The New Mayor of Baltimore told the populace last week or so that it was OK to use lawn chairs, saw horses and the like to "save" onstreet spaces after they had dug them out. He changed his tune today and told folks that it was time to take the "space holders" in. He says he hoped God would take care of the problem but it's been too cold to melt the snow.
I commerseurate with both sides on this one. If you spend and hour and a lot of sweat digging out the space, then you should lay claim to it. However from the city's point of view, it's a parking space and well…you can't reserve them.
Baltimore is taking a middle of the road approach. They are asking that folks remove the clutter, but aren't going to write tickets for a few more days.
In the end I'm not sure space saving really works. What, beside winter morality, is going to keep me from simply tossing the chair or sawhorse on the sidewalk and parking my car?
I just asked someone here in the office who comes from snow climes and was told that such action was very dangerous. It meant that you could have flat tires or a good keying. People who dig out spaces take the "reserving" seriously. In one case, a person returned to their car (after taking the 'reserved' space) to find it filled with snow. Actually that seems reasonable to me.
JVH
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