Jose Anes Weblog

Boston is a unique city. Full of charm. It is not that big, with less than a million residents within its city borders, and no more than a handful million of residents within commuting distance. It has everything you may want to find, without the big city feeling of New York. You get the arts, entertainment, dining and wining, shopping, business, jobs, and everything in between. Some of the most famous colleges and universities are here, and most of those highly educated, elevated IQ people stay in the area. All in all is one of the smartest, highest-earning, best dressed, and most importantly most polite cities in America.
Yet, there is one thing that I can’t comprehend: why Bostonians are so aggressive on the road, especially at parking their cars: or Paak the caaah like they call it in their Boston accent.
Today I was about to Paak my Caaah in one of Boston’s streets, just in front of the establishment I was about to patronize. A young, white, well dressed lady (as in expensive) just got out of the establishment, entered her brand new Audi. I saw an opportunity to grab this coveted parking spot. Then, without any respect for her parking-mate she backs up into the car parked right behind her and BAM!! She pushed the car behind her just enough to make some space, turn her wheels and get out of there. There was even plenty of space to make an elegant exit had she tried to move back and forth a few times, which can suggest that maybe she did it out of laziness or lack of respect of other’s property.
If this was the first time I noticed this behavior, I would have thought it was a mistake – maybe she didn’t noticed – I would have thought. But the truth is I have seen this animal-like behavior very often in Boston; way too often. People show no respect for other’s cars. They do bump into each other to make space to Paak their own Caaahs. You would not expect such behavior from an otherwise highly civilized elite group of Bostonia dwellers the same way you would not expect civilized people to sit on other people’s cars hoods or trunks. You would expect people to avoid these kinds of “intentional accidents” that in my opinion are intentional acts of vandalism. I once asked a Boston living friend what she thought about this city phenomena and she told me that was the reason they put bumpers into cars, so that they can bump each other (completely ignoring the fact that my car doesn’t have any visible bumpers and that scratching front or rear could set me back $400 USD).
Needless to say, I just abandoned that prime parking spot and drove around the city (adding about half an hour) to find a safe parking spot in an almost empty residential street that will surely suffer the same obscene behavior from its residents when they return from work tonight. I hope to be out of here by then. Of course, that also required interpreting and decoding the multiple parking and no parking signs that created a set of rules that almost no-one could comprehend – hopefully they do not tow it from there.
I am not sure why these people behave like this. On the road, and especially at the parking spot they are just the opposite of what they appear to be when you talk to them. Behind the wheel, they become savages. I wish I could understand them some day. Until then, I guess I will have to keep being very careful with my parking spots.