Parking Spaces

It's time to end the practice of reserving snow-cleared parking spots. Instead of pitching in and digging out their snowed-in streets, people throw junk in their barely cleared parking spots and expect to be able to keep parking there until the snow melts. This could take weeks. Community minded, law abiding citizens who also dug out their spots but didn't want to be rude to their neighbors are now in a constant war to find a parking spot. This is contributing to a lawless atmosphere regarding navigating the snowed-in city and is being used as an excuse to keep a parking spot night and day by people who normally have no such right.

The Sun reported Wednesday that Baltimore Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake says she will not enforce the ban on saving public parking spaces with household goods. Ms. Rawlings-Blake seems to be under the delusion that this is a Baltimore tradition. On the contrary, this asinine practice is a feature of snow storms in cities and suburbs nationwide. I shovel snow from around my vehicle to get it out of the space. Anyone that thinks this entitles them to exclude others from that space has a deep lack of respect for property.

When it snows in Baltimore, it isn't long before traffic cones, lawn chairs and even a bar stool or two appear on the streets, as residents lay claim to curbside parking spaces they've labored to clear. Among the space holders spotted this week: a pair of walkers on Harford Road north of 25th Street, beach chairs in Rodgers Forge and a dining room chair in Hampden. The long-standing local practice is guaranteed to provoke snide comments and even threats. Some think it only fair; others think it the height of selfishness.

I am indeed warmed to see good neighbors shovel each other out of a snowy bind; it's such a great example of the good side of our city. But likewise I am infuriated to see non-neighborly citizens blocking empty parking spaces with chairs and other detritus. The practice is illegal for obvious reasons. It increases snowbound traffic as citizens circle trying to find parking, and it gets in the way of city officials trying to clear the streets. I am especially dismayed to see spots "saved" on snow emergency routes -- spaces that are supposed to remain clear for the snow plows.

When it snows in Baltimore, it isn't long before traffic cones, plastic chairs, lawn chairs, even a bar stool or two appear, as residents lay claim to curbside parking spaces they've labored to clear. Among the space holders spotted this week: a pair of walkers on Harford Road north of 25th Street, beach chairs in Rodgers Forge and a dining room chair in Hampden. The long-standing local practice is guaranteed to provoke snide comments and even threats. Some think it only fair, others think it the height of selfishness.

After a Baltimore snowstorm, you might be unsure whether your street will get plowed, your mail delivered or your trash picked up. But you can probably be certain of one thing: Someone in your neighborhood will save a shoveled-out parking spot with a chair. It is a decades-old city custom that works like this: If you dug the space, you have rights to it and can "save" the spot with a chair, or perhaps a traffic cone or other object - even though it is on a public street. Moving your neighbor's chair can be taken as an affront that, longtime residents fear, can lead to arguments, fistfights, scratched cars or slashed tires.

After a Baltimore snowstorm, you might be unsure whether your street will get plowed, your mail delivered or your trash picked up. But you can probably be certain of one thing: Someone in your neighborhood will save a shoveled-out parking spot with a chair. It is a decades-old city custom that works like this: If you dug the space, you have rights to it and can "save" the spot with a chair, or perhaps a traffic cone or other object - even though it is on a public street. Moving your neighbor's chair can be taken as an affront that, longtime residents fear, can lead to arguments, fistfights, scratched cars or slashed tires.

This week, Watchdog brings you updates on some problems that were still unresolved when first reported. Update:: A handicapped parking sign at the University of Baltimore that restricted the spaces to side-lift vans has been changed to read "van accessible," a spokesman for the school said. Robert Brent, a UB student who has a handicapped parking hangtag for his car, wrote to Watchdog after he was reprimanded for parking in spaces on Morton Street, behind the school's academic center, because those spaces were marked for side-lift vans only.

A former industrial parcel on Key Highway in South Baltimore will be the site of a seven-story residential and retail project called Riverside Lofts, if developer Mark Shapiro can get the design and financing approvals he needs to move ahead with construction. Shapiro is scheduled today to present preliminary plans for the project to Baltimore's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel. They call for a building with a Walgreens store on the first level and 100 to 120 apartments above.

Baltimore's former Highlandtown Middle School is targeted for conversion to a $30 million apartment and retail project called The Patterson, under a plan proposed by Focus Development of Baltimore and accepted by the city. Baltimore housing commissioner Paul T. Graziano announced this week that Focus has been selected over two other groups that expressed interest in recycling the 1934 school at 101 S. Ellwood Ave., in the Baltimore-Linwood neighborhood. Focus, headed by Shaffin Jetha and Rick Diehl, proposed to convert the vacant public school by 2012 to 120 to 150 market-rate apartments plus about 1,500 square feet of retail space, 2,000 square feet of "interior meeting space" and 110 to 140 indoor parking spaces.