Dibs Drama Never Ends, Thanks To Logan Square Ald. Rey Colon
By Kevin Robinson in News on Jan 8, 2014 3:10PM
Just when you thought the ancient and sacred Chicago tradition of dibs had been flogged to death in the local press, Ald. Rey Colon (35th) stepped into the mix with his own take on the matter.
Colon, whose ward includes the Logan Square neighborhood, told DNAInfo Chicago that this week his office is getting more calls about what he terms "civil neighborly disputes" than usual. Are these tiffs about dogs peeing on lawns or cars racing up and down streets, as would be expected? No, these "civil neighborly disputes" are about people claiming parking spots on the street with garbage and broken furniture.
"I just get really leery with the whole dibs thing. I know they work hard to clear out the space, but it is a public space. By you putting a chair there you're denying [others] a space," he told DNAInfo Chicago. "We haven't really gotten a lot of [calls] this year, but today we're getting a lot of their winter disputes — their winter wonderland disputes," he added with a chuckle.
Colon noted that his office has seen a large number of these types of calls this week (pro-tip: Chicagoans do dibs when it snows, guys). In fact, dibs is such an issue for Colon, he even dedicated an entire ward newsletter to the matter.
Colon isn't the only alderman to take this week's wild weather as an opportunity to remind constituents that dibs is illegal. Alderman Scott Waguespack (32nd) made it a point to tell his constituents in an email that "'dibs are not allowed for shoveled parking spaces" and that Streets and San workers will remove non-cars that are in parking spots on the public streets.
So if you don't want to lose that broken chair or cracked laundry basket, make sure you don't dibs your spot (at least in Logan Square or Wicker Park).