Boston loves to gripe about parking—and with good reason. According to a new analysis from The Boston Globe, more than 60,000 complaints about illegally parked cars were filed through the city’s 311 system in the past year, making it Boston’s number one civic frustration. That’s triple the calls for street cleaning, the second-biggest headache.
Nowhere is the pain more acute than the Seaport, where a short strip of Congress and Summer streets has become ground zero for parking misery. More than 1,000 complaints were logged last year for this section alone. The area, once a desolate stretch of asphalt, has morphed into a hive of luxury condos, buzzy restaurants, boutiques and construction cranes. What it doesn’t have is enough legal parking spots.
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Drivers say the rules feel stacked against them. One Seaport worker told the Globe he expects to get at least two tickets a year. “You go one minute over time and you get a ticket,” he said, adding that daily rates in nearby lots are sky-high—more than $40 at the Seaport South Garage. Another worker griped that he's been ticketed in the short time it takes to walk over to pay the meter.
City officials insist they aren’t out to trap residents. Nick Gove, Boston’s deputy chief of streets, said, “It is not our intent to issue a violation for somebody who was trying to comply.” Appeals can be filed online, though tickets—ranging from $15 to $120—pile up fast.
Hotspots for complaints aren’t limited to the Seaport. The Globe’s data analysis flagged dense corners of South Boston near Thomas Park and the South End–Bay Village border, where commuters battle residents for limited curb space.
Still, the Seaport reigns supreme as Boston’s parking complaint capital—a neighborhood where drivers risk tickets at every turn, garages charge a premium and frustration boils over into the city’s complaint hotline, one illegally parked car at a time.