On a snowy Friday night many many moons ago, my buddies traveled over to my dead-end street in Clifton for our usual weekly hang in my folk’s basement. One of my friends, who had not carpooled with the others, parked his car in a cleared space right across the street from my driveway. My neighbor, who had cleared that space of about five inches of snow, walked over and knocked on my parent’s front door, requesting my buddy move his car. Being the respectful 20-somethings we were at the time (and these guys are all still pretty polite) knowing how the neighbors on our suburban streets expected a space they cleared to indeed be their space (when legally there is no reason for it to be) my buddy did indeed move his car. Decades on, it seems this kind of thing still happens, with folks now ‘space saving’ in a whole different way.
Mayor Andre Sayegh of Paterson told a few news outlets how the habit of ‘saving snow spaces’ was becoming quite problematic in his town.
“Listen, I’ve seen people put animals to save their spots, dogs. That’s cruel by the way. But putting a chair, illegal. I’ve notified law enforcement, we’re patrolling the streets and we’re removing these objects as well,” the honorable mayor said.
My buddy altered me to the dog thing, I hadn’t heard about that, and even though I am not a pet owner I have to agree with the Mayor. That’s a damn cruel maneuver that no dog owner I know would ever entertain. Come on, man! Really? Putting your dog outside in the cold to save your precious parking space?!
Really has this claim on cleared spaces now gotten out of hand? I’d say!
I know people get stressed over the cold weather and accumulated snowfall. I see the crowds at the supermarkets stocking up. I know how hard it is to drive in and around snow piles. Who needs to be shoving so much at the ripe old age of, well…any age? But the potential for cold and snowfall is just something one has to deal with living in a state that sees four distinct seasons. But when you start breaking the law, or, come on dude! putting your pooch outside to protect a parking space, um…now you have gone snow crazy, as far as I am concerned.
