So, literally weeks after the first dusting of snow, the chairs, boxes, and pylons marking those precious parking spots as “saved” are still out. As I've said before, what bugs me, personally, is not so much that people do it the day of a snow storm, after they’ve labored to dig out their vehicle, thus clearing a spot, but that even well after the entire street is cleared they continue to claim that spot. This shows their true motives and mentality. They just feel entitled to a spot, period.

And a little snow gives them a perfect excuse to claim it in perpetuity. You know, weather really brings it out in people. You want to see someone’s true nature? Lock ‘em out of the house in a downpour. Or lock ‘em out of the car in the cold. Then you’ll really know what you’re dealing with. Anyway, given the ridiculousness of the whole “space-saver” thing so early in the season and after barely a dusting of snow, I was enormously gratified to see on my walk home from JFK that someone had gotten fed up and done something about it...


...even if it was a little OTT.

The picture shows what’s left of the chair someone had set out to lay eternal claim to “their” spot. Actually, there were several more parts of the “space-saver” strewn about on the lawn of the house nearby, a bit hanging from the fence, and some other bits lying about here and there, in I’d say about a twenty foot radius from ground zero.

This was about a block from my place. Folks on my street are smarter than the average, or have learned from experience not to use materials that are too easily splintered into a million pieces by irate neighbors who get home from work before they do and aren’t Darwinian enough by nature or nurture to have saved a spot for themselves. My neighbors favor plastic or metal “space savers” that can’t be blown to bits except with the aid of, say, a Howitzer.

Do I need a special license for one of those?