# Should you be able to reserve your show-shoveled-out parking spot? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 13, 2006, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-be-able-to-reserve-your-show-shoveled-out-parking-spot/344264 "2006-02-13T12:30:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-be-able-to-reserve-your-show-shoveled-out-parking-spot/344264/21 "2006-02-14T13:19:40Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > this reserved space thing generally occurs in neighborhoods that have a big traditional Mafia connection going on. That’s interesting, actually. While I don’t actually do the thing with “reserving” my space with chairs and things, I’ve been known to rant that the space in front of your house should, by law, be YOURS, in good weather or bad, and if your house is just too small to allow more than one carlength, too freakin’ bad. I hate trying to find a parking space around here after 6PM. I mean, I know it’s NOT yours by law. But it should be. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-be-able-to-reserve-your-show-shoveled-out-parking-spot/344264/22 "2006-02-14T13:20:48Z")
And, of course, the interesting thing about it in light of the post I quoted is that I’m ethnically Italian… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-be-able-to-reserve-your-show-shoveled-out-parking-spot/344264/23 "2006-02-14T14:32:04Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I’ve been known to rant that the space in front of your house should, by law, be YOURS, in good weather or bad I agree, at least after 6:00pm. It’s just wrong for visitors to make life difficult for residents. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-be-able-to-reserve-your-show-shoveled-out-parking-spot/344264/24 "2006-02-14T15:12:00Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > Your mistake is in searching for a rational explanation for this behavior. There is none. And lest I get blamed for being anti- any ethnic group (Italian or Irish), this reserved space thing generally occurs in neighborhoods that have a big traditional Mafia connection going on. Not at all true. The correlation is entirely with the amount of parking available relative to the number of cars. So in Boston’s more urban neighborhoods (Southie, Dorchester, Charlestown, Eastie, etc.), it’s an issue, but it’s also an issue in Somerville, Cambridge, parts of Medford, etc. It’s perfectly rational behavior – you spend hours shoveling a spot, you get a claim on it. Whether it’s \*right \* is a larger philosophical issue. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-be-able-to-reserve-your-show-shoveled-out-parking-spot/344264/25 "2006-02-14T16:20:14Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > I agree, at least after 6:00pm. It’s just wrong for visitors to make life difficult for residents. But they’re going to park in front of _someone’s_ house. If it’s not yours, it’s the person next door. Every spot on the street is the best spot for someone. Should your neighbors not have visitors after 6 pm? Where do your visitors park? ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-be-able-to-reserve-your-show-shoveled-out-parking-spot/344264/26 "2006-02-14T17:23:53Z")
> [@Sal Ammoniac](#): > > Not at all true. The correlation is entirely with the amount of parking available relative to the number of cars. So in Boston’s more urban neighborhoods (Southie, Dorchester, Charlestown, Eastie, etc.), it’s an issue, but it’s also an issue in Somerville, Cambridge, parts of Medford, etc. It’s perfectly rational behavior – you spend hours shoveling a spot, you get a claim on it. Whether it’s \*right \* is a larger philosophical issue. I disagree. I’ve lived in Brighton and Cambridge and they didn’t do that. Also I’ve never seen it done in Back Bay. It’s done in Southie, Charlestown, and East Boston in a big way. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-be-able-to-reserve-your-show-shoveled-out-parking-spot/344264/27 "2006-02-14T17:36:56Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve been known to rant that the space in front of your house should, by law, be YOURS, in good weather or bad… So how would that work in jayjayville? Would the city send you a bill for filling a pot hole in your section of the public road? The whole idea of making claim to public space just because I worked to clear the snow out of it is just so foreign to me I can’t begin to wrap my mind around it. And this is coming from a neighborhood that frequently deals with [cars parked on sidewalks](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/495/1370/1600/Logan%20Parking%201.08.06%20004.jpg) and [triple-parking](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/495/1370/1600/Logan%20Parking%201.08.06%20002.0.jpg) on Sundays. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-be-able-to-reserve-your-show-shoveled-out-parking-spot/344264/28 "2006-02-14T18:21:30Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > I disagree. I’ve lived in Brighton and Cambridge and they didn’t do that. Also I’ve never seen it done in Back Bay. It’s done in Southie, Charlestown, and East Boston in a big way. I used to live on Beacon Hill. This was the practice there as well. I can’t think of another Boston area where parking is as much of a bitch as Beacon Hill. If we absolutely didn’t need the car it stayed put. Sometimes as long as 2-3 weeks at a time. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-be-able-to-reserve-your-show-shoveled-out-parking-spot/344264/29 "2006-02-14T18:29:27Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > I disagree. I’ve lived in Brighton and Cambridge and they didn’t do that. Also I’ve never seen it done in Back Bay. It’s done in Southie, Charlestown, and East Boston in a big way. Saw it in Cambridge today. I’ve seen it in JP and Roslindale as well. Anywhere there is onstreet parking around Boston it’ll happen. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-be-able-to-reserve-your-show-shoveled-out-parking-spot/344264/30 "2006-02-14T23:53:55Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > People don’t save their spots so that you can’t go to the doctor. They save them so that they don’t get home and find out that some slacker has parked in their spot _for the night_. Maybe where you live. Around here, you’re liable to have someone come out screaming if you park in “their husband’s (wife’s,daughter’s, etc )” spot for a minute to drop something in the mail box at 2 in the afternoon.They want that spot always available as if it were a private driveway. If they get home at 6 pm, they want that spot. If they get home at 9 am, they want that spot. > [@](#): > > I don’t even own a car, but I know that if I spent an hour shoveling eighteen inches of snow out of a parking spot in front of my house, and then got home and found that spot occupied by someone who lives across the street and didn’t bother to shovel out their driveway, I’d be, as they say, _wicked pissed_. I suppose I’d be pissed if that were the case, too. But since few houses around here have driveways (and anyone who has a driveway shovels it-otherwise they might end up parking three blocks away) , the reality is that I might park in a space a neighbor shoveled out because a teacher from the school down the street is in the space I shoveled out. Who’s wrong, me or the teacher? If you live in a suburb, that’s an entirely different world from mine, and I can understand your annoyance. I’ve never seen a suburb where residential areas and commercial areas are mixed, and businesses in suburbs always seem to have at least a few parking spaces.But I always hear about these issues in _cities_. I live in a city. Houses exist on the same block with warehouses, doctor’s offices are often in residential buildings ,schools are on residential streets and usually have little or no off street parking, and there are apartments over the stores. In twenty years, I have not had a job which provided parking for even 10% of the employees. So where the hell are these people who want “their” spot instantly available parking when they arrive at their destination? I’ll tell you where- in a spot someone else shoveled out. Because only “their” spot is sacred and must be instantly available- not the spaces other people shoveled out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-be-able-to-reserve-your-show-shoveled-out-parking-spot/344264.md?page=1)