If you want to reserve a spot in the public right of way you should rent it from the city. Problem solved. You rent the house/apt you live in. I can’t store my personal belongings in any other public space why is the street any different.

This process creates a shortage of parking spots for the time when the space isn’t actually occupied. This is precisely why business want short term meters in front of their buildings so people don’t reserve a spot all day long. Turnover of parking spots means that at any given time there might be a space for your car.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/11/claiming_a_spot_before_shoveling_thats_not_southie/

After all, they live there, right? They deserve a reserved space year round! It’s their right as Americans!

Correct; I just walk to work in my elitist fashion. Sounds like you are having a tough time dealing with the realities of your car. I’m sorry it isn’t all it was made out to be, but seems rather silly for everyone else to lose public space just because you are having a hard time. I don’t expect everyone to buy my winter boots because the City doesn’t plow the sidewalks; why should I pay for their car storage?

“Or maybe I will keep them…”

Hilarious. I’m picturing you leaving the chair in the backseat so when they return to “their” spot, they see their parking chair in your car. Can’t stop laughing over that one.

I dug out a public parking spot in order to get my car out. Since I left that space behind, unmarked, available to everyone else, I am now clearly entitled to all other public parking spaces that have been dug out by others. I haven’t broken the law, and neither should anyone else. If I see chairs in the road, I will toss them out of the way. Or maybe I will keep them… I followed the law and so should others.

And for the record, I damn well did live in an area where I had to shovel out, leave, and find a parking spot later. Sometimes I ended up parking a block or two from home and walking. I didn’t like it, I saved up and moved to a place where I had off street parking, I didn’t vandalize other people’s cars or otherwise break the law because I had an entitlement complex and somehow felt I didn’t have to pay taxes for snow removal, but somehow still deserved a space on the public street right in front of my apartment. All the rationalization in the world doesn’t change the fact that it’s illegal to claim a space on the public road and illegal to vandalize other people’s property. Jerks do it because it’s too hard to think about the future and actually try to solve the problem long term by getting the city government (who work for them after all) to change their snow removal strategy.

One person’s “equity and order maintained at low cost.” is another person’s “Whoever is willing to be an asshole wins.” I’m not willing to break the law by blocking a public road or vandalizing someone’s car, so I would “lose” in that environment. Nobody should be suffer for obeying the law while those who break it get rewarded, it’s just wrong.

From my point of view, the municipality has abandoned its property right by piling snow into parking areas and it can no longer be considered a “public road” until the snow is removed. If some private person clears it out and creates a space where there was none before, usually because they have to go to work, they ought to be able to use the spot when they get home until the snow is gone.

And in my town, 275 years old and laid out well before people were concerned about cars or even wagons it sometimes seems, most of the people who park on street don’t have driveways because they can’t afford them. This anti-dibbing seems to come from elitists who don’t need to park on street and haven’t had to dig their car out after a visit from the plows and then dig another one when they get home after a hard day’s work. You’ll get little sympathy from me if you get keyed or flatted when you steal a space. That’s how equity and order are maintained at low cost.

But, if you have a driveway, why do you need to clear a spot on the road… *head explodes*

Anyway, I totally get why people feel like they “own” a space after having to clear it off to park there, but you can’t call dibs on a section of a public road, you just can’t. If someone takes a space you feel is “Yours” you have no legal recourse, and if you do something stupid like vandalize their car, you should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

If there is insufficient parking on your street, and you can’t handle that fact, then you need to do something in your own life to change that. Figure out if your property could accommodate an off street parking spot, move to someplace where you have off street parking, whatever. The world does not owe you free, convenient parking, if you want it, you have to arrange to have it, legally.

(now if someone parks in your driveway, on your property, that’s a whole different kettle of fish.)