Mayor hints he might relent on parking-spot claims

Just a few weeks ago, Mayor Thomas M. Menino wasn't budging on his stand against residents who stake claims on parking spaces they've cleared of snow.

"The streets of the city belong to all the people," he proclaimed through his spokesman, as garbage trucks traversed Boston to collect furniture and traffic cones left out as markers.

But yesterday, after mammoth drifts draped the city over the weekend, Menino hinted he may back off this time.

"That's something we have to decide," Menino said of whether to enforce his rule that residents can claim parking spaces on the street for only 48 hours after a storm.

He said he'll wait until tomorrow to make a decision about enforcing the rule.

His stand against the practice -- a cherished tradition in Boston, where parking is scarce and winters can be fierce -- started a year ago. He said the retribution sometimes visited on cars that parked in spots claimed by other people had to stop. The issue came up again this winter, and some residents declared war.

In South Boston, a politically important neighborhood that frequently takes glee in opposing City Hall, resistance has been especially heated. After Menino's proclamation in late December, residents openly defied the mayor, and Councilor James M. Kelly has been on radio talk shows saying the tradition of claiming shoveled spaces is virtually a birthright for Bostonians, especially in South Boston.

Yesterday, administration officials were not so vehement as they had been.

"The 48-hour rule is not the mayor's first priority right now," said Menino's spokesman, Seth Gitell. "Removing the 26 inches of snow is."

Meanwhile, city crews planned to begin hauling tons of snow to vacant lots used as snow farms around the city, starting at about 10 last night. Front-end loaders filled scores of dump trucks, as they cleared snow around Boston's 130 schools, the first stops in the city's effort to clear the streets. A citywide parking ban was still in effect, schools were closed until tomorrow, and all nonessential state workers were ordered to stay home.

Days after the release of a Boston Police Department poll that showed declines in satisfaction with city services, including snow removal, from 2001 through 2003, Menino appeared eager to portray a city attacking the storm's aftermath head on.

"We don't take this stuff lightly," said Menino, who is up for reelection in November. "The public works guys did a great job."

At the City of Boston's Storm Center, a smattering of callers complained about delays in snowclearing of streets and sidewalks.

And some residents were not happy about being among the 496 whose vehicles were towed or the 3,711 ticketed for being illegally parked during the snow emergency.

Among them was Heidi Vasquez, 27, of Charlestown, who said the side mirror of her 1990 Toyota Camry was knocked off when the car was towed sometime Saturday night.

But others praised the city for coping well.

"Overall, I think the city's doing the best they can," said Dan Fluet, a West Roxbury resident whose only complaint was about slow service on the MBTA, which was plagued by snow-related delays and breakdowns yesterday.

At the State Transportation Building yesterday, four piles of snow stood at least 20 feet tall as Peter Ciappa sat in his employer's idling dump truck, waiting to haul them to a parking lot in Lynn.

Ciappa, 52, of Revere, said Revere Beach Parkway was a mess as he made his way into the city. So was Route 99 in Everett. But as he crossed the Mystic River into Charlestown, he said, the roads of Boston were clear. "I couldn't believe it," Ciappa said.

Boston officials said the weekend blizzard would probably deplete the city's $7.5 million snow removal budget, but Menino said the money could be replenished.

Public Works Director Joseph Casazza has estimated that the blizzard would cost more than $3 million.

Globe correspondent Madison Park contributed to this report.