It’s official: Securing a winter parking space outside your house can be hazardous to your health

In “Mending Wall,” Robert Frost’s much-quoted poem published in 1914, this quintessentially flinty New Englander famously declares: “Good fences make good neighbors.”

Being a born and bred Medfordite, I’m in complete sympathy with Frost’s poetic caveat. But I’d like to go a step further on the subject of neighborliness.

Back in the early decades of the 20th century, a sturdy physical border — which in rural Ripton, Vt., where Frost lived while teaching at Middlebury College, meant a labor-intensive stone wall — might indeed have guaranteed cordial relations between adjacent householders.

In these car-infested times, however, a good fence or wall isn’t nearly enough.
To avoid simmering long-term hostilities, parking rights — allocated fairly and equally — should be the first item on any armistice agreement between combative suburban neighbors. In the snowy months of January and February, this becomes downright essential to any sort of peaceful coexistence.

As a random tour around any tightly-settled Boston area neighborhood will reveal, “space savers” are often used to reserve post-snowfall spots. These are usually traffic cones or trash barrels, though sometimes more exotic items are employed, such as rusting beach chairs, old ironing boards, or random pieces of expendable furniture.

The presumption here is that if you’ve expended sweat and tears hefting shovel loads of wet heavy snow in order to create a snug resting place for your car near to your house, then you are entitled to that vacancy. And the placement of some random junk from your garage or basement should signal that.

It’s also a given that only divine intervention will spare anyone who transgresses this unwritten rule, which, I think we can all agree, should be officially enacted by the Massachusetts Legislature as their next order of business.

As with any other valuable asset, homeowners can become quite protective of these hard-earned spots, often going above and beyond a normal space-holder. For instance, according to a February 2022 report in the Boston Globe: “Jack Hanney, a South Boston resident, told a local TV reporter that he was saving a space with paint cans that were ‘booby trapped’ and would cover anyone who tried to move them in paint.”

Summing up his case, Hanney was unyielding. “This is not easy. This is work,” he suggested.

And he’s right.

According to the National Safety Council: “With really big snow storms — and even everyday, run-of-the-mill snowfalls — comes a risk of death by shoveling. Nationwide, snow shoveling is responsible for thousands of injuries and as many as 100 deaths each year.”

Of course, if Mr. Hanney had wanted to lighten the mood around Southie, he might have placed a full door frame in his cleared parking space, topped by an open can of paint, to discourage any vehicular interlopers. Such a display might have also served to brighten an otherwise sad and soiled post-snowstorm Boston streetscape.

I’m lucky that no such exertions are necessary to find parking in our suburban Dublin cul-de-sac. Since our son flew the coop two years ago, we’re a single car household. Being close to the equivalent of an Irish T stop and a reliable bus route made this move a no-brainer for me and my wife.

We also have an accommodating driveway, which was part of the original house design and didn’t require an unsightly repurposing of our already narrow front yard from a small lawn and tasteful flower beds to total hardtop. This is a necessary move with many houses around Dublin, whose tiny front yards were never intended to fit a car.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t have cause to grumble. It amazes me when certain people (you know who they are) insist on ignoring the niceties of neighborhood life — whether it’s a lack of concern for their cluttered front and side yards, a disinclination to pick up dog waste deposited by their resident canine, or indeed the implications of their sloppy and inconsiderate parking.

Of course it isn’t just bad parking, executed by blinkered souls, that so irks me. The problem goes deeper. These same people are entitled to vote and some hold positions of influence and authority in our communities. When you see their parking ineptitude and arrogance, which no doubt seeps into other areas of their lives, it’s no wonder young people are so disillusioned.

So yes, Robert Frost was right: “Good fences make good neighbors.” But until adjacent householders are assured of reasonable parking rights, I’m afraid we’re no closer to a just and honorable society.

Now if you’ll excuse me, some idiot has just abandoned his car across our driveway.

Medford native Steve Coronella has lived in Ireland since 1992. He is the author of “Designing Dev,” a comic novel about an Irish-American lad from Boston who's recruited to run for the Irish presidency. His latest publication is the column collection “Entering Medford – And Other Destinations.”