If you worked hard to shovel a parking spot in Philly or to find one that wasn’t entombed in snow and ice, are you entitled to it? That’s the eternal question of the “Savesies” debate — ie, the practice of putting an object like a chair or cone in a spot to save it.
The debate has never been hotter — actually colder — than right now in South Philly. It’s like the wild, wild west — a frozen frontier where many streets still aren’t plowed. Snow banks, some piled multiple feet in the air, surround cars. There has never been enough parking there. Now there’s a lot less, and the snow and ice will almost certainly linger into next week.
Billy Penn spoke with residents about the current situation, and how it continues to affect the city’s parking landscape.
Mixed feelings
Parking in South Philly was already hard to come by before Sunday’s snow, said Joe Moore, an incident manager living in Point Breeze. While shoveling out his car, he expressed concern over finding another spot once he moves.
“I feel like I’m gonna have to drive around for an hour to try to find a spot,” he said.
Although Moore worked to dig up his car, he said he’s not a fan of the “savesies” concept.
“We’re gonna move the car and then test our luck when we get back,” he said.
Some residents feel differently. Sudan McNair, a 20-year-old student, shoveled out a parking spot and put a cone out. He said he feels anyone who worked to clear a space is entitled to park in it.
“I just want to tell the people to stop taking other people’s spots,” he said. “Stop taking people’s spots that they shoveled their way out of.”
Although nobody moved McNair’s cone, he said it’s possible someone could try to take the spot in the future. In that case, he said, he would just “accept the loss.”
“If I come back and don’t see the cone, it’s like, I don’t even know who did it,” he said. “So you kind of have to give in.”
Fights over parking spots can get violent. A brawl over a cleared parking space Thursday afternoon in Kensington left one person in critical condition.
But others on social media defend the “Savesies” concept and take a more lighthearted tone.
Peter Conlon, 35, a handyman and bartender, drove to the neighborhood from Delaware for a moving job. He came in the afternoon, and said the daytime parking scene was “not as bad as I thought it would be.”
When he sees a cone or a chair guarding an empty shoved space, Conlon tends to leave it be.
“I wouldn’t [move it], just because I’m not very confrontational, so I don’t want to deal with that headache,” he said. “I’d rather just, you know, circle the block a few more times.”
Conlon believes, whether you like it or not, savesies are inevitable.
“It’s just kind of part of South Philly,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a real way to police it. It’s just gonna always happen.”
Carolyn Williams, 63, lives in South Philly and feels those who worked to clear their spots deserve to keep them.
“I feel as though people that shovel their spaces out should be able to come back and park where they shovel their spaces out,” she said. “[I feel] that nobody else should be able to park in their spot, and then they have to go try to find somewhere else to park. It’s not fair.”
Williams also emphasized there is normally a lack of available spots for permit parking outside of snow storms — especially at night. She said this has led her daughter, who works late and comes home looking for a spot, to frequently park outside of her permitted zone.
“She comes home at night, and there’s nowhere for her to park, so she has to park three or four blocks down,” she said. “She’s a young lady out here walking by herself at night. You know how dangerous it is in Philadelphia all over, and anything can happen to her.”
City response? Shrug
The city has maintained the #NoSavesies stance, saying it is illegal to block off spots with inanimate objects. In the past, the city has made an effort to round up cones and objects that block off these spaces.
As one redditor noted, “The person who took your spot almost certainly had *their* spot taken by someone else. The circle of life.”
Some residents see both sides to the debate. Dylan Swindells, who lives in South Philly, said he can see the validity in blocking off a spot someone makes an effort to shovel out during a snowstorm. But, he said “Savesies” persists throughout the year, which can be frustrating.
“The lawn chairs and the tires and stuff are very obnoxious,” Swindells said. “You don’t own the street, and you don’t own the spot outside your house. We all live in the same area, it should really just become first-come, first-serve.”
Swindells’ best friend, Louis Montanez, agrees. He said outside of the snowstorm, the problem persists.
“When it comes to outside of that, I know half his block is just blocked off by chairs and cones and basketball-like memorabilia,” he said.
The Philadelphia Police Department and Streets Department did not respond to a request for comment at the time of the publication of this story.
The post In parking-starved, icebound South Philly, debate rages over saving parking spots, ie ‘savesies’ appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY.
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