Southwest Siders file the most dibs complaints
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Man starts clearing snow from his car after a snowstorm in Lakeview. Photo: Monica Eng/Axios
After this weekend's storm, you may be tempted to dig out a spot and save it with a lawn chair, but think again. Each year, thousands of Chicagoans turn in their dibbing neighbors, who could lose their chairs and even get a fine.
Here's some fresh dibs data we dug up through public records requests:
🪑 Chicagoans requested 10,132 dibs object removals from Jan. 1, 2022, to Jan. 1, 2026, according to 311 data.
- ❄️ The city took, on average, 6.7 days to take away those objects versus 7.5 hours to complete the average street plowing request — 20,655 of which came in during that same period.
Zoom in: Neighborhoods on the West Side and Southwest Side filed the most dibs removal requests, while wards covering downtown, Lakeview, Edgewater and Rogers Park filed the fewest.
What they're saying: "In neighborhoods like ours, with parking restraints and high density, the last thing we need is to fuel the dibs mindset," Ald. Ray Lopez, whose 15th Ward ranked No. 2 in requests, tells Axios.
- "We've taken away tons of crap from nativity figurines and baby cribs to car seats, cones, old furniture, deck chairs, you name it ... Some Chicago traditions deserve to die, and dibs is definitely one of them."
Remember: You have until 10am to remove nighttime snowfall and until 10pm to shovel daytime snowfall from your sidewalk.
- Oh, and dibs is still totally illegal.