Have you ever heard of dibs ?

"If you want to understand a little of the city, all you have to do is go out into the neighborhoods after a deep snowfall." John Kass in the Chicago Tribune on the 4th of february

During the first week of february, Chicago was hit by the fifth-largest snow storm in its history.
It was a perfect occasion to learn more about the atmosphere of the city and catch a glimpse of the hidden characteristics of its citizens.

A snow storm is usually a civic bonding experience : people help each other shovel off sidewalks, neighbors support one another if there has been some damages in one's house, families and friends gather to play in the snow etc. All th
is gives an idyllic picture of the community values in a city. But when the sun comes out, the community feeling seems to fade and the inhabitants of Chicago come up again with urban traditions marking great individualism : this is what the dibs are about.

"Dibs" is a local tradition, named and promoted by the Tribune columnist John Kass, of reserving parking places on a snowy public way with junk from the garage or basement. Even if it may seem like an odd behaviour from the point of view of foreigners, it is nonetheless a burning issue for the inhabitants of Chicago. Some see it as a claim for individualism, others claim it is a way for expressing their fundamental freedoms and praise its effectiveness as a system. Some even make it the symbol of the hidden libertarian trait of a city considered as one of the major Democrat stronghold. Hence, the  libertarian legal theorist professor Richard A. Epstein's declaration a couple of years ago about dibs : 

"Dibs gets the snow dug quickly and efficiently. It works because people respect it. They don't abuse the system. Once the snow turns to slush, dibs ends, by common understanding." 

It almost looks like an electoral campaign commitment !

The weather can take us far from trivial considerations, far from the carefreeness of a snow storm and  Sinatra's crooner voice singing "Let it snow" in a Christmas atmosphere. What if dibs were the symbols of all the burning issues of American politics ? What if this ironing board was a symbol of all the issues of American politics ?

Let's leave the inhabitants of Chicago meditate this farfetched question, and let's hope it will snow in Paris in order to see if the Parisians will put their ironing board on parking places.