Sweat equity has a limit: City to collect 'dibs' on Friday

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said he believes in the “sweat equity” epitomized by the “dibs” system that allows people who dig out their parking spaces after heavy snowfalls to claim them by placing lawn chairs, old furniture and toys in the street.

But there’s apparently a two-week time limit on sweat equity.

On Friday, 12 days after the Super Bowl Sunday storm, the Department of Streets and Sanitation will begin collecting remnants of the dibs system, starting with the tacky street obstructions reported to the city’s 311 non-emergency number.

Residents who want to preserve their place-holding items are asked to remove them before Friday or risk having them swept up and discarded by city crews.

“As is the case with every winter season, once snow starts to melt, Streets and Sanitation crews begin to remove material from the public way,” Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Charles Williams was quoted as saying in a news release.

“I want to ask residents to be good neighbors and remove material from the public way to ensure it is not moved by our crews.”

Now that the snow emergency has ended, Streets and Sanitation can turn its attention to studying the alternate side of the street parking idea championed by Emanuel and South Side Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6^th) that could put an end to the dibs system.

Last week, Sawyer suggested requiring motorists to move their cars from one side of the street to the other whenever heavy snow or more heavy snow is forecast. Minutes later, Emanuel embraced the idea.

If temporary parking can somehow be found in parking-starved Chicago neighborhoods, that would allow the city to plow snow-covered residential streets all the way to the curb — and without having to worry about burying vehicles that homeowners have painstakingly dug out.

“[Sawyer] is scratching an itch that I’m gonna scratch, too. I just don’t know how yet,” the mayor said.

“We do it for street sweeps in the spring. Can we use the same concept that, when it’s north of 10 [inches], we’re gonna give you times when you pull the cars out? We’ll plow that curb-to-curb and get it done. People are gonna say, `Where am I gonna park?’ That’s a legitimate thing. That’s what these people will figure out.”

Sawyer wants to declare what he calls a “catastrophic snow event” whenever the forecast calls for 10 inches of snow or more.

When the alarm is sounded, drivers wouldn’t be able to park on the north or west side of residential streets until the end of the day after the first 24 hours of the storm.

The next day, they wouldn’t be able to park on the south or east side of residential streets.

Booting would be suspended for the duration of the snow emergency. Vehicles left behind after alternate side of the street parking is imposed would be towed to a nearby location, just as the city does now during any street emergency.

Sawyer has acknowledged that Chicago motorists would be somewhat inconvenienced by having to move their vehicles from one side of the street to the other.

But that pales by comparison to the headache caused by having to dig out their cars three or four times, he said.

“When the snowplows make their second or third pass, it covers people’s cars with snow. If they dug out once, they have to do it all over again,” Sawyer has said.

“If we had one side of the street vacant, they could be plowed from the middle of the street to the curb, then let people move to the other side. We wouldn’t have to put chairs out in the street for dibs. There would be fewer fights between residents. They might not be happy with having to move their cars. But they won’t be as teed off as they are now by being stuck.”

Emanuel has pointed to the cut he made in Lake Shore Drive to avoid a repeat of the fiasco that followed the Ground Hog day blizzard of 2011. That storm shut down Lake Shore Drive and stranded hundreds of motorists and CTA buses for hours.

“The new normal is the abnormal. We’ve had a second blizzard of abnormal proportions in four years. What did we learn? What can we do better? Here’s a new idea for side streets,” the mayor said.

“After a resident has worked hard clearing out their parking space, we’re shoving snow back at what they just shoveled. The question is, can we get them their parking space and clean the street? They’re looking at it. Maybe we can try it out in a couple of aldermanic wards next time and let’s see how that works.”