Originally published March 4, 2014 – Usually, Baltimore’s winters aren’t snowy enough for the serious, Chicago-style chair fights to break out. But with this year, it’s getting heated again.

You know what I’m talking about, right? The practice of shoveling out a parking spot, then putting a chair there all day so no one can take it while you’re gone. The pro-chair crowd argues that their hard work should be rewarded; by shoveling out that spot, they are essentially investing sweat equity in the property. And the anti-chair crowd says that they are selfish jerks.

This whole fight raises a lot of questions — for example, if you actually remove the chair in a shoveled-out spot, are you righting a wrong, or just doubling down on jerkiness? Are chairs put out to save spots fair game for, um, gathering? Should you write a passive aggressive note if someone steals your spot? If you don’t put a chair in the spot you shovel out, are you sure you’re not a Communist?