That’s a picture of a trash can purportedly being used as space saver for a parking spot in front of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s Dorchester home. MassLive reporter Garrett Quinn tweeted the photo to more than 10,000 followers Monday afternoon, receiving more than 25 retweets and a handful of comments.

Indeed, a power move. Such a power move in fact, State House News reporter Gintautas Dumcius – who originally dubbed the space saver a power move – decided to let his 5,366 followers know that he knows about the trash can by cc-ing the mayor on a retweet of Quinn’s photo.

So wait, does Mayor Walsh use a space saver? “No, the Mayor uses his driveway,” Gabrielle Farrell, a spokesperson for the mayor, wrote in an email to BostInno, adding: “and I believe the tweet was later clarified by the account holder.”

Sure enough, Quinn, to his credit, did in fact clarify the language accompanying his original photo of the space saver, tweeting:


(Which subsequently changes the way one would interpret Dumcius’s “power move” tweet.)

Is this an instance of careless reporting? Of course it’s not; it’s a joke. So why reach out to Mayor Walsh’s office about the photo? Well, space savers are contentious subjects in Boston.

When Winter Storm Juno – the blizzard that started this never-ending fiasco of winter storms – hit at the end of January, dumping more than two feet of snow on Boston, the mayor addressed the controversial space-saving tradition. “Let me just say this about space savers: Neighbors in Boston should treat each other with respect,” Mayor Walsh said during one of the first of many snow-related press conferences. “This [space savers] gets blown out of proportion every year.”

And this is what the mayor had to say about the topic at his Monday morning press conference:

Yes, Bostonians love to complain about space savers. But considering the limited amount of parking spaces available in the city, and the effort it takes to shovel out the snow that fills them, it’s easy to see why.

Quinn never tweeted that the trash can was the mayor’s parking saver. But at first glance, the tweet(s) could certainly appear to suggest that.

So considering that two prominent Boston reporters – who combined have roughly 15,600 Twitter followers – posted about the space saver in a way that could suggest to some, myself included, that it belonged to Mayor Walsh, it feels appropriate to note that a) the space saver isn’t his (and the person who put it there is quite brave); b) no one ever said it was the mayor’s in the first place; and c) things like this tend to get a little lost in translation on Twitter – sometimes.

He parks in his driveway.
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