Drivers of scooters and small motorcycles might want to think twice about their Thursday plan to usurp parking spaces in downtown Boston to protest changes in state law governing their vehicles. Scooter drivers make a good case for special accommodations when it comes to parking unobtrusively on sidewalks or bike racks. And while the protest is cleverly designed to show how congested things could become at the curb if such privileges are stripped, Boston and state officials are already making good-faith efforts to solve the problem. The protesters are justifiably proud of their underpowered, environmentally-friendly rides. But scooters can still accelerate from sympathetic to selfish in just seconds by needlessly irking car drivers in search of a parking space.
Taxis: Hang up and drive
The Boston Police Hackney Division quickly called cabbie Joseph Cohen on the carpet for failing to inspect his cab Sunday after a Mattapan family left a 5-year-old dozing in the back of an Independent Taxi Operators Association minivan. The surprised driver reunited the child with its family a short time later, earning the family’s gratitude - and a suspension hearing from the police. Cohen escaped suspension yesterday. But the fact that the police pursued this matter at all taxes the imagination. If the hackney cops want to protect the public, they would crack down on cabdrivers who talk incessantly on their cellphones while carrying customers. A forgotten child is an anomaly. Unauthorized cellphone use by cabdrivers is a constant.
Republicans: Birther pains
Republican members of Congress are walking a political tightrope as they respond to allegations by the party’s fringe that Barack Obama is not legitimately president of the United States. Presidents must be native-born US citizens, and so-called “birthers’’ keep questioning the authenticity of Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate. Some Republican lawmakers have given credence to these widely discredited cranks; Oklahoma’s Senator Jim Inhofe, for instance, has said they “have a point.’’ Others, such as Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, dismiss the charges as “nonsense.’’ Or maybe they’re just a distraction from more important fringe causes, such as DeMint’s effort to prove that Obama is a “socialist.’’
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