Thursday, February 20, 2020
The parking chair as art and an homage to Pittsburghers
News | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: Pittsburgh likes parking chairs. It's a cultural touchstone referenced in jokes, on t-shirts, or in an ad promoting tourism to the Steel City. But like most things Pittsburghers claim as uniquely Pittsburgh things — pierogies, basement toilets, hills — the parking chair is not exclusive to Pittsburgh. So why, and when, did Pittsburghers start embracing it with such fervor?
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This article really made me smile. Pittsburgh is truly one of the strangest places I've ever been, and certainly the strangest place I have ever lived. The amount of pride in this city is tangible and audible, as you hear “yinzer” and “dahntahn” around every corner. But it continues to surprise me with its new, strange, traditions. This parking chair is something that we occasionally had in Ohio, but the amount of pride in such a practice is unknown to me. I love that these artists came to celebrate this sacred Pittsburghian practice. I love art made by and for a community. I think sometimes people argue that community centered art can be limiting an audience, but I think if its done well it has the power to invite a whole new group of people on a little bit of magic that a certain community holds. These chairs are truly wonderful and I hope I can see them in person sometime.
As someone not from Pittsburgh, this concept amazes me. I had no clue that people would mark parking spots with chairs. And from the images provided in the article, it is a very specific type of chair. I really like how this “old Pittsburgh” tradition has been able to be transformed into an advertisement for tourism to the city. I would love for a native Pittsburgher closer to my age to comment on this topic. I think I am most curious about how the snow impacts the importance of the parking chair. The article mentions that the chairs are used in other cities that have lots of snow besides just Pittsburgh, so as someone who is hearing of this concept for the first time, I am wondering why the snow plays a role in the chairs. I think placing the chair in a parking spot at any time of year would make sense if you’re trying to save it, but I think if it snows too much then the chair would be covered in snow. Also if it snows but your chair is there, then you’d just have one little patch that doesn’t have snow so I am very confused on the relationship between the snow, parking spots, and these chairs are.
Never in my life have I heard of or seen a parking chair. I can't imagine going to a parking lot that is busy and seeing a chair sitting in a perfectly good space, and no one being mad about it. That being said, I now realized (for the first time as well) that it is a staple of Pittsburgh culture. There are lots of things that are important to Pittsburgh as a city, that I have never heard of, probably on account of this school never leaving me time to explore the city. It is so cute and interesting that artists are doing art based on parking chairs here in Pittsburgh, but I love it. It is so quirky and fun, what a fun idea. What a weird place. I think this art has the ability to mean something to lots of local people, and also the ability to relate to people who don't live here, because they are so pretty.
I saw a video documenting Pittsburgh Parking Chairs not too long ago, and I thought it was hilarious. What a fun bit of personality and tradition this practice is! I have yet to see a parking chair in the flesh, but I am excited to eventually. I think the application of this into an art exhibit is wonderful! It is a great way to raise money for local artists with an appropriate local theme. The article mentions that Pittsburghers have a “special knack for embracing [the city’s] cultural touchpoints and elevating them to ludicrous degrees.” I agree with this and have seen it in application since I’ve been living here. Even the bridges have a cultural significance, and Dick loves to tell the story of what happened when someone suggested painting them colors other than yellow. Pittsburgh is a city of pride, and it seems this pride extends between neighbors, through culture, and all the way down to shoveled out parking spots in the snow.
I definitely got about halfway through this article wondering what is a parking chair before I looked it up only to have it be defined 10 words later. Maybe it's because I've lived in a suburb most of my life but the concept of a parking chair isn't something I'd ever heard of. It's kind of crazy to me that the fine for using one is $300. That's about the same as a heavy speeding ticket and the amount you're endangering someone's life by adding a reservation chair to a parking space is in most circumstances, I would think, 0. This article brought up some questions for me. Is a parking chair something you just always carry around in your trunk in case someone else needs it? So you just pull up and place your chair and text your friend and be like I reserved you a spot? Or are there just people walking around downtown carrying chairs waiting for the opportunity to place them, run back to their cars, then drive their cars over and take it? I have questions.
This is such a strange concept to me. I have never in my life heard of a parking chair so this is very new to me. I do really like the idea, though, because whenever my family goes into a city and we try to find a parking spot, we have come across instances where there would be an open spot and one of us would normally need to stand in the spot and wait until we could turn the car around. This does not make people very happy, but I love the cultural identity of the Pittsburgh parking chair. It is such a simple little thing, but that is what makes Pittsburgh such a weird city. The fact that people here speak with such a weird dialect and the other strange nuances of human culture make this city a really cool and interesting place to live. You never know what you will find on the streets of Pittsburgh.
Much like Claire said, Pittsburgh really is a weird city however, weird is not a bad thing. Parking chairs are not something that I have come across yet during my time in Pittsburgh but they make a lot of sense. Parking in Pittsburgh is probably my least favorite thing about the city. There is always a lot of traffic on the street and having someone stop all traffic to parallel park in a spot is just a nightmare to me. We have had a fairly mild winter this year so I have not had to bust out my snow shovel in order to dig my car out but I can imagine the sense of pride I would have for my parking spot if I put the work in to clean it. Additionally, I really like the cultural affair that these chairs seem to bring. The artwork on the chairs that are referenced in the article is beautiful and so uniquely Pittsburgh.
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