Pittsburgh's Parking Chairs

It's been nearly twenty years since I lived in the Pittsburgh metro area, but there are some peculiar aspects that I don't think about often until something triggers a memory or prompts a trip down memory lane.

All the central Ohio snow shoveling the last week reminded me of one such peculiarity - shoveling out a parking space, then claiming it by putting a chair in the middle of it.

It's certainly not an international symbol of ownership. It's more a claim-staking opportunity, as if to say, "Hey, yunz guys. It was slippy out here, but I dug out dis spot, so it's mine, y'hear? Split my pantz doin' it, too."

Lo and behold, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette took an in-depth look at this spot-squatting phenomena, and sad to say, fewer citizens are respecting chair placement as an acceptable way to reserve the fruits of ones snow-shoveling labor.

"No self-respecting Pittsburgher would ever move a parking chair, though there are those who have little self-respect," says Bernadette Kazmarski, an artist and writer who routinely photographs parking chairs, mostly in her hometown of Carnegie, and posts them on her blog, http://bernadettestoday.wordpress.com/. 

How about where you are located? What's the preferred method for reserving a parking space in the winter? Is there universal respect for using an object in the space as a placeholder, or does urban Darwinism kick in?

Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Image via meryddian's photostream on flickr