Dear City of Boston...

Fuck you.

You tried to take away my car twice in two days. Both times I had to defend it.

First you have the gall to give me a $75 ticket prior to towing my car to a lot that costs $120 cash to get the car out of that jail, on the outskirts of Somerville, replete with barking dogs, lack of public transport, and generic film noir feel.

Towing my car from a designated resident parking spot that you'd decided OVERNIGHT should become "special event no-parking zone" in order to defend Fenway Park from crazed crowds slated to descend upon it should the Red Sox win Game 4 of the World Series.

What resident in their right mind removes their cars from a street that at midnight on Saturday was normal parking, and by 5 pm on Sunday had become a tow zone? Most people in my neighborhood don't move their cars until Mon am, when they have to go to work.

Fortunately for you, Boston, and for me, I was the last car in the street you tried to tow, and the tow operator was a total sweetheart and relented to my crying pleas after me running after the truck for a good block, and let me have the car back.

Then, dear City of Boston, I re-parked in front of my building, which I assumed was safe from the war zone that post-game was slated to become.

Oh, how wrong I was.

You see, in 2004 I did not HAVE a car, so the rioting that was so ugly everywhere else in the neighborhood only resulted in some broken bottles and pee on the steps of the brownstone we lived in at the time. So of course, I was totes naive about the whole "celebration" as it might affect my life.

I watched the news coverage, and tried to stay calm. For all my not really giving a shit about the Red Sox, it was pleasant to feel the city so proud of its team, and even watching the game on the tee-vee was kind of fun. Then I saw a crowd gathering literally a couple of buildings down from me (on the news) and went outside to check on the car.

Just in time to see this:














(images courtesy of News Channel 5 website - I did not have my camera at 1:30 am while outside in my jammies)

Or rather, the truck being in the process of being overturned. You can't see my car - it's three spots away from the truck, behind the camera in the picture on the left.

Imagine a huge crowd (2000 strong, by all estimates,) heaped like ants around multiple vehicles (that red MINI next to the truck? totaled as well) and surging around them, looking for release.

Now imagine at least 100 cops in full riot gear, pushing the crowd towards LK and I, sprawled on the hood of the Saab, and people running away from the cops over the hoods and roofs of parked cars. At least 9 other vehicles that I saw in the morning had serious damage on them - dented roofs, hoods, shattered windscreens. We got lucky again. Because we were there to protect the car, nobody jumped on it, or tried to flip it.

At one point I called 9-1-1, and the dispatcher replied to my anguished cries of "they are going to destroy my car, and there is nothing I can do about it!" - "well, dear, we are doing all we can. you can thank the college students for this. why don't you speak to an officer on the scene?"

The closest officer to me at that point was 50 yards away, on the OTHER side of the psycho/drunk crowd. When the riot-gear-outfitted line finally reached the Saab, and I agitatedly explained to an officer what I was doing, he was at least kind enough to escort us to the door of the building, protecting US from both the crowd and other cops (who kept trying to get US to "disperse")

Now, dear City of Boston, did you really think it was a good idea to contain a "celebratory" crowd on a street corner between two gas stations? And then push it into a residential area with potential property damage, instead of into the empty street to the right you so carefully emptied of cars at 5 pm?

Shame on you, the City of Boston.

And I am not paying your ticket.