I hate dibs. However, my whole street is dibbed out (even healthy able bodied neighbors) so there is little that I can or want to do. It's tolerated. On the other hand, if someone was visiting us and the only spot available had lawn chairs...well the chairs would be in the garbage. That street is public and paid for by our many transaction and property taxes.
"The Straight Dope Chicago" writes the comprehensive and timely primer on dibs in Chicago. Read it here and draw your own conclusions.
5 comments:
It seems like "dibs" has become a hot-button issue since Snowmageddon 2011. In normal circumstances, I also dislike the "dibs" practice. But, I also understand the agony felt by those who spend hours shoveling out a spot, only to lose it to random strangers.
Dibs has been a hot button issue since cars.
so do they have 4 cars or do they rent their garage for extra income?
Eric,
On the other hand, I witnessed neighbors who cleaned the alley (with the help of snow blowers, but also by hand), called on neighbors and just spent a lot of time meeting each other and talking.
I understand your frustration with Dibs. You need your car.
I also understand but don't approve of dibs. People worked very hard to clear the street.
I don't use dibs anymore. I nearly got into a fight when a neighbor announced she had dibs on my dibs because "I was just a tenant."
A homeowner for years now, I still don't participate in a system that is flawed with as you go rules.
Of the dibs on the street, the ones I try to watch for are those of elderly neighbors and people I know have a hard time getting around. We need some system to respect their spots.
The rest of us can dig out the street. If we can do it with 21", we can do it with other snowfalls too.
Pat, that's just the point. The right thing to do is help an elderly or impaired neighbor. Otherwise, there is ZERO rational for saving a public street parking spot. The funny thing is, our street always has tons of parking for guests and neigbors.
Actually, I don't NEED my car everyday. Even on most showings I can take the train and walk. My wife too. (with the kids though, we made sure we could access a car).
We actually MOVED my wife's car from the front of our house (where she parks EVERY DAY), to the garage so we'd make more room for parking before the storm.
Many neighbors on the block shoveled out the entire alley by nightfall on Wednesday so we could get in and out of the garage. We met several neighbors because of this like you mention.
So what happens? Some able bodied person who's car we've never seen parks in front of our house then puts chairs down for dibs... whatever. I tossed the chairs a couple times so they'd get the hint we did not appreciate looking at their garbage. I suspect they own in the condo buildings at the end of our block.
There is no dibs. You either live in this society and do what you can to help the situation, or you think you have a "right" to the public way because it snowed and you are intimidating people from their rights to park.
I can't go along to get along here. I wold have loved to help shovel out several spots out front, but not to see long time "hoarders" on the street that own a garage save the spots for themselves. It's basically intimidation and I detest it.
I'll have a post tomorrow from a Lincoln Park street that has all townhomes and single family houses. There were NO dibs anywhere because everyone has a parking spot and uses it. They probably don't tolerate this behavior either.
Folks here have a two car garage but still claim spots on the public way. Terrible behavior.
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