Saving parking spots during snowstorms

Street parking is public. No one owns, or can legally squat a spot. Take it. If your car gets keyed, wait till the next storm, find out who shovels the spot and thus keyed your car, and give it right back to them. Anyone who thinks they can claim something paid for and maintained by the general public is wrong.

I live in the Great White North and have never experienced this sort of thing. Mind you, I've never had to park every day on downtown streets after a snowstorm.

The thing about big unusual storms is they throw a snowball into regular behaviour (pun intended), and people adopt new temporary rules and behaviours, some good and some not so good, that regular rules (laws) don't necessarily contemplate.

To me, respecting that someone else shovelled out the spot seems a reasonable thing to do in this kind of situation. And if it's an accepted, although unwritten, rule, I wouldn't tempt fate and mess with it.

wrong flagpole. just because you lucked out and had a parked spot before the storm rolled in doesn't mean you have a right to that spot until the snow melts.

theres a fine line. I almost moved a box to park in a 'claimed' spot until i realized the box was for baby diapers, and I felt karma would bite me in the a$$ if I made a poor parent lug their carseat a good ways to get inside.

but suck it up, shovel out your car. then all's fair game.

Mrs. M wrote:

Go right ahead - I hope you enjoy having your car keyed.

I'd welcome someone who's house I directly can locate who keys my car. Say hello to a molotov through your window.

and for the record, there's a reason why it is illegal.

also, its getting carried away. people did this in jersey as well, claiming spots before a flake fell.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/11/claiming_a_spot_before_shoveling_thats_not_southie/

tennis players are HOT wrote:

wrong flagpole. just because you lucked out and had a parked spot before the storm rolled in doesn't mean you have a right to that spot until the snow melts.

theres a fine line. I almost moved a box to park in a 'claimed' spot until i realized the box was for baby diapers, and I felt karma would bite me in the a$$ if I made a poor parent lug their carseat a good ways to get inside.

but suck it up, shovel out your car. then all's fair game.

Like I said, there's nothing LEGALLY keeping you from taking that spot, but plain old goodness and taking what is deserved or not should come into play in any decision. Look to our Canadian Neighbor Pete for the appropriate response here. He's right on...if this this is the norm for the circumstance (and I submit that it is) then don't mess with it. Even if YOU also shoveled out your car and someone then took YOUR spot, YOU will be seen as someone who got something they didn't deserve. If I were in that situation (I WAS back in the 90s), I would NOT take a spot someone had claimed. Also, since I have the strength of 10 men, I also would not (and did not) reserve a spot I had dug out. I can park far away, or if the weather is so bad that that's not possible, I'll find another way into work or find a way to work from home. There are solutions out there. No need to make someone mad. There needs to be more love in this world, and taking someone's spot (even if you wouldn't reserve a spot for yourself) is just going against the love.

Vote for Pete and love.

agreed for the most part on that statement, flagpole. BUT its public parking. shovel your car out, then all is fair game. you can't drive to work and reserve your spot for when you get home. if you just dug it out and had to make a quick trip to the grocery store, maybe.

but people take the norm and run away with it.

and plus, it should all even out. If everyone digs out their car to begin with, its just parking as usual.

tennis players are HOT wrote:

and plus, it should all even out. If everyone digs out their car to begin with, its just parking as usual.

This is correct. I live in Chicago. Parking is awful here. People do this to save convenient parking spots. The snow is simply an excuse. If it's only a matter of convenience I should be able to go dig out any buried car I please and 'reserve' my parking spot for when that car leaves. I don't live in a particularly crowded area of the city, but still very parking spot in a 6 block radius around my apt is full every night. There's a spot for every car that leaves. If that isn't the case, what should the people who were at work during the storm do? Park at the airport? Take it to the impound?

Plus it's PUBLIC parking. Any weakling that can't handle that concept should pay for a reserved parking space, move to cancun, take the train or not move their car.

I love when people defend this behavior. It shouldn't take anyone posting on this site more than 20 min at most to shovel a car out of 2 feet of snow.

So the old folks and the fat folks don't have cars to shovel out? Those people are a blink away from a heart attack anyway, and they should have to dig their car out and dig a new space(s) if some schmuck takes theirs? Not cool....

Mrs. M wrote:

So the old folks and the fat folks don't have cars to shovel out? Those people are a blink away from a heart attack anyway, and they should have to dig their car out and dig a new space(s) if some schmuck takes theirs? Not cool....

Where do you live? This is not a matter of life and death for most people doing this.

If you can't shovel a car out...don't put yourself in that situation. It snows in Chicago and Boston. This is not a secret. You know that when you choose to live here. If shoveling a car is life threatening, then get a handicap sticker with a reserved space, sacrifice apartment luxury for a parking space, etc. And the cost of living in densely congested areas of a big city is tremendous. If you've got the income to live in a neighborhood where this happens, you can easily afford the somewhere with fewer people.

Mrs. M wrote:

So the old folks and the fat folks don't have cars to shovel out? Those people are a blink away from a heart attack anyway, and they should have to dig their car out and dig a new space(s) if some schmuck takes theirs? Not cool....

Plus, there are literally 0 parking spots overnight in my neighborhood and many others in Chicago. If a car is parking in your 'reserved' spot that means they also dug theirs out, so there is a cleared spot waiting. People are not doing this to avoid digging out 2 spaces.

And if there isn't an open spot that means that there are fewer parking spots than cars. Tell me what the person who didn't have a spot before the storm is supposed to do.

Icebox

Neighborhood justice can be swift -- like in Squirrel Hill, where someone cleared a spot on Hobart Street and left a chair, but the chair was later moved and another car parked there. That car somehow became buried in snow, and a sign left at the scene said, "Now yinz know not to break the rules."

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/weather/22514683/detail.html#

remain calm wrote: Tell me what the person who didn't have a spot before the storm is supposed to do.

Tell me where the person who didn't have a spot was during the storm? Driving around in the blizzard? Why wouldn't you have a spot somewhere already? If you parked your car in the garage at work, as the OP did, leave it there - it may be a bit of a hassle to use public transportation or walk from the office to home til the snow melts, but OP could have also planned ahead, and parked his car outside his building if he knew he'd need his car to be close to home.

And are you telling me that there are no people with health concerns who need to dig their car out themselves in wintry cities? Like the old and the fat avoid places like Boston & Chicago because they'd have to shovel?

Mrs. M wrote:

remain calm wrote: Tell me what the person who didn't have a spot before the storm is supposed to do.

Tell me where the person who didn't have a spot was during the storm? Driving around in the blizzard? Why wouldn't you have a spot somewhere already?

EXACTLY. Anyone driving around and looking for street parking has already cleared a spot. So you can't even lose your shoveled spot it has simply moved. In fact, I will bet you $10,000 you can not obtain footage of someone digging out an unoccupied parking spot within 1/3 mile of my apartment before April. This issue is not a matter of people having to dig out 2 parking spaces.

Or else that person came from work or another lot. If that is the case, please answer my quesion. What should they do with their car?

Of course there are people that need special exceptions and I would honor that if I knew such a person had dug out a spot. These circumstances are why there are public services such as reserved handicap spaces and extremely cheap transit fares. You are also free to pay for a garage or alley spot. You could also to take the bus, taxis or train if you can't physically dig out your car.

Again, where do you live and where do you park your car?

Yes, they either shouldn't be that fat or shouldn't be driving if they're that old.

Mrs. M wrote:

So the old folks and the fat folks don't have cars to shovel out? Those people are a blink away from a heart attack anyway, and they should have to dig their car out and dig a new space(s) if some schmuck takes theirs? Not cool....

This entire debate is a pretty good example of exactly why there are no laws about this, despite the common desire for people to act decent and civil. Weather is chaotic, so is street parking and people's schedules and behavior. All of this means this "tradition" or these reasonable acts of courtesy in the otherwise crime free neighborhood of South Boston is completely unmanageable and any law would be unenforceable.

A shoveled space is not a work of art or some honored creation to be respected by all. The valuable commodity is the space itself, it's in demand at peak times and it is obtained on a first come first serve basis, end of story. Your place in line, your seat on a subway, the list goes on. "Savesees" and "calling it" may live on in with 12- year-olds, but it doesn't cut it with civilized adults.

I know why the "traditionalists" in South Boston do this...to generalize they are hardworking, salt of the earth people, who hate change but they are also a little ignorant and very intolerant of outsiders they find threatening. By the way, when the snow melts, car theft, vandalism, break-ins and violence run high in this neighborhood despite all these people supposedly looking out for each other. I am wondering why other people agree with them? I think all the posters talking about keying cars or worse is mostly a bunch of big man talk, but it definitly brings the LetsRun population to a new low for me and I have to go back to my original advice, if you live in one of these neighborhoods, time to move.

Mrs. M wrote:

If you parked your car in the garage at work, as the OP did, leave it there - it may be a bit of a hassle to use public transportation or walk from the office to home til the snow melts, but OP could have also planned ahead, and parked his car outside his building if he knew he'd need his car to be close to home.

Just checking back on this thread. I did plan ahead but it is now 3-4 days after the last flake fell and as of tomorrow I need to use my car. My neighbor marked their spot today (according to my roommate) and I expect that they will do so again tomorrow if they move their car since there is still a ton of snow.

If their car is gone when I get back from errands (with groceries, skis, and other things I'd rather not carry several blocks) then their spot is mine since every spot close currently has a car or is "reserved".

Good for you.