my car was vandalized last night on Highland

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

So my car was vandalized last night on Highland - one of the rear windows smashed out with something like a hammer. It looked liked a bullet hole but there was no exit wound... I was parked one door down/same side of the street as the music store that was ripped off a few weeks ago. Hot corner? Bust stop (hmm... I meant bus stop but bust stop is kind of cute). Do vandals take the bus? The window was on the street/driver's side. No entry and nothing else damaged.

It's annoying, of course but I have insurance. I think what bothers me more is the big chill of that sort of stuff around here. Guess I crank up my street sense. Along with calling the traffic dept. to make more sweeps of my street (one over from Highland) to ticket the non-permit cars, the park n' riders and the long term storage cars. It's grown a lot worse lately - I see people come by in the morning, dump their cars and head for the T, often with luggage. One car was parked in front of my house for 5 days.

Let them park on Highland... ;-)

(oh - while I was discovering my busted window, there was a herd (gaggle?) of police in front of Magpie/the hair place next to it. Don't know what was going down but they were there for quite a while - long enough for me to walk to my insurance office, phone in a report and return).

Comments

[la-ti-da.livejournal.com]

that surprises me that you want them to make more checks on your street, cause on mine, they are anal and swifty. like i've gotten a ticket for being parked illegally for TEN MINUTES. anytime anyone mistakenly parks w/o a permit gets ticketed without fail. never tried the 48 hour thing but i wouldn't risk it.

[la-ti-da.livejournal.com]

p.s. sorry about your window :(

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

I don't think they enforce the 48 hour rule unless there's snow on the ground. At least, all the people I know of who have gotten ticketed for that had it happen after a heavy snow fall. Otherwise, how do they know the car has really been there more than 48 hours? And I'm pretty sure I left my car parked in the same spot more than 48 hours during non-snowy weather, too, since I hardly ever drove it, and I only got ticketed after heavy snowstorms, when it was obvious the car hadn't been moved in a while.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

For 1-hour parking zones, they put chalk on the tire. I don't know if that works for 48-hour durations, though.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

That makes sense - I never saw any signs of chalked tires in the residential areas (though I saw plenty of cars ticketed for parking in those zones w/o a Somerville sticker).

[joylewis.livejournal.com]

The parking people told me that they note the directions of the tire stems on cars in residential areas if they think they haven't been moved in 48 hrs.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz actually looked in on this for me after I complained (about other things as well, the 48-hour rule was just part of it), and told me that according to the parking office, they only enforce the rule if someone complains. (Or after heavy snowfall. That makes sense, I admit.) I had friends warn me that they've been slapped with a ticket after three days; but I went ahead and risked leaving the car in place for up to 4-7 days at a time (especially if it was parked directly in front of my own apartment so that nobody else was likely to be particularly resentful that I was occupying the spot) and I've not been ticketed yet.

And if I do I'm likely to go into the parking office with a printout of what she wrote me and bitch about it. Such things do not always work, of course, but it's worth a try. That rule is nuts. You'd think this wouldn't be the kind of community to have a rule like that that strongly encourages people to drive for short errands instead of T-ing or walking (because it's an excuse to move the car) or just generally waste fuel by moving the car a few spaces down the street.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's good to hear. I haven't been a car owner for 3? or so years now, so I don't worry about for myself anymore.

[glowroper.livejournal.com]

It was explained to me by a parking enforcer - a neighbor has to rat you out. While one cannot ~prove~ that the complainant was the person in front of whose house you are parked, it seems likely.

Really, that 48-hour thing is draconian, arbitrary, and does not contribute to community spirit.

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

I've been "ratted" out because I've left my car in front of my house for days and used my bike instead. I tried to appeal the ticket but they wouldn't budge. It is a rather harsh rule but on the other hand, I live close enough to Davis and the T that people seem to have started using this street more as long term parking when they take the T to Logan. I'm guessing about that but the rolling luggage cart thingy they drag along is a good clue.

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

Take a look at the Police Log in the Somerville Journal sometime. You would be amazed at all the stuff that goes on around here. Yep.. a busy little city.

[muffyjo]

Any chance it was a stone from a construction truck? There have been quite a few of those lately and it would explain the lack of missing stuff.

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

maybe - but I didn't see a stone inside the car - and the hole (it went all the way through) was 3" in diameter (before all the glass fell out... I'll be finding those little chunks of glass for months

[glowroper.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear of this.
Any interesting bumperstickers?

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

Yes, if you live on a street where everyone knows each other, you would leave your neighbors car alone; but, if a strange car is parked on your street for days you could get a couple of people to call and complain and then they would investigate and ticket the car. It is not something they have the resources to actively look for everywhere. Also the law is a little flexible in that if your neighbors don’t mind you leaving your car when you go on vacation you will not get a ticket.
In your case, where non local people are using the no permit parking or parking to go on vacation, you should talk to your neighbors and have everyone complain and raise a big stink about it. If you get some neighbors involved, and push the right buttons enough, the city will follow up and do something about it. But you have to call and complain. Also, take the time to fill out reports at the city's new 311 web site, you can ask them directly through the web form about the law too. Just asking the Alderman won’t do much unless 50 people are asking consistently. You have a very valid concern and it is also being raised in other areas. There are some streets in town that don’t require permits and more and more frequently have out of town cars parked there for long periods.

[ron_newman]

I see no reason for the 48-hour rule. Every side of every street is swept twice a month, so you'll get a ticket anyway if you leave it there more than 2 weeks. That should be sufficient to ensure occasional turnover of parking spaces.

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

That is cheap compared to a garage, one ticket every 2 weeks.

Maybe some streets are too crowded and they have issues with lots of non residents parking there? The good thing about having the residential sticker is that you can park anywhere in town. When I go to work my street fills up with people from all over Somerville (and others) who work in the area. By the time I go home, these cars have all gone back to their own neighborhoods and our street fills up again with the my neighbors cars. If my street became a favorite place for people to park on their way to the airport we could certainly use the 48-hour rule.

Car-ma???

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

So....how hilarious is this: my window is busted out and my resident parking sticker is on a small panel window just to the rear of it on the drivers side. Last night I put a tarp over the busted window, closing the door on it because of the chance of rain.

This morning I went out to discover that I had been ticketed for non-resident parking: the tarp was covering the parking permit.

Hopefully they will be civilized and not make me jump through hoops to cancel the ticket (it's 40 bucks!!). I've got the tarp scene on record with my trusty digital camera.

Silly stuff.

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

second call for a neighborhood watch -they won't do it again if we catch em!!