Boston resident Maureen Dahill knows how far people will go to save a public parking spot after a snowstorm.
"People get so crazy because it takes so long to shovel out your car," Dahill says, so they use random items as place holders.
"I've seen a Rob Gronkowski cut out, like a life-sized Rob Gronkowski. I saw the Blessed Mother, a Mary statue. You would never move that," she says.
After a snowstorm last weekend dumped snow across large parts of the country, a key debate is raging on the streets: Can you save a public parking spot after you've dug your car out of it?
To Dahill, the rules are clear: "You must shovel," she writes in her neighborhood magazine on the topic. "If you move someone's space saver and park your car in its place, you have no right to complain about what happens to your car."
What does the law say? It depends
The question of saving parking spots is the cause of so much turmoil that some cities have created rules about it.
"Don't do it," Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said on Sunday to a local TV station. "If I see your chair, it's coming with me and going into the trash."
Obstructing the streets or sidewalks in Baltimore is prohibited, according to the city's code.
Similarly, in Chicago, the "dibs" process is illegal, according to Department of Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Cole Stallard. Stallard's department received about 2,000 complaints since November for "trash" on the street.
"I have seen it all," Stallard says. "They put their grandmother's furniture out there… or we've seen kitchen tables set up like you're going to a banquet."
However, in Boston, due to the fervor surrounding "space savers," the law allows the use of them for 48 hours after the end of a snow emergency, with some exceptions, according to the city's website.
And while Pittsburgh doesn't have rules that govern the use of space savers, they have a proud history of "parking chairs."
Mayor Corey O'Connor's office sees it as a "longtime tradition" of the city: "For as long as Pittsburgh has had cars, we've had parking chairs," spokesperson Molly Onufer wrote in an email to NPR.
The debate on the ground
"Respect the chair," is a common phrase among Pittsburgh residents, says Bryan Brunsell, a local resident.
Brunsell, who goes by Johnny Pittsburgh on his social media, says Pittsburgh is a superstitious city, so no one wants to be on the wrong side of a parking spot debate.
"You don't want the karma of taking someone's spot," he says.
Dahill, the Boston resident, can understand why some Bostonians object to the unofficial rules.
"It's public space and nobody owns anything," she says. "At the same time, your neighbor may have spent literally eight hours shoveling."
But Nicholas Christakis, who directs Yale University's Human Nature Lab, is against "space savers."
He says any social norm enforced by a threat, such as damage to a car, cannot be a socially optimal way to handle the situation.
Christakis has lived in Cambridge, Mass., and understands the dilemma: "I would dig out my car, and then frankly, I would feel ashamed to claim the spot," he says. "It's not my spot."
The debate has spilled over to social media on X, Reddit, and Facebook with heated discussion for both sides.
Etiquette expert weighs in on the controversy
Jodi RR Smith has written three books on manners and founded Mannersmith Etiquette Consulting. She says that following a local tradition is the best way to create community among your neighbors.
"Respect the time, effort, energy and labor that went into clearing out that spot," Smith says. "Once you know what the local custom is, you respect that."
Smith, who lived in Boston for 30 years, says in cities and streets where there is limited space, the custom and unofficial rules of parking spots are really about courtesy for those around you.
"Just a little bit of consideration in this world can go a long, long way," she says.
Smith has seen this courtesy extend beyond a parking spot: "Usually, what happens is somebody finishes digging out their car and they come over and they offer to help you dig up your car."
Dahill, the Boston resident, says earlier this week, when her son, Henry, left for work, her husband told him not to forget his "space saver."
Unfortunately, he did.
A neighbor noticed that Henry's shoveled spot was not reserved, though, and saved the space for him.
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