Posted on 01/13/2011 5:54:26 AM PST by rawhide
I see this a lot in my town, but since I have a garage I’m “above the fray” :-)
In the old days did you not own the space in front of your house?
Perhaps they should allow reserving for a set time. If you exceed 1 hour reserve time then the fine risk.
“...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.”
Luckily I grew up in a part of the city with driveways, so ownership of that sort of shoveled pavement was never an issue.
But it is an age-old argument among folks in the densely-populated parts of the city, with some good points on both sides.
You’re right - the streets are public - but the physical effort required to clear a major snow dump is very personal. Moreover, the public aspect of snow removal only exacerbates the issue, since the plows, in taking care of the middle of the side-streets just make things worse at the curbs.
I’m just glad it’s a dispute I never had to be involved in at a personal level.
You got it right there. If one wants the "conveniences" of city living, there are prices to pay.
I have a garage and drive way and usually just park in my drive way. Two feet of snow? My 4WD plows right through it and mother nature put the snow there? She can take it away.
Any shoveling to be done, patios, pathways? That's why one has grand sons nearby.
After one humongous snow storm, I shoveled the entire walkway in front own to the parking lot then I spent another hour shoveling out my car. The snow was deep! Needless to say, nobody else was out there with their own shovels.
Anyway, I had to go out someplace that evening and when I returned somebody had parked in my spot.
Well, I then had to go shovel out another spot for my car then when I was done, I went back to the other car and replaced all the snow that I had previously removed and maybe twice as much more just for principle.......
Do you have to park a car?
How about one of those ww ii fake cars?
or just a simulated car.
On behalf of the theory of property rights generally accepted by the American Founders—that expounded by Locke—I want to defend the practice of “dibs” on shoveled parking spots and object to Darby’s ordinance.
The public streets are indeed public, common in terms of Lockean property theory, and under ordinary circumstances remain so. Following a blizzard, however, the distinction between a shoveled parking spot and one filled with snow becomes meaningful. So long as that distinction is meaningful, the person or family that put labor into the creation of a shoveled parking spot, thereby adding value to the common property, has a claim on the added value. Unlike homesteading, the claim is not permanent, but only makes sense while the added value persists: until the snow melts for the street is adequately cleared.
Darby’s ordinance is typical statist “liberalism” writ small—punish the producers of shoveled parking spaces.
Except they also added a $300 fine for shoveling snow out into the street.
I avoid such problems by living in the state of my ancestors...the lovely state of North Carolina!
Don’t bother coming, though. I saw the census figures, and we’re full up here. :P
You used your wife to hold a parking space? On your honeymoon? And you’re still married? ;-)
ROFL!
"The township also passed an ordinance to fine people $300 if they shovel snow back out on to the street."
Exactly so, and well said. Thank you for pinpointing the salient point.
heh heh...excellent analysis.
I would not know the answer to this question, but in most places, all roads are owned by the state or local government. Nobody can just lay claim to a section of public property just because it happens to be in front of their residence.
As another poster pointed out, this is one of the costs of living in a densely populated urban area.
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