Blizzard 2015 Boston

[DFB]

Talk about mishaps from the snow about a week or so ago my ski bum contractor buddy's niece and her husband lost control of their pickup truck over icy road conditions coming down one of our wonderfully steep hillside streets.

They went across the street intersection at the bottom of the hill...into a repair shop parking lot up onto the plowed snowbank and thru the fence over the top of river's 15 ft high concrete flood control wall. Landed with the roof down in the snow at the bottom. All the water was on the opposite side of the control chute. Amazing neither one got hurt and fire rescue put a ladder down and they climbed up and out! :shocked:

 

[IslandTractor]

Our local pizzeria has been hit by two cars in the past week. One hit appeared to be by a car that tried to turn while going too fast and slid across the road into the corner of the building. The other however was a head on collision into the front door. No idea how that happened as the driver would need to make a 90 degree turn in the middle of a block in order to jump the curb and hit the building. Driver bolted but the license plate was left behind. Apparently it was a teenage girl who "was scared" so she left the scene at midnight. Obviously must have been a rich liberal.

 

[Garandman]

Talk about mishaps from the snow about a week or so ago my ski bum contractor buddy's niece and her husband lost control of their pickup truck over icy road conditions coming down one of our wonderfully steep hillside streets. //

Back when Atlanta had snow a couple winters ago, they mobilized their four salt trucks - and two of them crashed in the parking lot and were disabled.

So metro Atlanta (about the size of Massachusetts) had two plow trucks. I understand the county has expanded the fleet to nine and contractors have purchased salter/sander attachments for dump trucks.

An Army buddy moved to Kentucky and when they got some snow, he asked a neighbor what the county had for snow removal equipment. "The sun," she replied. :laughing:

Our local pizzeria has been hit by two cars in the past week. One hit appeared to be by a car that tried to turn while going too fast and slid across the road into the corner of the building. The other however was a head on collision into the front door. No idea how that happened as the driver would need to make a 90 degree turn in the middle of a block in order to jump the curb and hit the building. Driver bolted but the license plate was left behind. Apparently it was a teenage girl who "was scared" so she left the scene at midnight. Obviously must have been a rich liberal.

And here it didn't seem like you wanted to identify the town you live in.....

 

[IslandTractor]

And here it didn't seem like you wanted to identify the town you live in.....

Winchester. Pizzeria is in Woburn though a few blocks away. Louie's Pizza, Main St. Try Louie's special some time. Excellent.

 

[Garandman]

A reprieve in parking wars.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh is throwing in the towel on the longtime practice of kicking space savers to the curb after 48 hours, saying snow is piled too high and residents who spent hours digging out cars should be able to claim the spots — a move being applauded in Southie, ground zero for the city’s parking wars.

Walsh yesterday said he’s indefinitely suspending the policy under former Mayor Thomas M. Menino to ban the space savers 48 hours after a heavy snowfall. Amid the record-setting snowfall that has pummeled the city, Walsh said space savers may be the only way some residents are able to find street parking.

“The policy has always been under the previous administration 48 hours and then you ... remove your space saver,” Walsh said yesterday, noting in years past that was enough time for snow to melt. But not this year.

“There’s no parking out there in the city,” he said. “There are snowbanks in the city that just haven’t melted at all.”

The city “relaxed” the 48-hour period so “people could still have a parking space. ... I don’t know when we’re going to lift that,” Walsh said.

 

[Garandman]

From the city's Snow Center.

Neighborhood Miles Plowed: 298,678
Amount of Salt: 109,848 tons
Hours Worked: 189,130

Monthly snowfall for February to date:

Caribou, ME 18.5"
Burlington, VT 22.7"
Concord, NH 42.6"
Buffalo, NY 44.9"
Boston 64.6"

Tennis, anyone? :laughing:

 

[leonz]

OK;

Now as I understand it from WBZ1030 tonight.

The parking space savers will be removed by the Boston DPW crews and the mayor
told the residents not to give the DPW crews a hard time about removing the
space savers, so now Barbie Doll, the lawn chairs picnic coolers, and gas grills must go.

 

[Garandman]

Article in Dorchester Reporter.

Around 9:20 p.m. on Franklin Hill Avenue. The suspects used knives to force the victim inside an apartment there, then stole a car. They escaped in the victim's low-ride Honda SUV, Mass. registration 319 XA2.

First comment:

Now the thieves are stuck finding somewhere to park it. Hope they try to move a space saver.

The Dot, where "low ride Honda SUV's" are so popular, people invade homes to steal them! :laughing:

The parking space savers will be removed by the Boston DPW crews and the mayor told the residents not to give the DPW crews a hard time about removing the space savers, so now Barbie Doll, the lawn chairs picnic coolers, and gas grills must go.

Former Mayor Menino did not like the policy and announced that trash truck crews were going to take them.

Along with the fact that the crews are contractors who weren't really being paid for that, some people put all the things they weren't supposed to take: computer monitors, paint cans, even toilets. He meekly surrendered.

Walsh is more popular and our trash day isn't until Friday, but perhaps one third of parking capacity under 3-8' snow banks and little or no thawing I don't know why he decided to make next week the time.

Some people have just given up, don't need the car or are from away. This tends to make neighbors pretty angry if the car is from outside the neighborhood. We had a BMW covered in snow next to our house for two weeks, having taken a spot we cleared for neighbors. We were able to get his phone # and give him a call.

 

[Garandman]

New campaign in Somerville. While lots of stories go around about all the extracurriculars, in over 15 years in South Boston (Ground Zero for "space savers") I never saw a documented instance of vandalism or fisticuffs. They definitely occur, but it's an extreme rarity.

 

[leonz]

New campaign in Somerville. While lots of stories go around about all the extracurriculars, in over 15 years in South Boston (Ground Zero for "space savers") I never saw a documented instance of vandalism or fisticuffs. They definitely occur, but it's an extreme rarity.

The flyer pasted to the pole is more than adequate.

If anyone tried to use space savers up here it would
be removed quickly and tossed in a dumpster by a dpw crew
and the area cleared of snow back to the curb and beyond
if sidewalks are flush with the curb.

The public would be reminded that on street parking is public parking
and not reserved for anyone period and cars would be towed if a snow
emergency was declared for snow removal purposes or if highways were
physically blocked by DPW barriers preventing access during a storm AND
they would be ticketed or arrested if they are driving during a snow emergency
unless they were law enforcement, municipal workers or health care workers/doctors/nurses etc.,
traveling to a hospital.

 

[IslandTractor]

The flyer pasted to the pole is more than adequate.

If anyone tried to use space savers up here it would
be removed quickly and tossed in a dumpster by a dpw crew
and the area cleared of snow back to the curb and beyond
if sidewalks are flush with the curb.

The public would be reminded that on street parking is public parking
and not reserved for anyone period and cars would be towed if a snow
emergency was declared for snow removal purposes or if highways were
physically blocked by DPW barriers preventing access during a storm AND
they would be ticketed or arrested if they are driving during a snow emergency
unless they were law enforcement, municipal workers or health care workers/doctors/nurses etc.,
traveling to a hospital.

You have to keep in mind that this is Boston (Somerville is very Boston like in density and housing stock even though it is technically a different city a few miles north). No side yards or driveways for many homes and lots of multifamily homes. People really have no place else to pahk their cahs or put snow so it isn't like irresponsible types causing problems for the DPW on purpose. I've driven through Cambridge and Somerville a bit over the past few weeks and it is a mess. There are lots of huge snow piles that may or may not have cars underneath.

 

[leonz]

Very true,

We have had an issue with students that leave their cars for months at a time
on the un-metered spaces for months and the only way they have been able to
control the issue is to designate certain streets with and without meters that have
high traffic counts with seasonal snow removal emergency signs notifying the car
owners that they cannot park on the street during heavy snow events.

Odd even parking is also suspended when snow piles and packed ice must be removed.

The state drove by with their tiny road grader on Tuesday making a mess of things and I
am sure its because they think the storm coming from rockies is going to make a real mess
of things. They love to waste money by making repeat trips when a wing operator on the
plow truck would reduce the number of trips they would have to make every night when
its snows enough to plow.

 

[Garandman]

The flyer pasted to the pole is more than adequate.

If anyone tried to use space savers up here it would

Your profile doesn't say where you live. What I call "Excessive pride of place" is common everywhere, it seems.

Earlier in this thread I explained why this practice is tolerated. It is common in many snow belt cities dating back to the 1950's. In Pittsburg they even sell souvenir "parking chairs." City of Boston's idea of "snow removal." That pic was taken last weekend and that 12' high mound is still there.

This winter has brought about a lot of changes and snow removal practices and budgets will without question be reviewed for 2016.

We had three snow throwers and only needed two. I decided to sell one and sent out an email at work. Sold in three minutes....

 

[Garandman]

The late Mayor of Boston, Mayor Menino, was accused of various times of favoring some neighborhoods over others with services. These same allegations have followed Mayor Walsh. Focused-through-windshield phone video of what a typical Boston residential street looks like at the moment.

Note that many of the houses have little or no front hard so there is literally no place to put the snow removed from parking spaces, which are usually shoveled out by hand.

 

[leonz]

I live outside Ithaca and it has a very high population
with college students and year round residents.

We have plenty of parking problems with lack of
parking in many places and we have parking garages
without roofs which causes huge deicing and snow
removal expense- crazy idea in this climate especially when
the garages do not have heated floors to melt ice and snow.


You have to love municipalities(insert snicker here) and how they only think in
the short term with short dollars instead of thinking long term to reduce
issues with ice and snow and its effects on exposed concrete where heated
floors solve more problems and reduce repairs to the concrete surfaces.
This works on car washes and has worked well for sidewalks as well.

 

[Garandman]

I live outside Ithaca and it has a very high population
with college students and year round residents.

Funny, your profile doesn't say that.

Population of Ithaca: 30,014. Metro area population is 101,564.

The population of Dorchester - one neighborhood in Boston - is 114,000. Metro Boston has 4.6 million.

Cornell is pretty large but also has their own resources, while Boston university, for example, has 50% more students. So if students create parking problems in Ithaca, you can imagine what 25 colleges and universities create, and that excludes adjacent schools like MIT and Harvard.

In other words, apples and oranges.

 

[Garandman]

Boston has 102" officially and the record for seasonal snowfall is 107". 4-6" is forecast overnight so we may break that record.

It snows in Boston in March than the three months prior, with most snowfalls 6" or less. Then again, Boston got 25" on April 1 2007, so we'll see.

If we get a couple of the kind of nasty ice storms typical then a lot of people are going to lose it.

 

[IslandTractor]

Boston has 102" officially and the record for seasonal snowfall is 107". 4-6" is forecast overnight so we may break that record. It snows in Boston in March than the three months prior, with most snowfalls 6" or less. Then again, Boston got 25" on April 1 2007, so we'll see. If we get a couple of the kind of nasty ice storms typical then a lot of people are going to lose it.

I recall a serious snowstorm in ?May in about 1978. We definitely get snow in March and even April typically.

 

[dave1949]

Spoke with my Framingham son yesterday. He says there are lots & lots of people with ice dam water damage. His single story ranch house has a 3 or 4/12 pitch roof which he was able to keep clear and has escaped damage. They did a big remodel recently with new attic insulation which helps too.

Luckily he lives in a 1960's era subdivision with driveways.

 

[Threepoint]

I've seen numerous stories in our local news on the parking situation in the Boston neighborhoods, and some on emergency response problems. But I've seen very little about other essential services. Having a hard time even imagining how basic trash collection is being managed at this point. Even if the trucks can make it through the streets, where are residents able to put the trash and recyclables for pickup? The cleared walkways in front of the homes look ridiculously narrow between the drifts. Also wondering how the thousands of UPS, FedEx and USPS parcel deliveries are being made? To say nothing of delivery and pickup of bigger stuff.