Have you ever been on the hunt for a parking spot in Boston? Picture this: you’ve been looking for what seems like forever when you finally see an empty space between two cars. You drive up closer to pull in the spot, but then you see a chair sitting right in the middle of it. This exact frustration is the inspiration behind creating the ban on “space savers” in the South End in 2017. This area is now referred to as a “Space Saver Free Zone”.

The reason that the ban was put in place is that every winter when it snows the streets have extremely minimal parking spots. This causes people to put “space savers”, which are obscure objects, in “their” parking spots so that they could park there upon return. However, things started to get nasty when other cars are parked in spots that already had space savers in them. People who used space savers were extremely defensive and angry when other cars moved the object and parked. The South End saw threats, acts of vandalism, and acts of violence on the cars that were parked in “space saver spots”. Examples of this are slashed tires and threatening notes left on windshields. 

The worst part is that people whose tires get slashed have to pay for the damages since there is no way to find the offenders. Thus, the South End Forum Spacesaver Valdalism Victim Fund was born! The goal of the fund is to raise money to help pay off the damages from the acts of vandalism and violence by space saver offenders. When the ban initially was put in place there were many acts of retaliation against it, so the fund helped pay off many people’s car repair bills. 

Now that the ban has been in place for a couple of years there have been significantly fewer attacks on cars. Some people still do try to put space savers in parking spots, however, garbage trucks are instructed to take any object that is left in a spot and treat it like garbage. Even though there has only been one reported incident this year regarding space saver violence, the fund is asking for donations to be prepared for the future.

Many people can relate to the trouble of finding a parking spot in South Boston, so help and show your support for those who have been victims of space saver violence.

Click here to donate