<p>The age old debate rages again. You spend a couple back-breaking hours digging out your plowed in car from a parking spot in front of your house. Do you get “dibs” on that spot for a few days thereafter? I say yes.</p>
<p>Chicago is the capitol of this practice. They take it a step further though, and put out ‘furntiture’ in their spot after they’ve cleared it (think old broken-down coffee table, folding chair, etc). I think it’s awful.</p>
<p>I look at shoveling as a pay it forward kind of thing. Once I get my car out and have to go somewhere else and park it, I’m sure hoping someone has shoveled out a spot so I can park wherever I’m going to.</p>
<p>Namby pamby jackwagon stuff. Most places people are going are either work, school or shopping and all of those have people paid to clear the snow.</p>
<p>Real issue. The city can’t clear street parking spots when cars are there. No wonder house hunters in cities such as Chicago need to consider parking options when buying a house, as do renters. Would you move someone’s space saver to use the space? What if you are just visiting for a few minutes? You can’t double park on those narrow streets, or risk a ticket… I don’t envy those in the situation. It’s bad enough to pick up kid from his college apt where there is no legal place to street park in front of his building- we stay with the car, or take someone’s spot or the driveway and hope no one wants it for the time it takes to load/unload.</p>
<p>Though it’s not legal, in Chicago, you get “dibs” on a space you shoveled out. As another poster mentioned, you might put out some furniture to claim your space, e.g., a couple of old chairs with a broomstick stretched across them. It violates the law of custom to take someone else’s space or to move the furniture. It’s also risky as people have been known to hose down the violator’s car, in which case it will be available in the Spring.</p>
hmm … in South Boston you certainly can take someone’s space with a space saver … however, I’d be sure to have a spare because the odds are pretty good that either your tires will be slashed or your car will be keyed … in that neighborhood there is an ongoing fight between the residents (saving spots) and the town (removing the junk in the spaces). In the neighborhood I lived in when I moved to Boston it was more of the “pay it forward” approach … dig out a spot and use a different one when you return home.</p>
<p>I had never considered this issue. Yet another reason to live on my 102 acres and plow my own lane and park where I want.</p>
<p>Hmmm, I see both sides. How long does it typically take to shovel out a car? I guess I vote with the space savers. What if you do all that work, and have a baby in tow? Or groceries, etc.? Paying it forward hopes that the number of spaces and parkers are equal, and all the timing is perfect. Won’t happen…</p>
<p>In a residential neighborhood, I believe in space savers. I live near Chicago, and get a kick out the “street art” while driving by. If someone is coming to the neighborhood, the resident should put in the time to make sure a guest has a space.</p>
<p>My first time seeing this was also in Chicago after on of the big blizzards. If it’s only a few inches nobody bothers. Most of Madison had alternate side of the street parking in winter so the plows could clean each side of the street nice and smooth but you better have your car out or you might not see it again until Spring–or at the impound. That killed the space saver idea as within a day or so both sides were cleared out.</p>
<p>This has been a huge issue in Boston in the past. The “rule of thumb” was if you shoveled the space out, it was yours… but for how long? Several days at least. People used all sorts of things - garbage cans and lawn chairs seemed to be the most popular - to “save” their shoveled spaces.</p>
<p>Finally I believe the city passed a law - shoveled spaces can only be saved for 48 hours after a storm. After 48 hours the city sends the sanitation workers out to collect anything left in a parking space that is not a car. I kind of hope they send armed guards with these poor sanitation workers, because space-saving is a time-honored tradition in Boston.</p>
<p>There was even a joke about 15 years ago: before Bob Kraft built Gillette Stadium for the Patriots on the same site in Foxboro as their previous stadium, he wanted to build a new stadium in South Boston. The neighborhood and city said no. One newspaper columnist said that Kraft could have saved a lot of time and money if he had just gone to the site where he wanted to build the stadium (which included a large parking lot), shoveled it out after a big snowstorm and set a lawn chair there. The site would have been his to do with as he saw fit! :D</p>
<p>Lafalum, that was a hoot! Nothing like this* ever *happens in my neck of the woods! We leave a very boring life here in the PNW, no shoveling dramas! “I’m gonna put, like a vegetable bucket in my spot. My roomamte has a vegetable bucket…” The morale of this story: do not be too quick to dispose of your broken lawn chairs and empty cardboard boxes! You might need them next winter if a snow storm hits.</p>
<p>I think a brightly colored biohazard box, typically found in biology reserch labs, would work great as a shoveled parking space saver! ;)</p>
<p>In Boston it is illegal to shovel the snow around your car out into the street. And you are not allowed to clean the snow from on top of the car onto the street,either. And you are not allowed to shovel snow from the sidewalks out into the street either. So pretty much all you can do is pile the snow on the curb, making sure you leave the sidewalk clear enough for pedestrians to get by, because you are also legally required to clear the sidewalks on your property. I think the tickets can range from $50-$200.</p>
<p>It’s a huge PITA when there is a lot of snow (Boston just got 12+ inches, in my town we got around 18"), so you better believe people take parking space “ownership” seriously.</p>
<p>The city is supposed to clean up the junk saving your space after 48 hours, but I don’t think they rigorously enforce this.</p>
<p>I hate when I have to go into residential neighborhoods of Boston after a big snowstorm. Doesn’t matter if I think it is OK for the shoveler to reserve the space or not. If I parked in a reserved space I would fully expect to find my car keyed, tire flat or some other damage done to my car.</p>
![http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buffalo_snow_storm17.jpg]File:Buffalo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buffalo_snow_storm17.jpg%5DFile:Buffalo){kind=link}
