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Living in Boston with a car isn’t the one-way hell it might seem. I did it for years. But parking? Here, the city serves up two extremes: Violence and Money.
On the violent side are the drivers in South Boston. During the winter—or anytime they feel like it, really—residents place lawn chairs, cones, Elvis heads and other crap in public spaces they feel they “own.” It’s the proprietary equivalent of pissing on a fire hydrant, except with more broken washing machines. The late Mayor Tom Menino officially condoned the practice, calling them “space savers” that could hold a spot for 48 hours after a declared snow emergency. Should anyone remove them and use the space for, you know, actual parking, that person’s car will be vandalized. Smashed glass, slashed tires, broken mirrors, threatening notes. You name it. That’s parking in South Boston.
On the money side is this, a $650k space in one of Boston’s oldest, toniest neighborhoods, Beacon Hill. A Boston realtor notes that the space—housed in a small, Manhattan-style garage that locks at night and stacks cars all over the place—costs more per square-foot than the city’s nicest penthouse. Other prime parking spots, in Back Bay and similar nabes, have traded in the $300,000 range. So, even for Boston, this is insane. The MLS listing just went inactive, so we’re not sure if anyone bought the space or decided the G-Wagen could spend the winter outside. As long as you stay between both of these fringes, your time with a car in Boston can actually be safe. And affordable.
