I'll bet if I start a "keep your vehicle OUT of the spot I shoveled, you low-down, no-good, dirty rotten scoundrel scum" tonight that I can get a LOT more than 18 members.

I beleive that for the duration of the snow on the streets i do "own" that spot that i spent 8 hours digging out of. Just like a typical liberal to have their hand out yet again. If I park in a spot in my neighborhood, and spend hours and hours digging out my car so i can go to work to continue to provide for my family, then when i get home i dont expect some lazy person who did not pick up a shovel to be in my space. Now after the snow has melted away, then all bets are off and its back to normal. I dont agree with the people who think its ok to continue to save parking spots when there is no more snow. And for the record, Mar, i would become a fan of that facebook page.

-JT

This is a long standing Baltimore tradition. The miscreants who are on face book with this trite,need to get a life. If I dig out a space in front of my home, it is my spot.Period! There is enough crime in Baltimore as it is, in years past fist fights have broken out over this issue and I am afraid today, people will break out their Gatts!!

Lawn chairs in the street is the most ghetto thing I have ever seen. I am from New Hampshire where they get a lot more snow, and no one there tries to "own" part of the public street.

you move one of those chairs and risk your life

Congratulations on digging out your spot. I hope you feel very accomplished. In fact, I hope you feel downright superior to those entitled, lazy, handout-loving liberals who just sat around waiting for the city to come save them.

But what about all the people who dug themselves out and realize that they do not, in fact, own that area? An honest day's work does not exempt you from future days of honest work. You dug yourself out to go to work just like I did. When I go home today, I'll follow legal protocol and find another spot. If I can't find one close to my house, I'll be forced to take a long walk. One would think the supposedly morally superior neocons would recognize that saving a parking space is exactly the sort of selfishness you allege liberals to have a monopoly on.

No one should "own" a public street. We have gotten to accept this as part of our "culture" just like jay walking is accepted. Either change the law about this and jay walking or follow the law and be prepared to pay the consequences if you decide to break it.

From NH, you ought to drive down Frederick Road on July 2nd or so and see the chairs reserving spots for the 4th of July parade. The chairs reserving the parking spaces are NOTHING compared to that!

I actually think that taking a parking space that someone else shoveled is way lower on the class scale than putting a chair or two in the spot to reserve it.

JT, I'll update once I start the Facebook group so you can join. I'll start the Facebook group as soon as my teenage daughter shows me how to do that!

Taking a space that someone else shoveled is lower on the class scale. Ha. That's rich.

And driving on a road that you didn't pave yourself is classless too. Bottom line: everyone in a car was forced to dig it out of somewhere! It doesn't mean we all have shotgun on those particular spots for the remainder of the snow. We all dug ourselves out, now we all have to find new spots. You're granting yourself an exemption from common social compacts and, less importantly, the law. Get a grip.

Unfortunately the population density in MD is a lot higher than in New Hamshire. When I was in Manchester and Nashua it looked no different than most small towns in MD. So there is a lot more demand for parking in MD which is typically under-provided by developers, especially in townhouse developments. However I will say that in New Hamshire (my opinion) folks are more courteous and respectful of others. Here in MD they need a gentle reminder like a lawn chair in a shoveled out parking space (and the implied threat behind that).

What about the people that remove the chairs and do not park in the spot. Just to stir up the "I own the street crowd".

For the record, i'm usually a government loving liberal, but I have to agree, I spent my entire saturday digging out my car and a path to freedom infront of my house, and I expect to have that space when I return.

I don't think the issue is that of other residents of my street taking it, because as one writer suggested, they also dug themselves out. Its people who have visitors to their house that is a problem. I don't even live in a 'city' environment, i live in a townhouse community in the suburbs, so parking elcewhere may not be an option. The parking spaces are restricted, one space per house, then the streets of parallel parking are the overflow where I usually park. I put out my chairs this morning, and they better be there when I get home...

As for everyone who says that someone who dug out a spot and put a chair there does not own the spot, you're right. however its a matter of courtesy, your theory of everyone digging out is true so they can go to their original spot. Nice side note, I don't own my front sidewalk, that is public property but yet I can be fined for now having that cleared? Make sure you have a better understanding of ownership...or rather the law should.

Basically park in my spot...bring a shovel with you when you come back, you'll be completely and utterly buried again

Guess what. I spent 8 Hours digging my car out. I obeyed the law and went to work only to come home to find the whole street staked out. Everyone on the road dug themselves out. By staking out a spot you are in effect occupying 2 spots, the one you are in and the one you staked out. This is precisely why there is a law against it. Get a grip.

I live in a apartment complex with offstreet parking. Most of us have spent a lot of time this winter digging our cars out. A couple of tenants have parked chairs in the spots they dug out and I really can't blame them. They are employed and just want to make sure that somebody does not take advantage of their efforts.

Shovel = spot. Taking what you did not work to obtain is what it is, "law" or not. Unsurprisingly, people hide behind "public" and "law" when it suits their (generally no account) purposes.

Cudos to those who would re-bury the spot for the one who refused to work for it in the first instance.

The notion that someone is taking advantage of someone else's efforts is absurd. I live in Locust Point. We all dug our cars out. We all need to park when we get home from work. However, some feel that they have the right to break the law and take ownership of a spot. Guess what. I obeyed the law and I am going to find a new spot when I get home. If I have to move your chair I will. I did the same amount of work as you did, probably more as I spent the whole weekend digging out my whole block and helping the elderly clear out their houses and cars. I do not feel any greater right to a spot as anyone else. We all live here. We all have to park. Get over it. It's the law. If you don't like it change it. I have lived in Baltimore for 30 years and this is one of my greatest pet peeves.

So after you've shoveled your sidewalk, do you plan on restricting people from walking on it? Do you tell an neighbor who tries to walk past it that they should stick to their own patch of sidewalk, since you worked so hard to get it cleared?

On my street, every inch of curb that allows parking has been cleared. Yes, all of that area was cleared by people who were parked there at the time of the snow. It was cleared on both sides of the street, by numerous owners of numerous cars. When I pulled out this morning, I didn't leave anything behind. And if anything is "holding" any spot on either side of that street, it'll be thrown to the sidewalk before I ease my car into its place.

See, the time I spent shoveling out my car didn't purchase my ownership of that 8 foot area. It was simply my doing my part for the entire block. Everyone else on the block did their part, and now we all have somewhere to park. We all own all of the spots and can park wherever we want. I know, I know, individual labor for the common good sounds an awful lot like socialism. Or common courtesy.

I think that the people who spend 2 plus hours digging their car out are entitled to that spot. If you need a sopt dig it yourslef and stop being lazy!! Its not fair that you should have to dig your car out just to have it taken moments later, and then have to dig another spot to park. I feel bad for the people who took my spot, I hope they have a shovel in their trunk because they are going to need it..

park in my spot especially if you don't live in my neighborhood and be prepared to have the air let out of your tires.

Blizzard of '96...after spending hours digging out my car, I left for the convenience store to get...what else...milk. I returned 20 minutes later to find someone had parked in my spot that I just cleaned out! I spent a couple more hours shoveling the snow BACK into the space burying the car - which btw was right in front of my house and was a neighbor who no-one particularly cared for. Sometime later, I watched the surprised jackass come out, do a double take and I chuckled as I watched him dig out his car - in his business suit, using nothing but his hands and a trash can lid.

If someone chooses to move the chairs reserving my shoveled out space, they can. I will be digging another space directly in front of their car and if I happen to throw snow from my new spot onto their car, I am so, so sorry.

I have a neighbor with a heart condition and a defribilator. We helped them dig out their car and the neighborhood dug out our alley so others can get out. We did cooperate, but I don't think we should have to continually dig out additional spaces because people who are lazy - the only word for it - take advantage of the labor of others.

Yes, I can drive on the street that was plowed. My TAX DOLLARS paid for the plowing so I did work for it!

BTW, for everyone who says we are breaking the law by putting the chairs in the spot, that might be true. I trust all you holier-than-thou types never break the law by going over 55 on the Beltway, for instance. If you do, then perhaps you just like to pick and choose the laws that you like...?

Enough with this strawman argument that anyone who wants to remove the lawn chairs is just lazy and trying to steal the benefit of someone else's work. We all dug out our own cars. My doing so didn't purchase ownership of that spot, and your doing so didn't purchase ownership of your spot. Many, many of the people in opposition to saving a parking spots did, in fact, dig out their own spots. It's the idea of ownership of said spot that we oppose, not the notion of personal accountability.

The lawn chair is not a liberal or conservative issue. It is the result of provincial inbreeding. The lawn chair crowd believes that you go away for a weekend and you come home after a snow storm you should not be allowed to park til everything is melted. Oh that's right if your a true Baltimorian you do not venture past the beltway.

I don't care where you use to live, or what political group you belong too.Go ahead and park where I spent all day digging out, but with my dying breath I'll bury your car and you can spend all day digging out.

How on earth is this some kind of po0litical debate? Good grief, how petty are you folks. Saving one's parking space is if anything capitalistic, has nothing to do with liberals or conservatives. No one has any interest in clearing any more snow than is minimally necessary to free their car from the snow, so you get ridiculous things like people not even shovelling snow and instead waiting for the person in front of back of them to clear the snow, and just driving out through that cleared space. That kind of thinking creates a "tragedy of the commons" situation where no one has an interest in clearing snow, merely waiting for someone else to do it and taking what they can get for free and then seeking out another space--which they exerted no effort to clear-- to poach upon heir return. The result: nothing gets done and certainly not efficiently. Instead, if one has a vested interest in one's parking space, spaces become valued commodities and one will clear it of snow as best they can because they will have it when they come and go. Everyone has an interest then in quickly and efficiently clearing the snow. Just like if one owns a house they live in they tend to take better care of it than if they're just renting it or squatting. Let's just leave politics out of adiscussion of parking spaces.

In some neighborhoods, snow piles are taking away already-scarce parking spaces. In my neighborhood, most of us are in our 50's+, and shoveling out our own cars once was enough. Those who were away for the weekend, my own daughter included, should be the ones to park a couple blocks away and hike in. I don't like seeing chairs up in minor snowstorms, and HATE seeing them out in advance for the Catonsville July 4 parade, but when there's a major snowfall, I think reserving the space you dug out is only fair.

Well I paid the snowblower guys $70 to clear a spot for myself and my tenant, and I'll be darned if the kids coming by to buy drugs are going to take our spots- so I've got 3 chairs out there now. I know, the poor druggies, they legally deserve a spot too!
Of course our street wasn't plowed (Bal City) and we all got out there and shoveled by hand to make our block passable, I hacked through ice yesterday so I could take my 84 y.o. neighbor out to the store. So call me selfish or whatever, I worked hard and paid money to use the spots and I'm keeping them until the street clears up more.

I'll see your "tragedy of the commons" and raise you one "wisdom of the crowd." In my neighborhood, everyone shoveled out their own car, and now our curbs are clear for parking. For any one person to think they have particular ownership of the single space they cleared out is in fact a matter of capitalism, but it's capitalism at its absolute worst. The commodification of everything robs us of decency.

So once again, let me request that we drop the strawman argument that those who oppose space saving do so because they were too lazy to dig out their car. There are many who dug out a car and oppose space saving on strictly moral grounds.

So to all these people who dug out spots and then left that spot...Did you dig another space out when you got to your destination? I doubt it. You mooched off the hard work of others and took "their" space. Spot hoarders are lame.

Look the lawn chair thing only works on the neighborhood level if everyone does it, and even then it does not work on a city wide level. As it is against the law most people don't engage in this idiotic practice. So when they spend all day digging out they lose their spot and find all the others staked out. It is against the law for a reason. When you stake out a spot all day you are in effect occupying 2 spaces. And then anyone who needs access to the neighborhood during the day [say to unload snow removal equipment as was my case yesterday] can't park. Also if everyone engaged in this practice parking in the city would be cut in half. Everyone on my street dug out and did their part. But a handful of people think that they own "their" spot. They have no more right to it than anyone else who also dug out their spot. And here is the reality 99% of people looking for spots WERE here for the storm AND they dug out for hours. They simply did not break the law. I have had to repeatedly remove these obstructions from in front of my house and I am tired of it. It is against the law for a reason. A good reason.

And I guess that when you're standing in a long check out line it's not really your line either- you won't mind if I butt right in prior to your checkout and make you wait for me to complete my transaction.

It's not a "spot" until someone digs out their car and vacates the location. Society always means to reward one for their labor, otherwise why produce the labor if you think someone else might come along and steal it from under you- parking spaces, plowing fields, or anything else for that matter. Just because it's a common area and not truly yours doesn't mean that you aren't entitled to the fruits of your labor.

If you are standing on line; you are there. If you put a chair on line and go some where else. See how that works out for you.

If there was a way to enforce the chair marking tradition, I'd be all for it. My wife had to move our car that we dug out over the weekend today and I'm sure the spot has gone to someone else by now.

For us living in Mt. Vernon, it makes sense now to park the car in the Penn Station garage until the snowmageddon has passed. But I'd much rather have that nice clean space to return to tonight, of course.

Anyone who steals a spot that their neighbor has spent hours digging out should have their car turned into an ice sculpture

The assumption here is that the person parking didn't do any work and they are stealing the spot. This missconception is the real problem. Everyone dug their car out and those who obey the law and don't stake out the spot still need to park. When you dig your car out, congratulations. That's all you did. So did everyone else.

Cogito, ergo sum

God help you if you are the one who removes my barstool (I don't own a lawn chair) when I go somewhere!

The reports of people actually covering a car with snow for taking their spot are terrible. All that complaining about how much time it took to dig your car out, and you then turn around and expend the same amount of energy just to spite someone? Guess it wasn't THAT hard to begin with...

I lived in Baltimore for the last big snowstorm and the chair thing was out of control. If people would actually clear ALL the snow around their car, and not the bare minimum which allows them get out, the parking situation wouldn't be nearly as bad. Think of all the wasted space taken up by "walls" of snow that were in between cars. It's not that bad to shovel as long as you do it when the snow is fresh. I know it's a crazy idea, but maybe if it's nice out, you could even clear an extra spot. But sigh, we all know things won't change....

Just one more example why Baltimore is the worst city in America. Anyone who thinks that leaving for work, coming back 8 hours later, and expecting to have a space saved for them, is a complete idiot! and is probably from Baltimore.

Sean, Are you and the 3 other Baltimore Republicans forming a gang?

Anyone for a game of musical snow chairs? Last person sitting gets to keep the parking spot.

I grew up elsewhere. I never saw this save-"my"-spot phenomenon until I came to Baltimore. I've always been opposed to it. I've lived here now for years and own a rowhouse. I've always dug my car out and I've never tried to "save" the spot. I spent 3 hours yesterday digging out my car. Today I left that spot, came back, and found another spot. If you want "your" own spot, buy a house with a driveway or a garage. Everybody's got to dig out if they want to move. So dig - move - grow up - deal. The threats of violence and re-burying of cars is so kindergarten.

This debate is hilarious. There is no right side to the issue. If you shoveled out a spot certainly it would be great to have it there when you got back, so go ahead throw a chair out there. When you get back and its still there congratulations. When you get back and someone parked there, oh well life isnt fair.

Grew up in Buffalo and never had this issue. Most people just got out and helped each other out. Yeah some people didnt help out and others did way more to help neighbors but such is life.

Shame on you for even trying to make this a Lib vs Con thing. Way to fuel the flames of partisan bickering for absolutely no reason. It's been a long time since I respected much of anything that the Sun published, but Jay Hancock has proven himself to be an utter failure on this one. The debate is entertaining, sure, but Jay, you're an absolute wiener.

OKAY, I'll join the fray. I bought my house in Northeast Baltimore 7 years ago. I was here for the 2003 storm. One of my neighbors was parked in front of my house when the storm hit. I was camped out at a friend's home. I had to leave my car there because it was stuck. I got home, however everyone on the block had dug out spots and deposited a variety of lawn chairs, stools, etc. to stake their claims. I had 2 chairs in front of my house long after the snow melted! One day, I got fed up and placed his fricking chairs on the medium and parked my car. Do you know he had the gall to knock on my door when he got home that evening and ask me if I had moved his chairs? I politely responded no, wished him a good evening and closed my door. He doesn't park in front of my house anymore. My next door neighbor got the right idea, he built a parking pad in his back yard! It's really pointless to debate this issue. It discourteous to park in a spot that you know someone spend the better portion of a day and backbreaking labor digging out? Absolutely! It is legal to put furniture on a public street? No! However, it's tradition and no doubt it will continue. It would be nice if people got to know their neighbors and common courtesy was adhered to - it only it were a perfect world!

Missing from the discussion here: anyone who proudly admits to taking a spot dug out by someone else. Why is that? Perhaps because it is self-evident that it is boorish, antisocial behavior. One can argue all day about legalities and ethics and maybe uncover some fascinating nuances, but at the level of basic social interaction, it is rude to occupy space in which another person has invested a claim, and I challenge anyone to say why it is not.

I agree it is not like cutting in line, it is more like taking someone else's seat in a restaurant or movie theatre, when they clearly vacated it temporarily. If it is fair to ask the original digger to go somewhere else and dig another spot, why is it not just as fair to ask the secondary parker to do the same?

I can understand why armchair moralists might object to the practice of staking claims, but I have a very hard time grasping the perspective of those who actually dig their car out from behind a wall of plowed, hardened snow and yet would defend someone who came along to occupy that spot later. Such people are either liars or endowed with saintliness beyond imagination.

Way to go Hancock, for making this a liberal vs. conservative thing. That's just what we all need, more nastiness. Nice.

I may not own the space but I can guarantee you that if you park in the spot I shoveled out that I WILL SPEND ANOTHER 4 HOURS SHOVELING YOU IN. I will gladly help you shovel out a space,but don't take mine.

What's the protocol on people putting chairs in a spot that I dug out????? I came home yesterday to find that just such a thing had happened. This is ridiculous. No one owns a spot just because they put in some time to dig it out. I dug out my spot, went to work and found another spot when I got home. Life's not fair. Get over it.

Our new mayor said "I said to someone the other day, it's like telling people they can't say ‘Hon'" with regards to questions about whether or not she would enforce the City's BAN on this ridiculous activity. The fact that she is comparing something that is ILLEGAL to something that is not is asinine.

Someone keeps saying the space-stealers dug out a space, too. NOT TRUE. Many people park in garages, then head out after the rest of us dug out our cars. If you dug out your own space, why not use that one instead of mine?

On my street, where we all know each other and are friendly, it's understood that taking someone's hard fought space is LOW CLASS.

Fred I Will admit it. I live in Upper Fells Point. You come home after work your spot is gone. There is no spots available and I am going to honor the space holding of a chair? What am I supposed to do? Eat my car? The reason it is stupid for the mayor to sanction illegal activity is that is sets a basis for violence. It sets neighbor against neighbor. We had an idiot bar owner put chairs on the street to save spots for his customers when there was no snow. That did not last.Some day some chair holder is going to slash someones tires and some tire owner is going to blow some chair owners brains out and people are going to say "how did that happen?

Yes, I put a chair in the spot that I dug out when I left to dig my mother out and go to the store. I am 57 years old and have had both knees replaced. If some twenty-something who's too lazy to dig out and moves my chair, God help them. I'll remove my chair when the snow has reasonably melted and I don't have to dig. I live in Locust Point and the new houses that were built here all have garages that people use for everything but parking. The intent was to not impact the people not fortunate enough to have a new "garage-townhome." but live in rowhouses!

There is an incredible cluelessness going on here, on the part of the people who really think there are two sides to this, who don't understand the problem of stealing the product of someone else's backbreaking, sometimes dangerous effort.

Digging out a car can kill you -- people are out there having heart attacks right now. The idea that some lazy slob can sit in his La-Z-Boy, look out the window and watch you risk life and limb to dig out, and then mosey out there and grab the space, forcing the guy who put in all the effort to dig out another -- sorry, but that's Bush League. Total white trash.

And all those people who are saying "screw you, life isn't fair, grow up, it's a mean nasty world out there" -- um, no. It's not a mean nasty world out there, it's just got mean nasty people in it, who think that the rules apply to everybody but them.

Henry, do you really think people are sitting in their homes and waiting for you to clear a spot? By that logic, someone would have to shovel out their car and move it to your spot. Of course if they did that, it would open up another spot

I imagine what happens when someone "steals" your spot is either they had a spot and their spot was "stolen" by someone else or they don't live in your neighborhood.

If it is the former, I'm not sure what the solution is. Would you have people who live in a neighborhood and who can't find a spot not held by lawn furniture simply abandon their cars?

Now, if it is the latter, perhaps the solution is to make it illegal for non-residents to park in a neighborhood during a snow emergency event. Of course, this would be difficult to enforce, would be oppossed by businesses, etc...

Beavis -- what sets neighbor against neighbor is STEALING SOMEONE ELSE'S SPACE.

Henry- You can't have something stolen from you if you don't own it in the first place.

My favorite thing to do when someone leaves a chair in their spot is to shovel as much snow as possible INTO their spot. CHAOS.

I live in an area that is on street parking and all of the nieghbors repect each other and parks where they dug out. What gets me is when someone comes over to visit and parks in a shoveled out spot and the person they are visiting does not say don't park in that area that was shoveled. Anyone visiting a neighbor hood should find a vacant spot that is not in front of a home, even if that means they have to walk a little farther then usual. To me it is all about being courteous to one another for there hard work.

I live in an apartment complex in Owings Mills where people are still marking spots with chairs. I spent 3 hours digging my car out, then 2 more after the guy next to me threw all of his snow behind my car. I never once reserved that or the one my roommate and I cleared out together after the second storm. We are now only short 2 spots out of 30 or so, and there is ample parking everywhere else in the complex. It is time to move the chairs and other refuse. Does anyone have the link the law about space-saving being illegal? I was hoping to print it out, tape it to the chairs there when I get home, and then park where I please. There are no reserved spots or guest spots that people can pay for to own, but I am in favor of people without neighborhood parking passes having to park in overflow lots during storms like this.

Side note... if you live on a street, even as a renter, and have 2 knee replacements, you could likely qualify for a handicapped spot in front of your building and a tag for your car. If you're not eligible for the tag, then a longer walk from your call if you have to park elsewhere won't kill you.

I agree that people should work together and share the digging so they can also all share the parking. Morally and legally superior.

My neighbor was out salting streets for twelve hours during the snow storm. Does that mean since he did not have a spot during the storm, he can not park on our street until the snow is completely gone? Cities and townships should fine people that put chairs out.