Winter parking BS. (Chicago: to buy, school, living)

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by Drover

Ah, the annual "dibs" thread. BTW, this isn't just a Chicago thing. It happens in a lot of densely populated cities (or the densely populated sections thereof) in the Snow Belt.

I can respect dibs for a couple days if you actually dug yourself out of a spot. What I can't respect is:

1) Indefinite dibs
2) Claiming dibs after pulling out of a spot without actually lifting a finger to clear it.
3) Dibs with 6" or less of snow that isn't deep enough to significantly impede parking
4) Dibs on a spot someone else shoveled out.

Good points. What gets me are those who think that "dibs" lasts all winter, and when people put out their lawn chairs for meaningless amounts of snow. It doesn't take THAT long to shovel out a car...

[Jesse69]

I'm very lucky I don't run into a dibs problem. My block where I live - one side is houses and the other side is a hospital. So the house side is Permit Parking while the other side of the street is free for all. There is more than enough parking for all of us so we don't even have to reserve spots. In fact, today I woke up and found out that the hospital snow plowers plowed out the snow directly in front of my car and minivan! What a treat!

[nikitakolata]

Originally Posted by MassVt

Good points. What gets me are those who think that "dibs" lasts all winter, and when people put out their lawn chairs for meaningless amounts of snow. It doesn't take THAT long to shovel out a car...

I agree.

This whole thread makes me happy I don't live in Chicago anymore. I find the whole dibs thing ridiculous. If any one of my neighbors had ever asked for my husband or I to help them shovel out their car we would have done it, no problem (and for free). We almost always shoveled several of our neighbor's sidewalks when we were in Chicago and we still do that now. The difference where we are now is that people actually reciprocate. I don't see why people have to be so ridiculous about shoveling snow.

[baileyvpotter]

Originally Posted by rvernsey

I love you class warfare guys. Obama has taught you well. The only reason I mentioned luxury car is that I know that the same class warfare idiots live all up and down my street and will undoubtedly do more damage to my car because it's nicer than theirs. Repairs and deductibles are also expensive and if I had unlimited funds I'd be living somewhere else. By no means did I imply anywhere that my car should get a spot because it's nicer than others. My car should get a spot because I paid for my zone parking sticker just like everyone else and every day when I come home from work there is a spot, until now.

Placing blame on Obama about dibs is absolutely ridiculous. And I'm sure that other residents on that
street also PAY for their stickers no matter what type of car they drive.

[rvernsey]

Originally Posted by baileyvpotter

Placing blame on Obama about dibs is absolutely ridiculous. And I'm sure that other residents on that
street also PAY for their stickers no matter what type of car they drive.

The reference was clearly about class warfare not dibs. And yes, everyone has a city sticker and is entitled to a free spot when there is one available, regardless of the car that they drive. They are not entitled to saving a spot and a half right in front of their house for the entire time that there is snow on the ground.

[SubconsciousMe]

I see all this dibs stuff in my neighborhood of Pilsen. Lordie, I'm so glad I ditched my truck the first weekend of December. It sold in 2 days and I haven't looked back. So much less stress.

[Attrill]

Parking in any truly urban area that gets snow is a major pain, with or without dibs. If you think Chicago is bad try Boston - more snow, narrower streets, and dibs like no one in Chicago would ever believe.

You basically have the following options:

- Spend awhile finding a parking space and then walk a long distance to your car (and stop whining).
- Fork out the cash for paid parking (as others have noted, every neighborhood has paid parking if you look for it).
- Leave your car snowed in and use public transit and/or cabs.

Even without dibs I don't think the parking situation would improve much. Dibs just creates this false sense that you could park somewhere if crap wasn't in the space, but most of the time someone else would have parked there before you if there wasn't crap in the space. Parking on my street is usually very easy, with plenty of spaces available. In the ten years I've lived on the street I've never seen anyone claim dibs. Even without dibs it is now very hard to find parking on our street. The biggest problem is people filling parking spaces with snow, we've lost about a quarter of the parking on our street to that. Even if you try to dig out one of those spaces today it's nearly impossible. I spent about 45 minutes pounding on a giant pile of ice with a Pulaski axe today trying to help my neighbor make a new space. We ended up giving up, because we would have been up until 2 AM trying to break up that ice.

Originally Posted by rvernsey

It has everything to do with class warfare. You play down the class warfare followed up by some textbook class warfare sentences. .

It has nothing to do with class warfare. It has everything to do with you starting a thread talking about your "luxury car in a less than luxury area" while also talking about trying to save money. It makes you look like you have really screwed up priorities and are financially clueless, and feeling entitled even.

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by MassVt

Good points. What gets me are those who think that "dibs" lasts all winter, and when people put out their lawn chairs for meaningless amounts of snow. It doesn't take THAT long to shovel out a car...

You remind me of the old days when i did park on the side street. It was one of the very snowy winters. Well, people were saving spaces when the snow was really high.. But when the snow melted to a few inches on the street, people still put their stupid chairs and **** to save their spot. I mean come on now, this was getting ridiculous.

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

I still believe actual keying and other property damage incidents are pretty rare. I'd love to see stats...

I wouldn't take the chance that some asswipe will do it. Therefore, I always rent an apartment with a parking space. No worries and I also dont have to worry about snow plows burying my car. its worth the money for sure.

[rvernsey]

UPDATE: I completely over-reacted and while there was plenty of junk in the road, there were spots available as usual even getting home from work at 9:20 PM. Plenty of them full of snow, which is fine with me I jammed my car into one and walked 2.5 blocks. Yesterday must have been an anomaly due to how few people had to go into work or something.