Common Courtesies:

• You should always shovel out in front of your house.  Clean off your stoop and the sidewalk area directly in front of your home.  Spread ice melt if the area is slippery.  Put your snow in neat piles near a tree or street corner.  If you own your home, it’s not only a courtesy but also the law, and you can be fined for not shoveling. Shovel out in front of your house before you attempt to shovel out your car.
• When shoveling out your car, form neat piles on the sidewalk (see above courtesy) in a common area or at the intersection in the giant pile that slowly forming. Don’t throw your discarded snow onto someone else’s car or home or onto the shoveled sidewalks.  After you have successfully shoveled out your car and cleared off a section of the street – you can put out a space saver for 48 hours after a snow emergency has been lifted.  Don’t throw your snow in a bus stop or onto city streets or bury a hydrant. That’s not allowed.
• Speaking of hydrants, with snow covering the ground in the neighborhood, the city is looking for good citizens to step up and shovel the hydrants in your neighborhood. Currently the responsibility lies with the Boston Fire Department but it’s nice to be nice so help out Boston’s bravest.  When volunteers pitch in, it helps uncover the hydrants more quickly and ultimately making the neighborhood safer!
• If you live near the elderly, do the right thing and shovel out their sidewalk/stoop.  If everyone on your block joined together and shoveled their sidewalk, just think how neat and clear it would be for pedestrians.  Lord knows we don’t need pedestrians walking on city streets when there isn’t a clear path.  It’s difficult enough maneuvering a car with all the snow piles so you don’t need to contend with pedestrians with no other option but to walk in the street.
• Be respectful of your neighbors’ spot savers.  If someone put in the hard work to clear out their parking spot, they deserve to keep it for 48 hours after the snow emergency has been lifted.
• If the 48 hours are up, give up the spot saver.  We all have been guilty of this – hanging on to prime real estate of our own personal parking spot, but fair is fair, and usually the 48 hours is a good gauge of how long we need to “own” our spot.  Kindly remove your space savers after 48 hours.
• Make an effort to shovel out your car.  We must admit how annoying it is to see a car encased in a catacomb of snow and ice long after the snow has stopped falling.  A week after a storm, and no effort to shovel out your car, and that’s just rude.  Why on earth do you have a car in the first place if you don’t need it?  You are taking up valuable parking spots in a neighborhood with a severely unbalanced car-to-parking ratio.  It’s kinda lazy, and it gives off the impression that you don’t care about your property or your neighborhood.
• Get to know your neighbors.  While you are out shoveling, why not introduce yourself or offer a smile – everyone likes a smile.  If you are walking to the coffee shop to get a cup of coffee, ask your neighbor if they would like one.  Better yet, surprise them with one.  Be a good neighbor, and your neighbor will usually reciprocate.  Just think, if you are friendly to them, they might be less likely to steal your spot and more likely to shovel your sidewalk.

The key elements of being a good neighbor are politeness and respect for those around you.  Keep that in mind this winter, and you’ll have a happy, peaceful neighborhood.