What with the snow, things have been getting kinda crazy with people saving parking spaces: in much of Boston, there’s a tradition of people ‘holding’ spaces they’ve shoveled out by placing something like a lawn chair in the spot. Fair enough, since shoveling is hard work–it is frustrating to shovel out a spot only to have someone else zip in and take it. This storm, however, some people decided to ‘reserve’ spots before they had done any shoveling. That’s a dick move, by the way.
This leads us to Commandante Atrios of Philadelphia, where apparently they have the same tradition:
South Philly “rules” dictate that if you shovel out a parking spot you get to claim it for… oh, who knows how long, by sticking a cone or a chair in the spot. I’m tempted to clean out a spot and stick a cone there even though I don’t have a car.
If someone decides to do that this winter, let me know how it works out…
mikethemadbiologist
The same thing is done in Chicago, and it’s led to beatings and shootings at times due to someone “ignoring” the plastic lawn chair put out to save a spot.
Drive a really small car, and only shovel out enough for that. Or shovel into an unshoveled “reserved” space.
In Chicago it’s called “dibs.” It’s so rampant the Dept. of Streets and Sanitation has to announce that it’s not legal and items left in the street are subject to disposal.
I do remember hearing a hip hop song with the line, “I’ve got dibs on the shit you put outside to call ‘dibs.'”