It has nothing to do with laziness. Did you not read what Parker wrote? When it gets bad, you are literally carving parking spots out of snow drifts. On a good summer day, a residential street with parking will probably have 1, maybe 2, out of about 20 spots open. Add in a bunch of snow, suddenly there are no spots due to people not leaving and frozen snow banks taking up extra feet. So this is isn't parking an extra 20 feet away, this is parking 4,5,6 blocks away on top of having to take 30+ min to shovel/carve it out. I don't have a real opinion on dibs, the only "eligible" street I lived on had alot of in and out traffic each day, so spots all stayed pretty clean so it wasn't a big deal, but I get it. That was the only good trade off. The street was permit only, and despite this, there were RARELY any open spots anyways. People were definitely gaming the system. I would never put a chair out there, but I've also seen people idle/chill in their cars waiting for someone in a shoveled spot to leave instead of pulling into a spot with a bit of snow on the ground. People are opportunistic vultures and it makes me a bit more sympathetic to the people that try to fuck said savages over. Again, its not laziness. Its not trying to fuck up your work day before it begins, worse than the weather already has. My sister has a designated parking space and it still took her upwards of 3 hours to free her car the other day. Snowplows will wreck your life.
I would think if you choose to shovel out a space, and then may not get to park in that space later, that that just comes with living somewhere like that. If you don't get it later, then you've just done a nice deed for someone who does get it. Be satisfied with your altruism. And, if you live in a large city, can't you just take the subway / L / metro instead of shoveling for an hour and a half?
Dibs chairs are fucking stupid, and if we had them here I'd make a hobby of flinging them into the boulevard with my truck plow. One thing I've noticed is in areas where people use dibs chairs, No one has a decent snow shovel. They're using shit like this... Spoiler ...to dig 3 feet of snow from their car, and not surprisingly, it takes them two fucking hours to get the job done. Let me introduce you to a scoop shovel: Spoiler They come in aluminum or plastic, and if you're coordinated and somewhat physically fit, you can dig your car out of deep snow in under a half hour. I was in Baltimore for "snowmageddon" or whatever overly-dramatic name they gave it, and my friend and I drove around charging people $50 to dig their cars out. We'd pull out the scoop shovels and have them dug out in 15 minutes, and people acted like it was some sort of sorcery.
I still fail to see what makes that scenario so special compared to other cities where it snows. Again, I live in Minneapolis where it can snow enough to bury the already cramped block (and of course the street is three feet narrower on each side due to the snowbank too) but that whole potentially having to walk a few blocks and spend time cleaning off your car thing just seems to be part of life here. I know it really sucks because I've done it, and it keeps me grateful for the off-street parking I have now, but I don't see that as a reason to be selfish in that situation. You dig yourself out and go help your neighbor if you can too. The general culture at a private venue like that would be like a city passing an ordinance that allows calling dibs on parking spots. Or maybe that is an established rule at PGA tournaments, I dunno. Keep one of those and a push broom with the handle cut short in the trunk of your car (among things that are smart to have when you know it may snow) and you're set.
And then you know what happens? They die. Snow is a bitch. They cancelled the Men's Super G race in Vail / Beaver Creek today because - wait for it - too much snow.
I've always thought "dibs chairs" were bullshit. If you're living in a cold weather city with street parking, that associated hassle is part of the deal. If you do not wish to have contested parking, I might recommend either not living in the middle of the city, or seeking out a residence that has parking spots. Otherwise, fuck right off. You don't own part of the street just because the weather sucks.
I also find it funny that digging out a single parking space as a big deal. Try digging out a laneway that can hold ten cars and then you can bitch. I'm sorry but I find it very hard to feel sorry for these people. You chose to live where you live, lie in the bed you make.
Be satisfied with your altruism? Thats hilarious. And a lot of those people are headed to jobs in the burbs, outer reaches, etc.. where the EL isn't an option. Chicago has more public transit options than Milwaukee for example, and is more dense then say Columbus or Cleveland, but its still very much a driving city for many things. I never knew that it was strictly a Chicago thing. I thought maybe it would be a population density/driving frequency combo compared to other cities that get plenty of snow. Other Midwestern cities aren't as dense or a city like NYC there is just much less driving. As for Minneapolis, you guys get 50-60% more snow a year, so maybe its more of a constant expectation thing? Chicago, empirically, gets 2-3 big snows a year and thats when this stuff pops out. Its not like chairs are sitting out there from November to March.
It's not strictly a Chicago thing, it happens in a lot of cities that get snow. Living in areas that experience snowfall sometimes means you'll have to shovel. Living in a city with street parking that experience snow means that sometimes you'll have to dig your car out of a space that's not yours to come back to. If you don't build these expectations into how you live and work, you might consider taking the short bus instead of driving.
Also, saying "Don't live in a city then" is fucking retarded. And all of you who have thought that and typed that know that to be true. So let's get that out the way. Is it stupid? Yes. It is necessary sometimes? Yes. Have I done it? No. My parents had a garage, but I can understand why people do it. It's not as simple as the "it's stupid" crowd thinks it is. It's one thing if it is just fallen snow. It's another when it gets compacted by the snow plow salt trucks that put it up against your car creating a non-fluffy snow embankment sealing your car in. People just don't have time for that shit here. Part of the deal is shoveling your spot out then putting out chairs. People aren't trying to constantly shovel out snow when they're dressed to go downtown. People don't have time for that shit in the big city, scoop shovel or otherwise. EDIT: Just like Jwags said, this shit doesn't happen frequently enough for everyone to be on standby for it. Maybe 2-3 times a year. Don't think it happened in Chicago last year at all. Anyway, this is inane conversation about the validity of dibs chairs. Don't park in a spot you haven't shoveled out and don't get your car keyed. End of story. What we should be talking about is how no one should fucking ever fly an Asian Airline ever again.
Bullshit. Its not digging out another space thats the problem, its not finding a space whatsoever. Half the parking spots in Boston are covered in snow mounds from the plows right now. It took me almost 3 hours to shovel out my car in the last week, so yeah, I get preference for that spot. The city allows you to do it for about 72 hours, after that its fair game. And if I could take public transportation instead of having to drive to almost everywhere, I wouldnt touch my car until Spring like my fiance does.
End of story?! WTF? If we can't argue on the internet, then what exactly is the point of the internet? Sheesh. For me, I didn't mean "don't live in a city then." I just mean, if you choose to (or have to) live in places where having to shovel your spot happens, you should accept that's part of the deal. There are several people it seems who live in exactly the conditions you describe that are saying dibs chairs are stupid. I just have a different view, I guess. If had to dig out my car, I would probably also lend a neighbor a hand to do the same, and I would accept the consequences that my space might be gone when I got back 10 hours later. If somebody parks in your shoveled spot, you get to key their car? One is some kind of unspoken courtesy being broken, I guess and the other is a crime. Hey man, don't look at my girl funny, and I won't shoot you in the face. We cool, brah? Yankees are weird. Edit: Well, now wait a minute: I didn't know it was actually a law. I thought it was just "a thing" - I will agree to shut the fuck up, then.
Remember half this board is Canadian (so it seems), so this is like telling us snow happens to be cold too. That's what forecasts are for. Again, I don't see what makes these other urban areas so special when we don't do the chair thing here. I don't live in the suburbs either, we've got crowded densely populated areas too. Granted not as much as your Chicagos and New Yorks, but they're there. Well then if it's law, it's the law. That's a differentiator.
Well Minnesota has a bit more space. Also, Canadians are just better at snow than Chicagoans. I was going to mention this earlier but didn't. Chicago is a top 3 city. People move in and out of this city who haven't experienced snow like this before, so they protect themselves from ass-hattery and the people who lived here protect themselves from ass-hattery. It's one thing if everyone is Canadian (or Minnesotan!) and has experienced a ton of snow their whole life. The whole "I'll help you, you help me" makes sense. It's not that people here are all assholes (most of the time they are) it's just that thought process isn't ingrained when it comes to heaping piles of snow. My gf turned 29 and this is her second winter ever, she grew up in LA. She's 5'2 125. It's going to take her a minute to shovel 5 times her weight in snow regardless of her shovel and definitely is thinking how to defend her space. Also, people got shit to do in the big city. We can't spend and hour shoveling a new spot every 8 hours. Life is slower for you non-city living yokels, your cows, guns and sister-wives aren't going anywhere.
Not to fall back on stereotypes or anything, but aren't mid-westerners usually more friendly than your average person from the northeast? Again, just using Philadelphia as an example, but I don't see someone from South Philly, who just spent an hour before work shoveling out their car, willing to lend a helping hand to neighbor. I've heard stories of people from Northeast Philly smearing poop under the door handle of someone's car who took their shoveled out spot. When I lived in my first apartment (in the 'burbs), I got stuck in the alley to my driveway. I remember counting at least 5 people that walked passed me, seeing me trying to dig out the ice around my tires, and not offering to help. Also, at the same apartment, my upstairs neighbor threatened to have me evicted because he thought i was shoveling snow and throwing it behind his car, when in reality I was moving it to the other side of the alley. Snow removal is a very touchy subject around these parts.
In a lot of neighborhoods in Boston, that is how you get your legs broken. Dibs is not to be triffled with, regardless of how dumb you think it is. It's not even a weather thing all the time. Sometimes it's just that the spot "belongs" to a guy named Sully who has been to jail twice, or that it is reserved for Sully's grandmother. Best not to move that lawn chair, no matter how free of a country you think it is.
The mid-west refers to all those nice places not called Chicago, they mean all the nice white folk from the small towns. Chicagoans are still nicer than those dicks in LA and New York, but not nice overall.
In some neighborhoods you'll get a gun pulled on you. Charlestown is not that crazy, thankfully. South Boston is though. But after 3 or 4 days, your spot saver is getting tossed aside.
I just like to think the winter storms tend to bring our neighbors together rather than get selfish here. Sure there's some assholes but it isn't uncommon to see people helping each other out with snow. We're in it together. Well I just learned it's allowed by law in Boston, so that's a different story now. However if it weren't the law, come at me bro.
Actually it is that easy as don't live there then. If you don't like the conditions move. I live in the rainiest, cloudiest, least sunshine town in Canada. I complain about it sometimes, but if I don't like it, it is easy as moving.