Menino cracks down on S. Boston space-holders
Mayor Thomas M. Menino dispatched a special crew to South Boston yesterday to confiscate chairs, ironing boards, boxes, and other random items blocking parking spaces cleared by residents after last week's snowstorm.
City officials said they launched the cleanup in response to complaints. Some residents are upset by the items littering streets long after the snow melted and in defiance of a city rule limiting the practice of saving parking spaces to 48 hours after heavy snowfalls.
But sending a special crew to South Boston angered some in the neighborhood. They interpreted the move as another offensive in the years-long battle between City Hall and South Boston over the time-honored tradition.
"He's really got it in for us, let me tell you," said Joanne McDevitt, a longtime East Broadway resident. "I really feel like he's singling out South Boston."
City officials said that may be the case, but it's not personal.
"The mayor's hot line has been receiving numerous complaints about space savers and a majority of those calls have come from South Boston," Menino spokeswoman Dot Joyce said.
In other neighborhoods yesterday, trash crews picked up items marking spaces along their regular routes.
Conflict over the practice last came to a boil a little more than two years ago, when the mayor decided he wouldn't allow it anymore and ordered city workers to remove all the markers. South Boston residents were outraged, and James M. Kelly, the late city councilor from the neighborhood, planted a barrel in a spot near his house and dared the mayor to pick it up. The mayor then implemented the 48-hour grace period.
Kelly's successor, Councilor Bill Linehan, had hoped to avoid another face-off with City Hall. He penned a message of peace and togetherness last week in a neighborhood newspaper.
"When we all try to act accordingly, there is less need for authority and intervention," Linehan wrote in the South Boston Online piece, which included a list of tips for dealing with "Southie Snow" responsibly, such as "If you keep a cone out to secure preferred parking you can expect it to be moved by authorities or even by neighbors. Don't be selfish!"
Linehan said yesterday that it's a "very difficult" issue, but he didn't have any problems with the mayor targeting his constituents.
His colleague from West Roxbury, though, suggested the mayor should be more even-handed with enforcement. City Councilor John Tobin said sections of his district in Jamaica Plain also have problems with parking space-savers.
"It's got to be a set policy," he said. "You can't just go from storm to storm, and it can't just be Southie. It's got to be all the neighborhoods."
Like many Bostonians, Tobin finds the issue a bit humorous. Kelly made it something of a national spectacle, appearing on "Good Morning America" and in The
Tobin suggested yesterday that City Hall set up a makeshift thrift store with the confiscated wares. "If they have a 56-inch mahogany table in stock, I'd like one for the office," he joked.
As the special crew wrapped up its rounds in South Boston about 2 p.m. yesterday near the corner of West 6th and D streets, the truck was brimming with dining room chairs, crates, traffic cones, and lawn furniture.
McDevitt said that if the city did a better job of removing snow in the neighborhood, residents wouldn't have to resort to blocking off parking spaces.
"There's still mounds and mounds out here," she said. "Why don't they just remove the snow?"
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com. 