Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Free Parking


A reader writes....> "Hey Craig, Is Loyola Park offering free parking now?"

Blognotes: Sure looks like it.

32 comments:

rogerspark60645 said...

Isn't this the city getting ready to up the rates for overnight parking?

rogerspark60645 said...

OT-Hi Craig, Monday evening I noticed that my front plate was bent to about a 90 degree angle. I figured it may be because of the car wash I went through yesterday. However it is a vanity plate and it has been stolen before (there is a Chicago Bears player with the same last name as mine). Then my son came home around 9:00 and said his front plate (non-vanity) had been removed. We live in WRP. I had him call 311 to report it and get an event number. After this I found out that my friend who is a crossing guard (you know her) had her front plate stolen 3 times now! Since she is a crossing guard she knows what to do at the station. She told me to go into the station and get an orange card for the front window to avoid a ticket while waiting for a new plate. Any guesses why people would want these?

proGun said...

Very suspicious, no signs or indications of intent. Likely some jurisdictional issue with parking contract and CPD. Who get the money type of thing.

Likely resolution, one day when the lot is full the bags come off and everyone gets a ticket or two.

Be wary of free parking meters.

Rogers Park Vigilance said...

Go ahead and park your car there... guaranteed to have a window gone and the inside picked clean overnight.

james said...

don't bet on it. more than likely they're covering them up so they can be taken out and replaced by the pay boxes.

billyjoe said...

My Evanston residency feels better with each passing day

paradise said...

Nope, an orange card in the window won't keep you from getting ticketed. You have to get a temporary plate from the secretary of state and remove or cover the rear plate with it until a replacement arrives. You can also get ticketed for a hanging front plate, even if it's not missing.

Fuzzy Logic said...

Speaking about parking: Maybe I'm not very observant, but when did Jarvis just west of Ashland Ave get marked for 2hr parking during weekdays? What's the thinking there? That without that there'd be too many spots for us?

rogerspark60645 said...

Thanks paradise.

Maybe the city is taking them so that we all have to buy mere. What a pain.

Unknown said...

does this have to do with the email blast from Joe's office that they were going to start charging for over night parking in the lots? I think they were also raising the cost of hourly parking. Ok, I'm curious, so if the meters are now owned by an outside company, do the police still ticket and the money goes to the city?

Craig Gernhardt said...

===does this have to do with the email blast from Joe's office that they were going to start charging for over night parking in the lots?===

Joe Moore is part of the problem. Here's an idiot who voted for the privatization in December, and now wants a do-over.

Hey, dumb-fuck Joe. You're nothing more than a Monday morning quarterback.

You should've read the agreement before you voted on it. Not after.

I wonder how many 49th ward voters wished they had their 2007 vote back now?

rogerspark60645 said...

The entire parking and revenue issues have gone out of control in the last year. I know many people with red light tickets whoe weren't even over the white line. One of them is a crossing guard! Why would she enter the intersection? In that case I was able to get her out of the ticket with a letter.

Hillari said...

My boxing coach was wondering what was up last night when he gave me a ride home. I told him I think it's in preparation for the meters going up in price. Luckily, as a Park District employee, he can park free in the back of the field house. Unfortunately, everybody else who parks over there is going to have to dig in their pockets.

Man On The Street said...

Any guesses why people would want these?I'm going to guess crooks and other n'eer-do-wells. They steal your plates, put them on their getaway car, go out and commit a crime (store robbery, drive by).. when witnesses give a plate number, they're giving the cops YOUR number. The bad guys aren't connected in anyway and it just might throw the cops off long enough to let them get away. Big Daddy would probably be better at answering this, but I would think that if a cop hears your plate number, sees the neighborhood that it's registered to, he won't begin his search on west Madison. Just a weak theory of mine but hey...

Man On The Street said...

Ok, I'm curious, so if the meters are now owned by an outside company, do the police still ticket and the money goes to the city?I believe those are LAZ's people who collect AND give out parking tickets. Police still give out tickets for moving violations.

They're probably getting ready to change the meters because currently they give more time per quarter than the company wants to. I believe all of the meters will give 15 minutes per quarter.

Which brings me to the meters on Morse. I parked there the other day and it's 15 minutes per quarter. Why would they do this? Wouldn't you want to encourage people to park longer on Morse to possibly shop or go to the store, etc. and spend money there. Why would you want to hustle them out of there? I can see downtown where there is so much business turnover they will always make money. But I was the only car parked in front of Common Cup for about 100 yards. Why would they force such rapid turnover of cars in an area that could benefit from people being able to stay longer to shop and spend money? Likewise for areas with a lot of restaurants. With the old meters, there were some areas with heavy traffic that charged 15 minutes per quarter, slower, less congested areas sometimes gave an hour for one quarter? Why was that system wrong?

Eeyore said...

RE: Fuzzy Logic and the 2 hr parking on Jarvis. Now the cars that would have parked on Jarvis during the day to take the EL to work are parked on "neighboring" blocks. Just how neighborly is that? Parking is so congested that we cannot park on our street day or night, weekday or weekend. How very gloomy!

mcl said...

As I understand it, CPD will continue to ticket cars at expired meters and the city will collect the fines. LAZ collects and keeps the proceeds from the meters. That's how the 'sale of the meters' deal is setup.

MadeInRogersPark said...

BACK IN THE DAY WHEN THERE WAS A DRUGSTORE, A BAKERY, AND AN A & P Grocery store on Jarvis as well as a flower shop and gift shop under the 'El" stop there were no meters on Jarvis. Then people from the suburbs caught on and started parking on Jarvis and hopped the 'El' downtown. I almost forgot, a really cool little restaurant under the 'El' too.
Really made a mess! These new pay meters aren't just in Chicago, they are moving in across the United States. Mr. glad he's residing in Evanston will soon understand he will be paying in downtown Evanston th very same way very soon!

Eeyore said...

OK...the problems with the LAZ meter system is not because of the paybox hardware itself:

1) The payboxes are often not working - not taking credit cards or not printing the stub. I know this to be true because I use them everyday.

2) The cost per minute has often quadruapled - say to $6/hr - who has that many quarters on them?

3) There is often only 1 paybox on an entire block, so when the paybox isn't working, one has to run up and down the neighborhood looking for a working box. (imagine it's 5 below and you have a toddler in tow. If you cannot imagine this, borrow one this winter and try it for yourself).

4) It's $50 ticket if you don't have a valid paybox stub.

The bright side is that this issue has really brought strangers together in agreement that the system aproved by our pols is asinine.

Razldazlrr said...

Well, It may be a good idea to raise the meter prices at Loyola Park to keep the rifraf at bay. I was down there last night with the dogs - people everywhere. It's the lake, it's 80+ and that's what it's for but......loud obnoxious people, huge picnics with trash and bottles, cans, food thrown everywhere! There are trash cans all around at the lake front and yet these pigs throw their trash and their food all over the ground!!! I watched 10 people pack up their stuff to leave and even though there was a trash can 5 feet from them, they left it all over the ground. Folks I lived on the near north side by the lake for 10 years, and sorry, I didn't see that at the lake front there! Is it the lack of social upbringing? I don't know. So, I say good - raise the parking on the meters!!!!

rogerspark60645 said...

I know somebody who went out to pot money in the Laz meter 6 minutes BEFORE it expired and they had already written the ticket!

Man On The Street said...

As I understand it, CPD will continue to ticket cars at expired meters and the city will collect the fines.yeah, you're right. I wasn't sure if cops were still writing parking tickets for meters but I saw a cop doing this this morning near by apt. while walking to the el.

So let me get this straight: We're paying cops to do work for a private company? Does this even begin to seem right? WTF?

Clark St. said...

I'm waiting for some very smart lawyer to challenge the right of Chicago cops to write tickets on meters.
If successful, it might make LAZ have to file a civil suit against each ticket written.
Which would be a nightmare to handle.
And would cause both LAZ & the city to mutually end this insanity!

Unknown said...

The Meters are being removed because of complaints the Alderman recieved from Hookers and their pimps. People parking their cars along the side of the street made it more challenging for potential customers to do their window shopping.

Fargo said...

Speaking about parking: Maybe I'm not very observant, but when did Jarvis just west of Ashland Ave get marked for 2hr parking during weekdays? What's the thinking there?This is not new. The 2 hr parking has been in effect there for at least 5 years because too many people were using it for free park&ride in the morning. The issue of too many people doing the same thing on adjacent blocks (especially CTA employees) has been a problem for at least that long.

The difference: many more residents of Jarvis have garages or off-street parking than on Fargo or Paulina, which are higher density.

Anonymous said...

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Unknown said...

I live across the street from the fieldhouse in that photo. This is the second time the city has done this in the past few months. Last time the orange covers were on for over a week, then they removed them. Now they are on again -- pretty sure LAZ is supposed to change them to the new rate. Free parking for now is cool.

Listen, a lot of people don't feed the meters over here, so it doesn't matter if the rate is 25 cents an hour or 2 dollars an hour -- people will still drink and fuck in cars over here for no charge.

MadeInRogersPark said...

Come on Fargo, I am not sure you can attribute the cars to CTA employees. The cars that park along Fargo, Jarvis and Sherwin are suburban residents taking advantage of our beautiful city without paying taxes. Like I said, I remember when there were NO meters in the 1500 block of Jarvis. There was also a neighborhood grocer, a flower shop and gift and card shop along with a bakery! Also two pharmacies, one called Noskins at the corner of Jarvis and Greenview and oh gosh my age fails me in the name of the pharmacy at Jarvis and Ashland, run by a father and two sons forever and a day!

MadeInRogersPark said...

The Pharmacy at Ashland and Jarvis was Pearlman's!
They were so nice too. Imagine a pharmacist that said don't worry about the money - just take your medicine and your Dad will pay me when he comes in to see me!

academic one said...

HELLO! Can any of the elected officials spell DUH. All this parking flack was damn predictable. Sales on the edge of Cook county has already suffered due to the 10% sales tax. Like that wasn't predictable DUH.
I used to park downtown on Sundays (free meter day) to visit the shopping districts but no longer, I will shop suburban or on line.
Finding a space off the main streets to shop isn't possible either because of resident permit parking sooooooooo we have fewer and fewer options.

Despite that parking in RP has always been a problem, the city continues to take spaces away. First Reside on Morse takes 6 spaces, now LAZ and the city are appropriating Loyola Park spaces. WTF is right!

Does anyone understand that all of Sheridan is basically a no parking area because of rush hours (for our suburban commuters) and during the winter for snow plowing hours. Then Morse and Glenwood have street cleaning days. So parking and not having to move your car for a few days is harder and harder to do. Damn, where am I suppose to stick my car? Before you answer that, I'm 60 and have bad knees so need a use of a car but don't have the money to park in a private lot/building. In this economy squeezing the working classes could eventually lead to class warfare.

Is it possible for RP to secede from Chicago? Could we become a part of Evanston?

Razldazlrr said...

academic - it sounds like you may qualify for handicapped parking (i have no clue what the restrictions are). Have you checked that out?

I love how Joe (and lots of other politicians in this country) don't really read the bills they are signing and then they are upset later after they are passed. That definitely deserves a WTF!

Patrick said...

MadeinRogersPark -

Your comments that all of the cars parked on Jarvis near the CTA stop are from the suburbs make no sense. Pray tell, which suburb? People in the north shore suburbs (e.g., Evanston, Wilmette, etc.) would take the purple line, which goes direct to Belmont and saves 20 minutes off the same trip from Jarvis. The purple line has a Howard stop, but not at Jarvis.

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