Boston To Discard Parking Space Savers After Weekend Storm
BOSTON (CBS) - City officials are not allowing the Boston tradition of saving parking spaces that returned this weekend along with the snow.
The classic cones, cans and even paper boxes, all served as parking spot savers in South Boston the Monday after snow blanketed much of Massachusetts.
In the past, the city has allowed for a grace period following a snow emergency so that people can claim spots. According to city spokesman John Guilfoil, a snow emergency gets rid of a sizable portion of street parking in order to make way for snow plows and heavy machinery used to clear the roads. But since the weekend storm wasn't declared a snow emergency, Guilfoil said the spot savers are unnecessary.
Gallery: South Boston Space Savers
Monday, objects left on the street were to be hauled away and discarded.
"South Boston is a place young people like to live and there's a lot of automobiles," said South Boston resident Philip Wallace, who admitted to using toilet bowls from his remodeling job as parking space savers in years past. "I think there's gotta be some grace some leeway somewhere."
"There was no snow emergency this last go around so I don't really understand why people were putting cones out," admitted South Boston resident Joel Penney as he dug out his car. "Once one person does it you have to do it or you're going to be parking in Dorchester."
A South Boston resident says his car was vandalized on Sunday after he moved a saw horse that was in a parking space in front of his home on West 4th Street. The man told police that he did not know the saw horse was placed there to hold the spot.
A witness says he observed a man who appeared to be about 40 years old, shoot nails into the victim's tires. The suspect, described as a white male with facial hair, was driving a blue pickup truck, possibly a Ford F150, with a company name printed on the doors. The witness says the truck had been parked in the spot for the last couple of days. Police were unable to locate the truck.
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