hey, that's my space
I've heard Chicago, Cicero, and Berwyn are the only cities in the US where people guard their parking spots with old chairs and stuff. It's a practice not found in any other American community.
Friday, December 01, 2006
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2 comments:
Yes, but there are rules for this.
1) It's only acceptable to put "dibs" on a parking space in an area where you customarily can park directly in front of your house; "dibs" is unacceptable as a way to reserve a parking space in congested neighborhoods;
2) You have to use old kitchen chairs, buckets and a broom, or other ugly items to save the space; fancy orange cones are unacceptable;
3) You have to have spent a substantial amount of time digging out your car from the space before you can claim "dibs"; a half-hearted effort does not count;
4) If someone violates "dibs," you can take limited retaliation, but cannot do anything that causes permanent damage; pouring water on the locks (to ice them) is OK, keying the offending car is not;
5) "Dibs" are only effective as long as there is at least 2"+ of snow cover; "dibs" stops on the third day of above-freezing temperature.
I'm sure there are more rules, and some are probably even more neighborhood specific. But it's a great custom in Chicago's bungalow belt, but not so great in gentrifying areas with a lot of non-natives.
If people are going to reserve sections of public property for exclusive private use, they should be forced to compensate the public for that privledge.
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