Many people, every year, talk about the traditional “dibs” system during a big snow fall, that causes people to shovel a spot out to park for up to an hour. No one wants to shovel a spot every time they come home from a long day of work, just to see someone else take the spot. When the snow freezes over, it’s even worse and nearly impossible to shovel. It’s exhausting for everyone, the elderly can’t shovel, and the young people won’t.

People get into arguments about dibs or even throw others dibs property away, keep it or throw it into the snow. No one has the courtesy to knock on their neighbors door to ask if it’s ok to park there, if dibs is in order, just to avoid having their tires slashed, windows busted, cars keyed or reading a nasty note left for them.

We need the Department of Streets and Sanitation and our Mayor, Lori Lightfoot to help us out. It’s a small step to making Chicago a great place to live again. We need them to set aside time after a big snowfall, to clean our side streets as if it were street cleaning. Put up signs like we do for street cleaning and tell people not to park there for a certain amount of time, so that snow can completely be removed for parking and driving. Plowing only happens when cars are parked and we have to dig even more. We need this for our Chicagoans.

Guarantee, no more busted windows, slashed tires, keyed cars, nasty notes, thrown away or taken property, arguments or fights, all over dibs. We must do better for our city, even if it takes something so small in the beginning, that always becomes big. Keep in mind, we do have to shovel ourselves out the first time.

Sign this petition to get our Mayor and Streets of Sanitation to set aside a full street snow plow after a snow storm, as if it’s street cleaning, so that parking won’t be an issue and stuck cars won’t be an issue either. Put plows back on our garbage trucks so that the alleys can get cleared during trash removal. It’s a simple thing that can make winter in Chicago a bit more easier. Portland, Maine and Minneapolis, Minnesota does it, even Skokie, Illinois and Canada, among others. Why not us? Give us this snow emergency plan/snow ban and clear our side streets and parking spaces!