LIL' BUDDY'S BLOG - Parking Dibs in Chicago Over For Now, as Snow Begins To Melt!
THE CHICAGO IL REAL ESTATE MARKET, AND OTHER THINGS CHICAGO, FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A LITTLE WHITE DOG!
Hey, hey you dogs! Hope you're keeping those four lil' paws warm tonight.
Dibs? What is "dibs."
Well, if you played Little League Baseball as a pup, you know it as the right to bat first, because the game is being held in your back yard. On your turf, so to speak.
Here in Chicago, each winter, however, Dibs has a different meaning.
Unlike any other city in the U.S. this well-traveled dog has been to - including many in Minnesota, and Upstate New York, where the winter weather is often colder, and snowier - Chicago is the only place I know where newly-shoveled out parking spaces are marked and saved so they won't get taken by other parkers who did not shovel them out.
Usually, these parking spaces are in front of the shoveler's home. During heavy snows, it can take an hour or two of back-breaking, potentially heart-attack inducing labor to clean out a parking space to the bare pavement. This winter in Chicago, there have been several such very heavy snow falls - exceeding 8 inches - so far this season, and winter is only one-third of the way through.
The issue here isn't that parking spaces are "saved." It's the WAY they are saved! With lawn chairs from the summertime. Old suitcases. Bails of hay. Bald tires. Headless department store mannequins. Laundry baskets with 2 x 4's on top of them. The creative list goes on.
Now, I am an expert at marking what is mine, you know. But, typically, I do so discreetly. The piles of household junk strewn about our Chicago Side Streets each winter makes us unique, to be sure. But it's just plain . . . well . . . ugly!
Today, the City of Chicago, and their Streets and Sanitation Department, took notice. Spokesman Mark Smith has made the department's edict - for now, anyway, any loose "stuff" blocking Chicago residential streets is subject to removal.
Fines to the offenders? Likely, no - but their valuable yard-sale rejects may soon be lost forever! And often-rare Chicago Street Parking Spots will be more readily available.
At least until the next snow begins to fly!
See Robert Mitchum's story in today's Chicago Tribune for more. Photo from Flickr.com - Meryddian's Photostream - 01-11-2009.
YOUR ACE REPORTER ON FOUR PAWS,
BUDDY HOLLY MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
