From Snow Shovels to City Hall: the Evolution of the Chair Rule Controversy

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The ritual took root during the post-war expansion of urban car ownership. Dense nineteenth-century street plans in cities like South Boston, Chicago's South Side, and South Philadelphia were engineered for streetcars and horse traffic, not two-car households. When severe winter storms paralyzed transit networks, municipalities lacked the plow capacity to scrape tight side streets curb-to-curb.

Residents took matters into their own hands. Clearing an iced-in parking space required up to three hours of intense physical labor, lifting between 1,000 and 2,500 pounds of slush and packed ice. To shovelers, leaving an empty spot open for an uninvested neighbor or a commuter felt like theft. Placing a chair in the cleared stall became an instinctive application of John Locke's labor theory of property: mixing one's physical sweat with natural resources creates a moral title to the plot.

The practice evolved separate regional identities. In Chicago, it became "dibs," documented in local presses as early as the historic blizzard of 1967 and cemented during the epic storm of 1979 that derailed Mayor Michael Bilandic's administration. In Pittsburgh, residents called it the parking chair, using it year-round on narrow hillsides before winter regulations pushed back. In Boston, city hall eventually codified the practice under explicit emergency guidelines.