Winter parking BS. (Chicago, Lincoln, Lincolnwood: 2014, apartments, rent)

[Drover]

I heard a streets and san rep admonish against putting stuff in the street because it makes it more difficult for the plows to navigate. Why? Just plow the crap off the street. If the street is otherwise clear enough to plow to the curb, the dibbers won't need it any more anyway.

[Pantless1]

Does owning a "luxury car" entitle you to take someone's spot? All it really does is make you sound like a self important d-bag who has a "luxury car" but is too lazy/cheap to find an off street parking space for his precious BMLexcedes.

I'll freely admit to calling dibbs on my damn spot. I have a RWD car, a bad back, and I spent nearly 90 min shoveling the spot so I can get in and out of it. I'll be damned if I'm going to do that again. You're lucky you still have a windshield.

[NARFALICIOUS]

Originally Posted by rvernsey

There aren't enough spots for the cars, period.

Bull. If there weren't enough spots, people would be parking in the middle of the street.

[LeotheOrangeCat]

Dibs was a contentious point in the 2011 snow. IIRC the city said it would remove the furniture, etc. that had been placed to save parking spaces. I don't recall if they ever actually did.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Pantless1

Does owning a "luxury car" entitle you to take someone's spot? All it really does is make you sound like a self important d-bag who has a "luxury car" but is too lazy/cheap to find an off street parking space for his precious BMLexcedes.

I'll freely admit to calling dibbs on my damn spot. I have a RWD car, a bad back, and I spent nearly 90 min shoveling the spot so I can get in and out of it. I'll be damned if I'm going to do that again. You're lucky you still have a windshield.

Here's the flipside of the coin: the fact that you bought a vehicle that is particularly unsuited for the regional climate isn't anyone else's problem but yours. If your back is that bad, get a handicap spot or pay the neighborhood kids a few bucks to shovel you out.

[Pantless1]

Originally Posted by Drover

Here's the flipside of the coin: the fact that you bought a vehicle that is particularly unsuited for the regional climate isn't anyone else's problem but yours. If your back is that bad, get a handicap spot or pay the neighborhood kids a few bucks to shovel you out.

A Crown Vic unsuitable? I bought it because it was cheap... good enough for the cops and cab companies to drive for a long time in this same climate. Back ain't bad enough for a handicapped spot, but its bad enough where after digging my car out of a spot it hurts like a MF for a day or so.

[long101]

Originally Posted by RogersParkGuy

That person probably spent an hour or more out in the cold digging out that parking space. Who are you to snatch it from him after he did all the work? That's how it has worked in Chicago for generations, my friend. If you cannot respect that, leave.

Frankly, you're lucky it wasn't me. If it had been, I wouldn't have come out and said a word. I would have let you walk away, put on my coat, gotten out my sledge hammer, and smashed it through your windshield. Then, I would have walked away. I would have done this in full view of my neighbors, and you no what? Not one of them would have have ratted on me.

Really? A bit excessive isn't it? If you were home, then why wasn't your car parked in 'your' spot?

I'm all about staking claim to spots that you shoveled, for 48ish hours after a big fall. All of these people that throw a few buckets on the street and think they deserve a spot are worse then the OP

[Chi-town Native]

I love the idea anyone actually spends an hour shoveling out their car. Few of them shovel the spaces out beyond a meager effort, putting in maybe 10 or 15 minutes at most. The vast, vast majority of these "dibs" spaces are homeowners who feel they are entitled to the parking space right in front of their house.

Most in my neighborhood have garages they use for storage!

But at the end of the day, this is a numbers game problem, and one of myopic vision. Dibs reduces the amount of parking spaces in circulation, period. Therefore, tradition or not, it needs to go.

[baileyvpotter]

Originally Posted by RogersParkGuy

That person probably spent an hour or more out in the cold digging out that parking space. Who are you to snatch it from him after he did all the work? That's how it has worked in Chicago for generations, my friend. If you cannot respect that, leave.

Originally Posted by NARFALICIOUS

Noobs to Chicago:

- There are always parking spots in the city. It all depends on how far your lazy asz is willing to walk to your parked car or how early you are willing to wake up to move the car from a metered spot.

- Your luxury car may need some luxury loving at the body shop after you park in the wrong person's spot. This is your fair warning. Don't say nobody ever warned you.

- Paid parking spots exist in most neighborhoods. You're not looking hard enough if you can't find them. Look in nearby apartment complexes or condos, there are usually 1 or 2 paper postings in the main lobby of people renting out their parking space. Look on Craigslist, several dozen. Make friends with neighbors, maybe someone has an empty garage and are looking for a way to make an extra 50-100 bucks a month.

- The CTA exists for a reason.

- Some traditions suck, deal with it.

I would never suggest doing damage to someone's car or a person (there could be consequences). If the OP
can afford a luxury car then they can also afford to pay for parking or for someone to shovel a spot.

"That's the Chicago Way." (Sean Connery from the Untouchables).

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Pantless1

A Crown Vic unsuitable? I bought it because it was cheap... good enough for the cops and cab companies to drive for a long time in this same climate. Back ain't bad enough for a handicapped spot, but its bad enough where after digging my car out of a spot it hurts like a MF for a day or so.

Yes, a Crown Vic is unsuited for the local climate as you're presently finding out and also using as an excuse to defend your behavior. Municipal and cab fleets bought them because they were cheap and durable, not because they're suitable for regional conditions. Just two nights ago I watched a Lincolnwood squad car get sideways. Couldn't have been doing much more than 30mph. There's a reason why I haven't owned a RWD car for the better part of two decades* even though I hate the driving dynamics of FWD.

At any rate, you have to cop to the irony of calling someone a self-entited d-bag while in the next paragraph defending an inherently self-serving practice that impedes others from using a public resource.

* ETA: I take that back, I had a RWD Porsche a few years ago, but it spent December to April in storage. Which is one reason why I ultimately unloaded it.