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

[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.