Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> Legal Blog Watch

Legal News

: Legal Blog Watch

Snow Law: Who Has the Right to the Parking Spot You Dug Out?

By Bruce Carton

In the D.C.-area where I'm located, everything -- politics; the suckitude of the Redskins, Wizards and Nationals; you name it -- has taken a back seat to the record three feet of snow that the Snowpocalypse of 2010 has inflicted upon our city this week. As such, an article on Tuesday in The Washington Post did a great job of highlighting perhaps the most contentious issue of the week: "If you dig your car out from its frozen tomb, do you then own that parking spot until the sun melts open the rest of the curbside space?" The short answer is that here in D.C., where the winters are usually mild, we don't really have a definitive law, practice or "snow etiquette" to govern the situation. Cold-weather cities like Boston, however, have gone so far as to enact laws on the subject. The Post reports that in Boston, "a city law says that if you dig out your car in a snow emergency, a lawn chair or trash can renders the spot yours for at least two days while you're away at work." In Chicago, the article adds, citizens cannot legally block a parking spot but even city officials acknowledge...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on February 11, 2010 (boomark / email).