in front of other homes year 'round and whenever I'm forced to I immediately move my car back in front of my home when the spot clears. If putting out trash cans and getting annoyed when someone parks in front of my house makes folks regard me as a bad person then so be it. I have kids and loading them in and out is tough enough without having to go up the street...

Good luck to all this week. Hopefully it won't be too rough.

Re: Sorry...

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

The problem is that the "space in front of your house" may be needed by more than one person. For example, my street is mostly 2-family and 3-family homes. Each has a driveway but driveway usage varies and invariably there are more cars than there are spots in the driveway. So, say you have a 3-family house where one apartment uses the driveway (usually the landlord in my case) and then maybe one of the other apartments has two cars and another apartment has one car. That's three cars to be parked "in front of the house." Who gets that spot? The law of public property would say that whoever gets to it first gets to it. Multiply this by a whole street and many residents will often not be parked directly in front of their house. Add to that large piles of snow that fill previously usable spots and there's bound to be some shuffling.

But truly, if everyone who is snowed into a spot shovels him/herself out, then there should be an equal number of shoveled out spots to cars parking unless a whole bunch of guests (who didn't shovel out a spot) show up to park on the street.

Re: Sorry...

[el-cubano-15.livejournal.com]

Love the Springsteen quote.

Re: Sorry...

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

But truly, if everyone who is snowed into a spot shovels him/herself out, then there should be an equal number of shoveled out spots to cars parking unless a whole bunch of guests (who didn't shovel out a spot) show up to park on the street.

Something that happens on my street is that people tandem-park in their driveways because of the storm, then put the second car in a spot that someone else has shoveled.

This is deeply unfair.

Re: Sorry...

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

It is deeply unfair. But I feel like if I shoveled out a spot than I am "allowed" to park in a shoveled out spot even if it's not the one *I* shoveled.

Re: Sorry...

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Same here. With the last snowstorm, I shoveled out a spot but didn't mark it. Naturally, the first time I took my car out for a spin, that spot was occupied when I got back. But since there were a couple of other civic-minded folks in my area who had also not marked the spots they'd shoveled, I was able to find parking elsewhere when I returned. If everyone did that, there'd probably be enough spots at any given time. Instead, there's a certain number of folks around here who figure that having shoveled a space once after the very first snowstorm means that they are somehow entitled to that particular space for the rest of the frakking winter.

equal number of shoveled out spots

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

i'm usually at a place that has one driveway spot (for three people, all with cars) so that means 2 of us have to park on the street at any given time. the other two have permits for street parking so they usually do, but it's no big deal for me to park another block down where it's free if need be.

except in the winter.

the problem is that i drive a VW golf so it takes some actual shoveling and space clearing to get me in and out of spaces. then, some douche with a 4wd SUV who never cleared a spot in the first place will park in "my" (or someone else's) cleared out spot and we've nowhere to park because they've left frozen ice and slush endcapped with mini snow and ice mountains. if you have a car that can just plow over snow that's great, but if you don't want to shovel it, keep parking in those spaces ffs.

Re: equal number of shoveled out spots

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

I guess I get to eat my hat a bit on this one. I just moved our car (to drive my partner to work) and when I came back someone had parked in the space. So, I parked in another one. And, well ... I am aggravated because we did a really decent job on the other space including shoveling out space so the driver's side door had room to open. Now, I am in a half-assedly shoveled space and I had to climb out the passenger seat and through the passenger door to get out. On the one hand I feel petty but on the other I feel cheated a bit like someone else did a half-ass shoveling job and now gets an A+ space. I'm still not going to mark the space but I feel aggravated.

Re: equal number of shoveled out spots

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

yeah, exactly, i don't blame you. i've never marked a spot (and won't) but it's very frustrating. if everyone did their part i really don't mind parking within a reasonable distance from the apartment, i don't care if it's right out front or not. it's extra hard for me because there's only one chunk of the street i can park on, where those with permits can park anywhere.

Re: equal number of shoveled out spots

[tracelina.livejournal.com]

This. I have a similarly tiny car and I spend a long time clearing out the spot where I've parked whenever there's a snow storm. I live on a street that has *very* high turnover (if I leave a spot for 20 minutes, at any time of the day or night, it's gone when I get back).

This morning, I walked past many spaces where people in 4WD vehicles clearly just drove out without bothering to shovel. I dread the prospect of having to move my car and returning to spots that are impossible to park in.

Re: equal number of shoveled out spots

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

yeah, exactly. last night we went out and there are entire parking spots that are unusable because snow was just shoveled into them and left untouched. i have the driveway spot now, but there's always a chance the roommate will encounter a similar scenario and take the driveway spot, and i'll be the one circling forever looking for something :/

[daviscubed.livejournal.com]

I once parked in a spot that had a "marker." The next day, there was a napkin on my windshield with the following written on it: "asswhole" [sic]. I wish I could have told that person that I had won.

I say park wherever, although the math of "well I shoveled out a space so it all evens out" doesn't actually always add up, because due to the snow emergency, half the street may have parked in a public lot (or as others have said, tandem in a driveway they usually don't have access/want to), so while they may have shoveled out of the public lot (to which they are no longer welcome), they are trying to get spots shoveled out by others.

At the end of the day, it's something everyone has to deal with. Sometimes parking is difficult. But at least you live in a cool area.