(NECN: Scot Yount, South Boston, Mass.) - In Merry ole South Boston, when it snows, the heat goes up.
"In the city it is tough to park, there is too many cars," said lifelong Southie resident Bob Noto.
If I were to try to describe the way people ferociously protect their parking spaces in Southie, well that would be a disservice. So we will show you.
The parking savers, I will call them, come in all shapes and sizes, and types. You might think there was a yard sale going on, however most often, the message is clear.
For the uninitiated, people shovel out their spots, which of course are on the street and are city property. But that's not the way most people look at it.
"You spend so many hours out here shoveling, you expect to come home to get a spot," said Noto.
And that is the way it has worked, sort of, for years.
But, now that the parking ban is off, the mayor's office has said that people have until 6 p.m. Thursday night to remove their trinkets or lose them, and that is good news for Glenn Quirion, who owns Sweet Tooth Boston right out on Broadway, where no parking means his business suffers.
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"They feel that they own this piece of property just because they dug it out, but it is street parking," he said.
Which means, of course, that they don't own it. It doesn't mean they don't mark their territory.
Quirion told us the parking ban did no good. He got a $45 ticket, and, overnight during the ban, he says no work was done to clear the street. The whole neighborhood was just a mess.
"I think it's just been unfortunately, an accepted behavior, for a long time in South Boston, but it is really ridiculous," he said.
But, it was a really big snow.
"The fact of the matter is that it is a heavy dense residential area and I am sure they can only do so much," said Michael Conroy as he dug out his car.
Conroy seems to have come to terms with his neighborhood and its, well, decorations. He has a solution, too.
"If you live in Southie, you signed up for the deal," laughed Conroy. "So if you can't park, move to New Hampshire I guess, I don't know," he chuckled.
