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Citizen complaint of the day: Illegal South Boston parkers
By adamg on Mon, 07/27/2020 - 3:06pm
Of late, some concerned citizens have been filing 311 complaints about the M Street beach. Many are about overcrowding there, or the gross conditions or both. But some aggravated citizens are filing complaints about the boats:
Boats anchored too close to shore AND I didn't see resident parking stickers on them either.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
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Comments
White privilege.
White privilege.
People of all races and
People of all races and ethnicites own and ride in boats.
Duh. I’m talking about what’s
Duh. I’m talking about what’s going on at that end of the beach without any repercussions.
Comment deleted
Comment deleted
"White" is a racial slur?
News to me.
He doesn't like being reminded
Rodman doesn't like being reminded that white people can do wrong things. It's a trigger for him.
The term White Privilege catgorizes actions
based on a group's race. That by defintion makes it a racial slur, and it is very reasonable to consider it an objectional statement. Your response that the term is a "trigger" for me, which it isn't, only reaffirms that.
Don't be absurd
"White privilege" refers to benefits that accrue to white people in our society. It says nothing of actions.
Oh boy.
Oh boy.
Consider reading up, Roadman
Or, at least, reading something other than Reader's Digest.
https://nymag.com/strategist/article/anti-racist-reading-list.html
Unless, of course, you are too fragile to consider the society-wide structures that maintain your unearned privilege.
The term mentions RACE
and is often used to stereotype people - such as the implication in the previous post that people of color would nevewr be able to park boats so close to shore. That makes it a racist statement.
Sorry to have ruffuled your feathers with a reality check.
Nope
"White privilege" refers to the benefits that white people receive by virtue of being white in a racist society. It is not a "racist statement" to state that racism exists nor that white people benefit from it.
Large groups of Black people
Large groups of Black people would most certainly not get away with open container drinking and partying on boats so close to shore on M st beach. Constantly.
That end of South Boston would never tolerate it and police would be called.
Roadman, honey
You are the one who needs a serious reality check.
Guess who thinks these are his people?
They shoveled their spots,
They shoveled their spots, you should have seen it before. Liquified snow everywhere.
With, or against the tide?
They missed some.
In fact
that’s not a boat, it’s a space saver.
Only a matter of time before
Only a matter of time before the space savers (the true symbol of Southie white privilege) show up.
“True symbol of Southie white
“True symbol of Southie white privilege” drive around other neighborhoods in the city. It isn’t just white people.
The reclassification of space savers
What did we consider space savers before the white privilege craze? At least they have a category now.
Transformer?
What is the Transformer looking thing directly behind the man in the white shirt and hat on the boat? It looks as though it could be a roof of some sort but with strange attachments, or, perhaps it's not even part of the boat? I (politely) demand answers.
If it was a car,
If it was a car, that would be a spoiler. IDK what they call it on a boat.
Ridiculous. How far away is
Ridiculous. How far away is ok?
I didn't see resident parking stickers on them either.
But I do see the Massachusetts registration sticker on it, right in front of the white line.
As far as mooring there, you are supposed to be 75 feet away from a designated swimming area.
75 feet from floats designating a swimming area
If there are no floats, the minimum distance is 150 feet. https://www.usps.org/e_stuff/documents/massachusetts-boating-law.pdf
No more floats?
Sorry,
Last time I was there I thought they had a marked area for swimming. My brother had his boat nearby but it got eliminated a few storms ago.
All my boating is by sail.
Thank You Community Boating!
Stupid question - is that a designated swimming area?
I have no idea, but if it is not, then the boats are fine.
Then one asks, what is a designated swimming area?
Is it under lifeguard supervision?
Then it is a designated swimming area.
And if those boats are in that area, they obstruct the ability of the life guards to do their job.
So, is it?
Anybody know?
Also, I'm sure an area can be a designated swimming area without a lifeguard.
So, what's the deal with this place?
Per Massachusetts law,
150 feet from a shoreline used as a designated swimming area.
https://www.usps.org/e_stuff/documents/massachusetts-boating-law.pdf
Why is that document hosted on the USPS website?
Are they delivering mail in Massachusetts via small recreational watercraft?
That's USPS.com or USPS.gov
That's USPS.com or USPS.gov
USPS.org = United States Power Squadrons
Founded 1912 in Boston.
No one should ever operate a boat without passing their basic boating safety course.
Yet, all it takes in
Yet, all it takes in Massachusetts is money and any jerk can run a boat.
Not *that* USPS
United States Power Squadrons is a boating organization "whose mission is to improve maritime safety and enjoyability through classes in seamanship, navigation, and other related subjects."
That would explain it
I always forget if the post office is .org or .com. They should just stick with .gov.
They use .gov and .com so
They use .gov and .com so nobody else can misdirect people to fraudulent sites
USPS barely uses USPS.GOV,
USPS barely uses USPS.GOV, they don't even have a DNS record for @.USPS.GOV. I emailed them about that exactly problem like 15 years ago and someone wrote back alluding to an obscure technical reason it wouldn't work. My guess is USPS has a "Dead Sea" problem with their IT staffing.
Doesn't really matter
Just ask Benjamin P. Urbelis Esq.
MA is run by rich a-holes for rich a-holes.
Why does a boat along shore
Why does a boat along shore bother anyone? Who cares? Get a life
Until they hit somebody
Until they hit somebody swimming.
Getting struck by a propeller
Google what happens when a swimmer or someone who falls off a boat is hit by an I/O or outboard motor prop. It happens and is gruesome.
A wild guess
I'm going to take a wild guess here that it bothers the swimmers, because it creates hazards to life and limb and restricts the area they can swim in.
Obstructs life guard vision and operations
The boat is in the way of the sight lines of the lifeguard.
There was a scene in Star
There was a scene in Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi that was pretty much the same thing:
http://thelegalgeeks.com/2017/12/18/illegal-beach-parking-on-canto-bight/
They have to park close so it
They have to park close so it’s a short walk to pee in someone’s yard.
It's awful that someone would
It's awful that someone would even joke about resident parking stickers for a boat.
It's bad enough that people expect a public street to be reserved for them by excluding outsiders. But then they start extending that idea to boat access in the ocean. Who knows what's next? Beach access? Getting a table at a restaurant with reduced capacity? Riding a bus or using the local T station? Walking or biking down a residential street?
Already there.
Hate to break it to you, but you need a Boston mooring permit to dock or moor your vessel in Boston.
Nonresidents are allowed to
Nonresidents are allowed to get a mooring permit. It costs more, $5/foot versus $1/foot for Boston residents. But at least it's possible at all, unlike a parking permit which is unavailable to nonresidents at any price.
Oh, also it's illegal for Boston to charge more for nonresidents. But nobody at the state cares about making cities obey the law. https://commonwealthmagazine.org/economy/003-mooring-mess/
And I'm not a boating expert, but I don't think you need any sort of local permit to drop an anchor while hanging out on the boat for the day, like in this photo.
Beach access
Beach access is already restricted, in lots of places. Sometimes, it's by parking bans near the beach, as in Manchester-by-the-Sea, sometimes it's by institutional control, as at Cranes Beach. And unlike almost all the rest of the country, MA extends private ownership of beaches to the low-water mark. There was a feud between a certain Jacquelyn Onassis and the Wampanoag Tribe over the tribe's access to a beach they owned. Ms Onassis was reportedly fond of going naked at the shore, and didn't want any ogling.
Parking is a lost cause. But
Parking is a lost cause. But for whatever reason, most city/town beaches around here are open to anyone if you can get there. Especially in Boston.
There are a few beaches in super-rich towns that won't let in people like you and me, but they're the exception.
Beach access vs. parking access
Don't confuse beach access with parking access.
Most towns will let anybody on the beach, but because of the limited parking paid for and maintained by the town, they limit access to residents. Parking is the limited resource. You can walk in and ride your bike in no problem. Mostly.
Then, as you mentioned, there's the whole ownership of the beach issue that goes back centuries. Every once in awhile, you'll see an article in the paper about people battling over beach access and those lawsuits go on for years.