Snow Parking Wars! They’re Real!

A look into the unspoken Boston etiquette of snowstorms, space savers, and intense battles over shoveled street parking.

By Stephanie Ahn

Photo by Serenidy Ryan

Snow was not a common sight for a born and raised Californian like me — as you can imagine, especially in cities. The urban environment was just not constructed for that climate. Take LA, for example, which has seen its rainiest season yet; the streets are continuously flooding because the architecture wasn’t built for it. 

Boston, however, is a different story. Not only has this city been built for the snow, but it even has unspoken rules for the weather. Imagine my surprise when I walked out of my Allston apartment to a worn-down foldable beach chair sitting in a valley of snow piles surrounding it. What on earth was that? 

For most on the East Coast, this is a mere daily routine — nothing special or out of the ordinary. But for a native Californian, there seemed to be a whispered secret that all the New Englanders knew but me. 

That lone chair that saw my neighbor shovel their car out of the snow and weathered the corporate 9-5 as they went to work is called a space saver. The City of Boston cites space savers, such as trash cans, cones, or other objects that save your parking spot on the street. It can only be used when Boston declares a snow emergency, and it’s banned in the South End and Bay Village. And you only have 48 hours to use the space saver after the emergency is over. 

So, those are the logistics. But I couldn’t help but wonder about the informality of it all. What about the people who don’t follow the rules?

Well, sure enough, the winter snowstorm “Fern,” that took out the entire East Coast, gave me an answer. My TikTok for-you page during my snow day was filled with “snow parking war” videos. These videos depict residents from Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and NYC, enraged at each other, stealing each other’s parking spots despite using space savers. People would retaliate against each other after they’d spent hours shoveling out a parking spot. 

At first, I couldn’t really understand what the fuss was about. Is street parking not free and open to the public? But I slowly realized that the concept of space savers isn’t about parking. It’s about the labor that went into claiming a parking spot. It’s about earning your keep.

Now, some people may argue that this discourages the community. In fact, Boston Southie residents felt the violence that came with the fights over space savers wasn’t respectful and courteous. While this is true, I can empathize with both sides. I guess my lack of opinion reinforces the fact that I’m not a native Bostonian. 

In fact, as someone experiencing their first true snowstorm on the East Coast, I realized I would never have known the proper etiquette had I needed to park on the streets. And I definitely would not have known to use a space saver during the day. Thank goodness, or else I’d have to shovel another spot for myself. And I don’t even own a shovel.