Philadelphia Police Address Spot-Saving

It’s a tale as old as time: the snow falls, people shovel a parking space, and then the coolers, lawn chairs, cones, and other forms of space-savers come out to play. Philadelphia residents are not alone in feeling entitled to the parking space that they cleared out – news reports say that similar activities are taking place in Boston and New York, fellow northeast cities that got inundated by snow during the weekend’s blizzard.

Teri Geraci Gilbert (@terilynngg) posted this on Twitter in response to Philadelphia Police’s ban on space-saving. The caption: “Sorry Philly PD. But with 22 inches of snow, screw your #NoSavesies ! #blizzard2016”

Then there are the signs. They range from the polite (the Philadelphia Daily News reported the story of a couple who put a cone out and asked others to “kindly” not take their shoveled-out spot since the husband is a stage-4 cancer patient and the wife is six months pregnant) to the… not-so-polite. A Boston.com article showed examples laced with profanity, as well as at least one sign threatening to shovel all the snow back onto an interloper’s car if they parked in a saved spot.

Philadelphia police released a parody version of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” called “No Savesies” that touts the importance of not hogging parking spaces following snowstorms. They also took to Twitter reminding the city that space-saving is technically against the law, and informing people who want to park in saved spaces that they can call the police and have them come and investigate it. Meanwhile, The Washington Post called the space-saving debate “the great post-blizzard parking struggle.”

I have a hard time not standing with the space-savers, since they did take the considerable time and energy to shovel out a spot. On the other hand, the law is the law, and I guess that’s what matters at the end of the day. May your parking be struggle-free today, Philadelphia!