Snow Business Part Two (Chicago Style)

After surviving the blizzard in the 'burbs, it was time to go check out the situation in the streets near our little City Nest. Though we lived in the city when we were first married (and knew of the winter ritual after big snows involving saving your shoveled-out parking space with an old chair), things have changed considerably since those years! Creativity - and controversy - abound. The creativity in saving your shoveled-out space now is what you use to reserve your spot. I grabbed my camera last night as we were trying to find a parking space of our own. Please join me now as I go undercover to expose the parking artists as they protect their spot on the pavement... How about an empty wire mesh storage unit?

Or a box that once held a Hoover vacuum cleaner...do you think the "sucker" is still inside?

Look closely at the plastic "drum" container and you can see that someone consumed a whole lotta Open Pit barbecue sauce. One wonders if the whole idea was to have an empty container for future parking space 'dibs'.

I got a real kick out of this space-saving scenario. Two beach chairs with a cooler in the middle...

bring on the sand, waves and babes!

Just wondering... who on earth would bring a bike out in this weather???

My guess is that there are three drawers to go with this caddy and they are inside the building in use while the outer shell is outside the building in use.

Once the vehicle is tucked back into the reserved parking space, the chairs wait on top the snow mound until the next outing.

And, what is this? A seat minus the boat or tractor? Wasn't there a TV commercial a long time ago that had a driver just going around on some sort of seat like this? Maybe here we have an old stage prop?

My very favorite spot-saver is the one below:

Take a closer look. At first it looks like a walker aide, but then look again to see the potty attached to it. Puts a whole new spin to the "mess" in dealing with all this snow!!

I mentioned the controversy surrounding these space-saving techniques. It is illegal in Chicago to do so. John Kass recently wrote for the Chicago Tribune on 2/5/11 about it. Google it if you want to know more. If you want to see another viewpoint, go to http://www.chairfreechicago.org/ The Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation points out that putting out signs to put no chairs out is also illegal. We certainly live in a city like no other --- gotta love it!