If you’re local, you’ve probably been reading about the battle brewing between those in Southie (and other neighborhoods) and Mayor Menino over marking parking spots with chairs, pylons and sundry objects. If you’re a Boston resident and drive a car, you’ve probably been caught up in tussles over protecting the spaces you shoveled out (or taking ones you didn’t). It’s hard for me to figure what the mayor expects to gain politically, but I can see both sides of the argument. On one hand there’s a major “free rider” problem with parallel parking on underplowed residential streets. Not everyone will do their share of work shoveling parking spaces if they can simply take a space another person has shoveled out. Similarly, those good street citizens will bristle at shoveling out for the free riders. So the plastic chair in the shoveled space custom works. On the other hand, parallel parking is a public good not a private assigned space. More importantly, the parking-chair mores flout the rule of law: since the spaces aren’t legally one person’s it invites a vigilante mentality which may be functional each blizzard but is detrimental in its own right. This is why the stories about “curb rage” on the local TV news miss the point — fisticuffs and vandalism over “stolen” parking spaces aren’t irrational and extraordinary temper flare-ups, they’re necessary to the enforcement of the rule. Without the threat of violence the free riders take the spaces and the custom breaks down. I suspect the state of lawlessness is what most rankles Menino and why he’s opposing relatively popular parking customs.
The solution? Maybe there’s not an easy one, but here’s a suggestion: Make parallel parking a public good in the warmer months, but from late December to mid-March, create assigned spaces. Such spaces could be adjudicated in whatever way seems appropriate — through a lottery, through a market-rate fixed cost, or tied to units and property tax payments. Those without space to park would need to find alternate arrangements. This would only apply to certain residential neighborhoods without high density (Southie, Eastie, Dorchester, JP); Back Bay, South End, the Fenway would continue to operate by resident parking sticker. And it would be enforceable by towing; the city could even authorize private towing given the demands after a snow storm.
It may not be a perfect solution but would keep people from beating each other up over plastic cones.
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