There are plenty of parking meters where I live in the city, which work well.

If there are no poles/bike racks/parking meters around that you can u-lock a bike up to, you would probably be better off with a more heavy-duty chain lock. Kryptonite has some chain locks that are just as highly rated as u-locks for manual attacks. The downside to the chains is that they are usually much more heavy than a small u-lock.