1. Shovel your car out of its parking spot
2. Replace your car with a lawn chair, plastic bin, traffic cone or other device
3. Go to work or the store with the faith that your parking space will be there when you return.
I learned how it works from Jean Bell, who’s lived in Locust Point for 61 years. Being a foreigner from the West Coast, the lawn chair tradition seemed odd to me. How can you trust that some schmoe won’t come along and take the parking space you spent 4 hours digging out?
Jean explained that on her street in the Point there’s a “brigade.” If someone takes a reserved spot, the brigade gets called, and the offending car gets shoveled back in, by LOTS of snow. It’s retaliation, albeit benign. Jean wouldn’t tell me the other things her street brigade has done, but I’ve heard tales about slashing tires.
Listen to Jean explain what newcomers should know about Locust Point, and how to behave after a snowstorm:
Baltimore police confirm its illegal to reserve a parking spot on a public street. But yesterday Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake said she’d ask the cops to respect the tradition and not issue citations.
The remaining question is whether there are time limits on lawn chair reservations. Dan Macatee runs Hull Street Blues Café. He says there should be a limit on how long you can hold a space. After all, he has hungry customers who drive to his place for lunch, only to find a street full of lawn chairs! Macatee’s work-around is to remove the chairs during the lunch rush, then put them back before residents get home. It’s a way to keep the neighborhood peace.
With the snow flying once again, we’ll probably see lawn chairs reserving parking spots in Locust Point until the middle of next week, which is when I’ll have a new story for you here. Thanks for stopping by!
4 comments:
F that and F you. You are a lazy POS if you have to slash tires because you are too lazy to shovel again or walk a little bit further to find another parking spot.
Agreed with Jsfranklin. Sharing spots is one thing, but when the Mayor lifts the "grace period" and people are still saving spaces with chairs, its time to give it up. Retaliation is rude a a shitty way to be a neighbor
Heavy snowfall is a pain in the ass for everyone, but people need to realize that street parking is PUBLIC parking - the act of shoveling snow does not convey ownership of that property to you, not even temporarily.
If you want your own private parking spot, you should buy a property that includes one.
I shovelled out 2 different spots and didn't attempt to "reserve" either of them for myself.
well jsfranklin221, you are lame just like your name. katie, you are a follower..so lame also. brian m..aren't you special for shoveling two spots and not reserving; you're just plain dumb. it's not about a tradition, it's common courtesy..in snowfalls like last year, if you have to take a shoveled spot, then why wouldn't you shovel your own then? who's lazy? any slashing of tires, damage to cars, etc. is clearly wrong but if you take some poor mom's spot, who has to lug in her kids/groceries, by simply hiding behind the "street parking is PUBLIC" blah, blah, you are just lame. oh wait, i said that already.
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