'No Savesies' campaign returns to Philadelphia; Other major cities battle post-snow parking wars

Toilets. Grandfather clocks. Ironing boards. Lawn chairs. Recycling bins. They all sound like everyday household items.

However, when it comes to preserving those coveted, shoveled-out parking spaces after significant snowfall, drivers have been known to use these and just about anything else to save the spots for themselves.

That also includes the kitchen sink, according to Philadelphia Police Department Spokesperson Sergeant Eric Gripp.

Calling dibs on parking spaces, with orange cones or any other item, is against the law in Philadelphia, yet people often do it anyway.

Street parking belongs to no one in the city, which means no one is entitled to take ownership over a particular parking spot, no matter how long they spent clearing it of snow.

The police department started their No Savesies campaign in the winter of 2013 and 2014 in hopes of discouraging people from saving parking spots that don’t belong to them in the first place.

Officers spread the word during the colder months through entertaining videos on social media, including a “Stranger Things”-inspired public service announcement.

“Rather than the homeowner or somebody who’s just trying to park moving the item themselves and placing their car there, we encourage them to call 911, let the police come and handle it,” said Gripp.

Many people are simply unaware that street parking spaces, even the ones right in front of their homes, don’t belong to them, according to Gripp.

“Once they realize that it’s against the law, most people will try to do the right thing,” he said.

By letting the police handle the situation, a potentially violent altercation can be avoided.

Winter parking disputes have escalated to arguments, vandalizing, stabbings and shootings, Gripp said.

“You’ll click on these [social media] profiles of people that are posting comments on a police department page [like], ‘If somebody moves my cone, I’ll kill them! I’ll smash their window!’” Gripp said.

However, the tension over snow-free parking spots isn’t limited to Philadelphia alone.

In January 2016, drivers clashed over a parking space following a weekend snowstorm in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester.

The heated argument intensified, resulting in a man being shot with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Boston Globe.

During the same winter season, 18 minutes away in Jamaica Plain, Boston resident Kate Ziegler witnessed an altercation during a condo’s open house.

“It had just snowed the day before, so there were mountains of snow everywhere,” said the Arborview Realty realtor.

“We had people who were coming to the open house moving space savers that people had left out,” she said.

Following a snow emergency in Boston, it’s legal for 48 hours to save a parking spot. Once the 48-hour period ends, all parking space savers must go.

During the condo showing, a disgruntled resident stormed in carrying bags of groceries, annoyed that someone had moved his space saver and parked in his spot, Ziegler said.

Eventually, the altercation was resolved and they were able to find another spot for the person who’d removed the space saver, she said.

In Boston, certain neighborhoods have a stronger reputation of retaliation over parking spots than others, including South Boston, according to Ziegler.

“The problem is, if you park in an open space, you don’t necessarily know if someone took away the space saver on their own accord, because they know it’s past the 48 hours, or if the city took it as trash,” Ziegler said.

“Then, that person might think that you moved their space saver and trashed it,” she added.

The winter space-saving issue also extends to other major cities, including Chicago, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.

In Philadelphia, police hope that the No Savesies campaign brings awareness to the fact that calling dibs on a space simply isn’t legal.

"Do we think it’s going to lead to a perfect utopia where we think everybody is going to start shoveling everybody else’s spaces? No,” Gripp said.

“At least it can take some of the edge off, so people know going into this that the police are going to enforce this,” he said. “They won’t even bother putting the stuff out there, and hopefully it’ll curtail a lot of the disagreements that take place.”

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