SOUTHIE RESIDENTS DIG IN OVER SPACE SAVERS

Mayor backpedals after saying threats may bring ban

Let’s just say Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s shortlived vow to ban the age-old practice of saving shoveledout parking spots on city streets didn’t go over so well in South Boston.

Southie residents were still hoarding parking spaces yesterday with orange cones and a smorgasbord of household junk, a week after the year’s first nor’easter dumped more than a foot of snow on the city. People are allowed to save the spots they shovel for 48 hours after a winter storm.

Charlie Hurl, 59, and Brandon Ross, 32, both lifelong South Boston residents, were shoveling snow out of the drainage gutters along O Street yesterday when I told them about the possibility of the mayor doing away with space savers. They weren’t too happy about it.

“Tell him to come shovel my spot then,” said Ross.

During a taping of WCVB-TV’s “On the Record,” Walsh said he’d squash space saving if neighbors keep threatening one another.

“The space isn’t your space, meaning that you did the work to get your car out, but this is a courtesy issue, everyone should be courteous of each other, but it’s a city street. When people threaten people, if that continues to happen, we will end that rule,” Walsh said.

The mayor later backpedaled, tweeting, “While we don’t plan any changes to the space saver program, we’re disappointed by threatening messages and notes residents are leaving on each other’s cars. Please be respectful of your neighbors — we all share these streets and our City. No threats will be tolerated.”

Hurl and Ross were still

saving the spaces they spent two days shoveling. Ross said his shoulder was still “killing him.”

Hurl said the snow needs to be cleared up to the sidewalks. “The city should help get some of this snow out of here,” Hurl said, “and then you won’t have the problem.”

Ross suggested the city implement a plowing schedule like street cleaning, where residents can’t park on one side of the street during a certain time period so the snow can be removed.

Mary McDonough’s family saved four spaces with cones up until yesterday. They had shoveled out two spots and paid a couple guys $80 to shovel two more. She said it would be a “nightmare” if she couldn’t save spots anymore.

“The old way was better,” said McDonough, a lifelong South Boston resident and mother of five. “People know when to put the spot savers away.”

Alex Whitney, 32, was walking on West Fourth Street with a shovel to clear more snow off his car that he hadn’t moved since the storm.

The neighborhood newcomer said residents should be allowed to use space savers, but need to honor the 48hour rule.

Whitney had another suggestion for the city.

“They need to build a parking garage somewhere,” he said.

MARKING THE SPOT: Brandon Ross, digging out a space on O Street, had blunt words for Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s possible ban on space savers: `Tell him to come shovel my spot then.’

STAFF PHOTOS BY NICOLAUS CZARNECKI ENDLESS BUMMER: Two warm-weather staples, a folding chair and a cooler, act as space savers in Southie. Use of space savers has divided the community.

STAFF PHOTOS BY NICOLAUS CZARNECKI ON THE STREET: Alex Whitney digs out his car after last week’s storm. ‘They need to build a parking garage somewhere,’ he says. At right, broken items dot the streets of Southie as space savers.