It's customary for Chicagoans who have had to shovel their own cars free to reserve that on-the-street spot with a chair. (Or a baby stroller, a crate, a bucket of rocks, etc.) It's also against the law, as legally, street parking belongs to any and everyone. The law is seldom enforced, but that may be changing.
Ald. Dick Mell (ironically enough, the estranged father-in-law of Governor Blagojevich) has emailed his constituents that they
must stop doing this. Only the city can reserve a parking space. He doesn't like junk in the streets, and shovelling a spot doesn't make it yours.
Huh? What? Of course it does!
I didn't realize that this was a uniquely Chicago custom, that snowy side streets in Minneapolis and Portland aren't dotted with lawn chairs, dining room chairs, the occasional ginormous imitation/unbreakable Oriental vase, etc. But I think it's fair. If you were out there at dawn to liberate your car, why shouldn't get to park there again when you get home in the evening?
I don't drive so my opinion has been instilled more by a sense of fairness than experience. I welcome the outsider's opinion. If you shovelled your own car free, do you think you deserve to claim that spot as your own?
For I just caught sight of myself and I look like a fat pigeon. I think it's partly because it's a mock turtleneck and I look astonishingly neckless. I also think it's because I could stand to lose a pound or two (or twenty).
