Anti-dibs campaign is snowballing!

[Ed Zotti]

I can't help it, I think this pun is priceless. Supporters of all that is good and right in the world will be happy to know that Tribune columnist Eric Zorn has read the Master's proposal (http://chicago.straightdope.com/sdc20110203.php#proposal) to stem the evil tide of dibsiness (that is, putting a chair on the street after a snowstorm to claim the parking spot you just shoveled out) and, knowing a first-class idea when he sees one, has written about it on his blog (http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/02/a-proposal-and-an-action-plan-in-the-dibs-peace-talks.html). Chair-Free Chicago (http://www.chairfreechicago.org/), meanwhile, has organized a community clear-the-street demonstration project in Bridgeport, which is underway as I write. The Teeming Millions are invited to contribute thoughts and hopefully a little muscle of their own. More later.

[djelliott]

My first, personal, Chicago blizzard was 1978-79.
My thought was, where did all those UGLY chairs come from? What else is lurking in Chicago basements?

[SeaDragonTattoo]

So many people are just barely able to dig themselves out. I don't blame them for claiming a space they worked so hard on, and just can't risk having to shovel out another spot. Like my friend with the broken foot, for example. She was able to dig out her spot, barely, with much throbbing and needing to put it up the rest of the day. She dibbed her spot in Edgewater this morning to go to work. She just can't risk having to shovel again. (not that she isn't perfectly aware someone could still take it, but why not reduce the chance if possible?) She sure as hell isn't going to help other people dig spots, too.

The community thing is a lovely idea, I just don't see it happening in a densely populated street full of apartments like mine in Roger's Park, or my old place in Lakeview. Parking in these neighborhoods is already difficult and people are often parked a block or more from their home. A street of houses, where there's already a community watch or something in place, where neighbors might actually talk to each other more and actually park in front of their home most of the time, maybe.

Though I guess my opinion doesn't really count as I don't have a car - this is one of the many reasons why! So I don't have a dog in this fight. I find it highly amusing.

[kev3inp]

It's been a number of years since I've had to deal with dibs, but this is my take. "I shoveled it out, it's mine." I had neighbors (loosely termed, there) in the apartment building across the street who didn't feel like shoveling out their driveway to put their car in the garage. Instead they threw my barricade onto the lawn and parked there. My response was to put all the snow back where I removed it and wet it down so it wouldn't blow away.

[The Tao's Revenge]

It's been a number of years since I've had to deal with dibs, but this is my take. "I shoveled it out, it's mine." I had neighbors (loosely termed, there) in the apartment building across the street who didn't feel like shoveling out their driveway to put their car in the garage. Instead they threw my barricade onto the lawn and parked there. My response was to put all the snow back where I removed it and wet it down so it wouldn't blow away.

And this is where the antidibs campaign can run into trouble. If a car takes your spot you know which car to take your vengeance on.

[Beware of Doug]

So many people are just barely able to dig themselves out. I don't blame them for claiming a space they worked so hard on, and just can't risk having to shovel out another spot. Like my friend with the broken foot, for example. She was able to dig out her spot, barely, with much throbbing and needing to put it up the rest of the day. She dibbed her spot in Edgewater this morning to go to work. She just can't risk having to shovel again. (not that she isn't perfectly aware someone could still take it, but why not reduce the chance if possible?) She sure as hell isn't going to help other people dig spots, too.Your friend is an exception. Most of the people doing this are surely able-bodied males capable of not only shoveling spots, but packing in offending cars with snow/ice and worse.

Dibs is a great way to make your life a little easier and throw the world the finger at the same time. That has to appeal to a lot of people in a tense urban environment.

[elmwood]

I wonder how the dibs tradition started in Chicago and Philadelphia. You don't pull that shit in Buffalo. Snow clearing is seen as a community project where you help your neighbors; it's not an every-man-for-himself affair.

Also, Buffalo has alternate side parking. The city essentially clears on-street parking spaces that will open up at 6:00 PM the following flip day. After the flip, the plows will then return to clear the rest of the street. Alternate side parking is one of the few things the city does right, IMHO.

[qazwart]

I spent two hours shoveling my wife's car out.

The guys across the street have been parking in the dug out space for two straight weeks. They didn't dig out their side of the street, and because they parked there when the snow plow came by, the plow ended up dumping a ton of snow into our driveway, and our section of the street isn't cleared out.

I feel for the anti-dibs campaign, but I know what I'd like to do with the neighbor's car.

[pseudotriton ruber ruber]

I park on a private lot in NYC, where my neighbor (two floors up) parked in the spot (that I lease, mind you--it's not "first come, first serve") which I shoveled myself out of, leaving me with no spot to park and nothing to do until he came down and moved his car, after security went to his apt. and knocked on his door. And he took his sweet time coming downstairs, too. And no apology.

We haven;t spoken since then, just glared at each other in the elevator. That was around 2003.

[Tim R. Mortiss]

I spent two hours shoveling my wife's car out.

The guys across the street have been parking in the dug out space for two straight weeks. They didn't dig out their side of the street, and because they parked there when the snow plow came by, the plow ended up dumping a ton of snow into our driveway, and our section of the street isn't cleared out.

I feel for the anti-dibs campaign, but I know what I'd like to do with the neighbor's car.

Huh? Two weeks? The blizzard was less than one week ago. I don't get it.

I'd assume you were talking about some episode from the olden days, but you wrote this in the present tense. :confused::confused::confused:

[pulykamell]

nm

[BigT]

Your friend is an exception. Most of the people doing this are surely able-bodied males capable of not only shoveling spots, but packing in offending cars with snow/ice and worse.

Dibs is a great way to make your life a little easier and throw the world the finger at the same time. That has to appeal to a lot of people in a tense urban environment.

And anti-dibs is a great way to way to enshrine laziness. Whether you see it as wrong or not, you are not doing work that someone else is doing.

I just don't see how it's mean for everyone to clear out their own space, rather than some people clearing it, and some people not.

And, anyways, antidibbers cause just as much upset by removing the barriers and forcing someone to do it twice, both your shoveling and theirs.

[Tim R. Mortiss]

The dibs system is unsustainable, from a systems viewpoint. Street parking in a crowded neighborhood only works because not everyone is there at the same time. N cars share M spaces, where N > M. The fact that each car only uses a space some fraction F of the time means that only NxF spaces are needed, on average. As long as NxF < M, the system works. (I'm ignoring variabilities, time-dependencies, and autocorrelations here for simplicity's sake, but the principle is the same.)

When some Dibster reserves a spot for his own round-the-clock usage, he throws the entire equation out of whack, thus spoiling things for everyone.

[The Tao's Revenge]

The dibs system is unsustainable, from a systems viewpoint. Street parking in a crowded neighborhood only works because not everyone is there at the same time. N cars share M spaces, where N > M. The fact that each car only uses a space some fraction F of the time means that only NxF spaces are needed, on average. As long as NxF < M, the system works. (I'm ignoring variabilities, time-dependencies, and autocorrelations here for simplicity's sake, but the principle is the same.)

When some Dibster reserves a spot for his own round-the-clock usage, he throws the entire equation out of whack, thus spoiling things for everyone.

Don't most people sleep at night? Usually they stop driving for that. Seems like there's certain times of day where most cars are parked therefore they'd hit limit that way.

[Eva Luna]

And anti-dibs is a great way to way to enshrine laziness. Whether you see it as wrong or not, you are not doing work that someone else is doing.

I just don't see how it's mean for everyone to clear out their own space, rather than some people clearing it, and some people not.

And, anyways, antidibbers cause just as much upset by removing the barriers and forcing someone to do it twice, both your shoveling and theirs.

You're assuming that antidibbers never shovel. On what are you basing that? If I shovel out my own spot and leave, even temporarily, my car has to go somewhere.

I just got this downright civilized message from my ward office - relevant excerpt below:

"...instead of creating a 'dibs" space, why not get together with your neighbors and organize a shoveling party to clear the whole block’s curbside parking? This will also help with the drainage when the snow and ice melts. "

[roberth]

The anti-Dibs folks are just another example of elitist snobs taking over this city. This is the city of big shoulders people!! If my big shoulders shovel out a parking spot, claim dibs, and you take that spot, my big shoulders will bring down a wrath upon your car the likes of which you'd never imagine.

[pulykamell]

The anti-Dibs folks are just another example of elitist snobs taking over this city. This is the city of big shoulders people!! If my big shoulders shovel out a parking spot, claim dibs, and you take that spot, my big shoulders will bring down a wrath upon your car the likes of which you'd never imagine.

Nah, people who take dibs are just jerks (except perhaps in extreme circumstances like this blizzard.) It's embarrassing. The people of Buffalo (as mentioned up thread) have significantly bigger snowfalls than us, come from a similar working class background, and yet can act like civilized human beings, shovel their damned snow, and not resort to the crass dibs system.

I personally shoveled out three spaces in front of my house after the snowfall--no dibs --and left for several days. It was interesting to note on my block how many neighbors actually claimed dibs. I would say it was maybe 50%, so apparently, I'm not the only "elitist snob" in my neighborhood.

Like I said, I'm willing to grant a temporary exemption (2 days) for huge snowfalls like the one we just had. But when people start claiming dibs after a mere four inches or snow? Come on. It makes our neighborhoods look trashy.

[enalzi]

I don't drive so I don't have a dog in this fight, but I will say that my neighborhood looks like crap right now with all the random junk used to call dibs. It looks like a garbage truck drove down the road throwing trash everywhere. The worst is the people who when they get the spot back just throw their chair onto the snow pile next to it.

[EvilTOJ]

I'm so glad I don't live in a city full of self entitled people like that. If I did I'd end up driving over furniture constantly.

[pulykamell]

I think I ought to do a photo essay on the strange crap people put out to reserve their spot. Among the odder things I saw today: an upright vacuum cleaner and one of those red Ryder-type wagons. Saw some relatively decent looking barstools last night, that I was tempted to take....

[Ed Zotti]

Low incidence of dibs on my street just now. Just one instance - two camp chairs with a board between them. Possibly that's because parking is relatively plentiful at the moment, maybe seven or eight spots. It'd be interesting to investigate the sociology of dibs, and see what percentage of people claiming spots actually shoveled them out.

[pulykamell]

Low incidence of dibs on my street just now. Just one instance - two camp chairs with a board between them. Possibly that's because parking is relatively plentiful at the moment, maybe seven or eight spots. It'd be interesting to investigate the sociology of dibs, and see what percentage of people claiming spots actually shoveled them out.

Today, my block is pretty good as well--only saw two dibbed spots on the whole block in my slice of the Southwest Side. And one of those spots is the jerk who puts a cone up in front of his house through March or April, because he did 45 minutes of work back in January (I'm only very slightly exaggerating.) One block up, or one block over, it's a completely different story. Looks like a Swap-o-Rama out there.

Even at its height, though, as I mentioned, I doubt it was even 50% on this particular block.

[BBee]

This whole Chicago snow removal process is quite fascinating. This is my first Chicago winter. When I heard a blizzard was coming, I automatically assumed people would clear their parking space in the morning & maintain the sidewalk right-of-way in front of their residence or business. Every northerner knows that you move snow after the big fall when it is easy to scoop and not iced down. It's not like you can go anywhere after a blizzard anyway - so you might as well shovel a bit when the shoveling's good.

I did this with my space. I shoveled because I thought I might be fined by the city for not removing snow from the space. (Silly me.) As I was shoveling I was astounded how people shoveled the minimum to get out of the space & just left the rest to freeze rock hard. WTF? The alarm sounded in my head and I made the decision right then and there that I would NOT be moving my vehicle from this space until a significant snow thaw. (The lack of 4-wheel drive also helped solidify the decision.) It's the bicycle or public transit - yee haw. And as I began riding the bicycle through the neighborhood I came upon the snow chair dibs phenomenon. The first thing I thought was how bold. The second thing I thought was - gee I need a chair. The third thing I thought was I can't do that on my affordable apartment building block cuz people need chairs.

[suranyi]

I wish I could remember how they did it in Montreal when I lived there. Montreal gets way more snow than Chicago on average and there were no "dibs" there. I vaguely remember than the city snowplows managed to clear the parking lanes, so there was no reason for anybody to call dibs on spaces -- the parking spaces along the side of the street were not individually shovelled.

[Eva Luna]

I think I'm in love with my alderman. The e-mail I just received from the ward office:

"Dear 33rd Ward Resident,

Two years ago, I wrote:

"Anyone one has the right to park in any open and otherwise unrestricted curbside parking place on Chicago’s streets. No one has the right to reserve parking by placing any manner of impediment on the public way unless they are permitted by the City of Chicago to do so.

Since the 1930s, many vehicle owners in the nation’s snow-prone cities of the North have dug out their cars, cleared the space and then placed some type of marker in it to discourage anyone from using the parking place they feel they have earned through the sweat of their brow. Woe be it unto anyone that removes the marker and parks his or her vehicle there! Documented damages to transgressing vehicles have run the gamut from scratched paint to slashed tires, broken headlights and smashed windshields ... However, a disturbing trend has been observed regarding this practice. It has been reported to our office that many parking markers are being put out prior to snowfalls, during snowfalls of little consequence and remain out long after a particular snowfall has melted. Also, there are many more vehicles per dwelling unit than there were a decade ago and this alarming trend seems to be increasing. Parking spots are scarce enough without this unwarranted and burdensome imposition."

While it was obvious that we had a special circumstance during the blizzard, this is, in most blocks of our 33rd Ward, no longer the case. I am asking every resident in the 33rd Ward to stop this practice and remove every "dibs" marker. I personally observed an entire block very near our offices where every single space was "dibbed" even though there was very little snow left on the pavement. Over the next few days we will experience warmer temperatures and cleansing rains.

I expect to see no dibs markers on the streets by the end of the week. Shortly thereafter, I will ask the community to help remove any that remain.

Please send pictures of any egregious violations along with the location addresses to stopdibs@33rdward.org

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Sincerely yours,

Alderman Richard F. Mell"

[Ed Zotti]

Dick Mell is a classic Chicago character.

[Eva Luna]

Dick Mell is a classic Chicago character.

As I'm beginning to gather; I've only lived in the ward for the past year. I may not end up seeing eye to eye with him on everything, but I sure do on this issue! Streets are for the WHOLE public, even if I have a private parking spot and so generally don't have a dog in this fight.

[Ed Zotti]

Mell in many respects is an old-school ward boss - voted with the Vrdolyak 29, stood on his desk in city council and shouted to be recognized in the chaos following Harold Washington's death, has issues with tamale vendors, etc. On the other hand, he famously said this (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-050427mell,0,1779831.story).

[Eva Luna]

Blissfully, I was in college out of state for most of that insanity (and my family was in Evanston anyway). So this whole 33rd Ward politics thing is a new and educational experience.

[pulykamell]

Blissfully, I was in college out of state for most of that insanity (and my family was in Evanston anyway). So this whole 33rd Ward politics thing is a new and educational experience.

Yeah, him and Ed Burke (my alderman, 14th ward) are pretty much the two most powerful alderman on the City Council, definitely coming from the old-school Chicago Machine tradition. (And, just as an aside, in case you don't know, Dick Mell's other daughter is Patty Blagojevich.) I should email Ed and see if he'll follow Dick's footsteps on this issue.

[Rusalka]

Dibs won't work if random pedestrians remove the illegal garbage from the street. Putting aside the illegality of vandalism, it's not fair to punish people who park in the dibs spot. For all you know they don't know anything about dibs. Maybe they've lived in Chicago all their lives and never agreed to this "system". All you dibs supporters, did you invite all your neighbors over to discuss these "rules"? Why do a few individuals get to break the littering law and set up the standards?

Dibs is simply an excuse to reserve parking in spots where parking is hard to find on a good day. You don't find a lot of dibs garbage in the streets where parking isn't tight in the first place.