Jay-

Last night I witnessed someone coming home to find their spot had been bogarted. I felt really bad for the guy especially because he just stood there in the street honking the horn on his car. He eventually sort of wedged himself into another spot that was barely big enough for a golf cart - but it was tough to witness. Could have been me.

You dug out that spot from under 3 feet of snow - it's yours. Law-of-the-jungle style.

Typical of all the Democrats in this state, they want others to do all the work, not put a chair and get the reward of a free parking space.

BS Bryan. If you want to stick a chair or some other obstacle in it to 'claim' the spot then go for it. But if there is an empty and clear spot on the street then that is mine. I don't care who cleaned it out. Boo-hoo. Find another one. It is a public street. You do not own any part of the street or any spot on it. If you want the spot, get home earlier or claim it like I said. Otherwise it is a free for all. That is the law of the jungle.

The same thing happened to me, sort of. My wife moved the car out of the pristine, dug-out residential parking space to go to work (she was called in by her boss). The space was still open by the time I got home via the metro but just as I got to the space (directly in front of our apartment), a huge white van pulled in and straddled both that space and the one behind it! He didn't have a permit either.

So, rather than do anything to his car, I just called 311 and had the cops come out and ticket the guy. He moved his POS pretty fast when the cops showed up.

Hey JB - take it easy.

Do you have a driveway? I don't. People have to have a place to park their cars and if someone comes along and takes your space,especially in this kind of snow where there's no place to put it - what do you do? Abandon your car in the street? That will be helpful.

I think, JB what you fail to recognize is that because there's no place to put the snow, you end up with enormous icebergs of snow that block the extra space on the street that would otherwise be an extra parking space or two.

The point I was trying to make JB is that someone had their spot taken - I don't know if it was claimed with chairs or whatnot - I'm assuming not. It was hard to watch someone come home, ostensibly from work and find that the spot that they labored to dig out under 3' of snow was taken. Public street or not - it's a neighborhood.

Enjoy your driveway, JB.

After the city plowed a chest high wall of snow into our parking lane, and I waited 3 days to see if they would replow, I paid $100 to a private plow to clear 2 spots in front of our house so we could move the cars from side streets that still have not been cleared. And I should have to defend our right to those spots?

I believe it is an unwritten rule that if I put in hours of work to clear a spot with more than 3' of snow near my house because I don't have a driveway, don't be a jerk and take it. I came home from work yesterday, and not only had someone moved the chairs and parked but another neighbor had taken my boyfriends spot. So over four hours digging out 2 spots and where was I supposed to park either vehicle. It is disrespectful and we don't have any other options in Towson in residential neighborhoods.

If the majority of people are incapable of understanding the tragedy of the commons parallel to this it is no wonder most of you won't have a clue what the fed's mop up plan for excess reserves means.

Can you people comprehend that at any given time there are more cars than there are spaces but since not all the cars are parked liquidity among those available spaces is necessary for a functioning parking market? Protectionism made a bad situation worse with Smoot Hawley and the theory here is the same. You are freezing what must be a liquid, tradable commodity in order for the parking space market to function.

The selfish, myopic, narrow minded, focus on one side of the equation only thinking displayed here makes obvious why deficits will never be closed, the Wall Street class will always rule you, the majority of this country will stay on the same flat prosperity curve they've been on for over 30 years now, and you won't understand why. YOU JUST DON'T GET IT. You can't see beyond yourself. Your simple mind can't recognize that your behavior is making everyone worse, including yourself.

Captain Obvious- Thank you. Well said. Baltimore is like a basket of crabs. You do not need a lid. If one crab tries to get out the others will hold it back. Self imposed stagnation.

And still there seems to be no recognition from the "spot savers" that it's entirely possible that someone could dig out their car, leave that spot, return to their neighborhood, and then need to park again.

The idea that everyone looking for a parking space is simply a lazy, self-centered prick who refused to do any work on their own and is now sniping the hard work of others is a complete and total straw man argument.

WE ALL DUG OUR CARS OUT OF THE SNOW. The benefit of doing so was being able to move your car from that space at that time. It does not give you ownership of that spot in perpetuity.

Thanks, Captain Obvious. There's a sort of animal mindset going on with the chairs. Actually, I'm OK with the rule common in big cities that you can "reserve" a spot for 48 hours after digging out. But in my neighborhood, on December 25 -- six days after the last snow and long after every parking spot was fully cleared of snow (except one huge pile about 12 houses down) -- people were STILL reserving spots. No snow, but the attitude seemed to be that since they dug six days ago, they got a permanent spot! The self-obsession of it boggles my mind. There seems to be no acknowledgment that *everybody* needs parking. It does make one a little cynical about how our society can even function with such staggering inability to consider the needs of others.

If somebody parks in me or my wife's spot after I dig them out, I am knocking you out. PERIOD.

First of all, we live in close proximity to JHU so parking is problematic in the best of times. Secondly, the City never did plow out our street. Our neighbor arranged for a private contractor to plow us out and we pitched in for it. Therefore, if it wasn't for we the residents, no one could even drive up our street whether they live on it or not...let alone park on it. My advice to non-residents who wish to park on our street while visiting JHU: Do NOT move my chair. Bring a shovel and clear your own space...just like we had to do!