Parking perk: Time's up

Once upon a time there was an agency in Massachusetts called the Metropolitan District Commission. It was a family agency, in that just about everyone who worked for it was related to a politician on Beacon Hill.

The MDC had authority over a haphazard collection of roads, parks, beaches, swimming pools, and skating rinks. One day, the head of the MDC woke up and realized he also had authority over a piece of land in the shadows of Boston College's Alumni Stadium. This was a good thing, because it meant that on game days his friends and other important people could have a free place to park and tailgate.

These days, the MDC is gone, but the perk has lived on, until recently. Wealthy BC alumni pay thousands of dollars a year to park on an adjacent BC-owned field. The unwashed are waved to satellite lots miles away. But a select group of connected politicos, cops, and fortunate family members have been granted free tailgating privileges on state-owned land about a three-minute walk to the stadium.

The perk became so institutionalized that State Police troopers, who inherited oversight, were known to stand at the triangle, clipboard in hand, admitting invited people to their space.

Things were great until the day they weren't, and that day was earlier this year. A bunch of neighbors were tired of the free-loading tailgaters making noise and -- how else to put this? -- urinating along the road. Ends up, nature calls on state politicians just like us commoners, and the result isn't a pretty sight.

Boston College and Boston police carried neighbors' complaints to the state.

''The parking wasn't the issue," Boston police Captain William Evans, who oversees that section of the city, told me. ''It was the drinking. It was the urinating."

Environmental Affairs Secretary Stephen Pritchard pulled the plug on the perk, issuing a pair of sternly worded letters last month saying that no more parking on state-owned land outside BC would be allowed on game days. ''It was an unofficial playground, not permitted and not appropriate," Joe O'Keefe, Pritchard's chief of staff, said yesterday.

Emotions have been rubbed raw. Behind the scenes, State Police and Boston police, normally strong allies, have exchanged unpleasantries.

State Police Lieutenant Bruce Lint, widely respected inside and outside the department, acknowledged the situation yesterday. ''This was something that was handed off to us," he said of the BC parking perk. ''We let it continue on and were trying to come up with a plan to address it. Secretary Pritchard did us a favor by sending clear directives on how to deal with state property."

Of the accusations of public drinking, he said: ''Tailgating is not prohibited. Public drinking, there was zero tolerance. If you went down there, there was no public drinking."

Lieutenant, are you really trying to say that a collection of grown men were gathering before games to drink Hi-C?

''If there were cups and things like that, the police cannot approach someone and ask to smell their beverage without probable cause and suspicion," Lint replied. ''You can't go up and say, 'What are you drinking?' unless the guy is stumbling down drunk."

Question answered.

One question remains. The final directive banning the perk was issued Sept. 16. The next day, traffic to the BC-Florida State game was tied up in an unusual, epic jam. BC spokesman Jack Dunn confirms the school received ''countless complaints" from fans. What caused it?

Lint said State Police were trying to implement a new traffic plan designed to remove a ''dangerous crossover" up the street from the stadium. It didn't work as well as hoped. I'd like to believe him.

In the end, some state troopers realized they're better off not having to oversee a perk for pushy politicos. And Boston police won't have to listen to neighbors' complaints.

But to the ousted politicos still looking for a free ride, I offer the next best thing: Take the T.

Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com.