Posted on 01/13/2011 5:54:26 AM PST by rawhide
DARBY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (CBS) — Big snow storms and limited parking is a combination that can lead to a whole lot of neighborhood feuds.
Now, in Darby Township, if you feel you have the right to reserve your parking spot, you could face a fine for hundreds of dollars.
You can’t lay claim to a parking spot on a public street in Darby Township. If you do, you could hear from police.
“The law prohibits doing that,” said Darby Township Police Chief Robert Thompson.
Putting in the work to dig out your car after a snow storm and then reserving that spot is a long standing tradition throughout the Philadelphia area.
That’s how single mom Tiffany Ellison feels.
She is frustrated and wants to fight the decision made by Darby Township commissioners Wednesday night to fine people like her $300 for saving their spot.
“It is going to be ugly. I was out between 12 and 1 a.m. digging,” said Ellison, who marked her ‘territory.’ “Yes, my trash can is out now so when I get home, I can park in front of my door.”
But for others, the new ordinance simply makes a whole lot of sense.
“A lady on Park had a rocking chair a week ago, still sitting there. I wouldn’t mind if she was handicapped or had a broken leg you know, but it’s ridiculous holding a parking space,” said resident Anthony Chiaverini. “You are going to get a lot of arguments over this.”
The township also passed an ordinance to fine people $300 if they shovel snow back out on to the street.
(Excerpt) Read more at philadelphia.cbslocal.com ...
Life in the big city of Darby. Sigh.
That’s the price you pay for having the government provide you with a place to park your car.
What would you do? You shovel out your car from 1 foot of snow. Your neighbor doesn’t. You leave and when you come back your neighbor pulled into your shoveled spot in front of your house and his previous spot still has a foot of snow on it .Just curious !!
Smells like Liberalism — you do the back-breaking work of shoveling out this spot, and then some stranger can come along and use it. If you complain about that, the government will punish you.
Problem is these spots do not belong to the people involved.
No one makes them live there.
What gets me are the ones who feel that the parking places in front of their house belongs to them exclusively, no matter what time of year it is. And they can be downright angry about it.
“What would you do?”
I moved to South Carolina.
A long-time Chicago tradition, so much so that it has it’s own monicker: “dibs”.
“Dibs” are often marked with worn-out dinette chairs. Violate dibs and you’re asking for trouble - like the kind involving physical violence.
I’d just shovel the new spot - making sure I threw the hard packed snow around the lazy persons car.
Driveways and gold.
No wonder people think that most cities are violent and uncivilized. I remember learning of this tradition when I lived near Philadelphia... people just could not accept that these are public streets and they do not own the part of the street in front of their house.
Those people are funny. “You can’t park there!”
“Why not, sign says it is legal except Wednesday morning for street sweeping.”
“That is OUR spot!”
No, you simpletons; that is public parking and it is to be used for people in the neighborhood to park their cars. Somehow I doubt that they extend the same courtesy of parking space “ownership” to their neighbors when they have an overflow due to guests or whatever.
I had a neighbor who would always park his car in front of my house (he lived directly across the street). The plow would come down my side of the street first removing more than half the street width of snow and of course depositing a much greater amount in front of my driveway as he had to pull over to get around my neighbors car. In doing so, the plow removed even more snow from my neighbors side of the street such than when the plow returned in the other direction very little snow ended up in his driveway. Attempts to get him to park on his own side of the street (which he always did in the summer) were just met with a NO.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! When I used my snow blower you can only imagine where all this excess snow went. I even plowed the sidewalk and added that snow to the pile. His car was under multiple FEET of snow. Within a week he started parking on his own side.
When we finally walked back with out luggage and reached the door of our hotel, a car was pulling out right in front of the hotel. I had my wife stand right there in the parking spot, and I went to get the car.
20 minutes later, I came back with the car, and there were a couple of guys trying to pull into the parking spot, nudging closer and closer to my wife. I pulled up behind them and honk my horn at them.
The driver got out and had a few choice words to say to me, in French which I did not understand, then got back in his car and left.
I got the parking space.
Way back in the 80s, the local drag strip I raced at announced over the PA system that there was a rather nice looking newer Chevrolet pickup blocking the emergency road. They announced there were three options if it wasn't moved within the next five minutes:
Option 1: Tow it.
Option 2: Let the pit mechanics at it.
Option 3: Burn it to the ground on the spot.
I'm up for option 3.
I have absolutely no idea how his car got absolutely buried in snow one night ...
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