We thought this would go away, but apparently, the residents who had their car towed have a real gripe. The following flyer comes to us via a resident whose car wasn't towed, but did receive the flyer alerting him to the race. Among other things, the flyer says: "The city will tow cars off the race route and move them to nearby streets and the Burr Elementary School parking lot." There is no mention anywhere of impounding the cars. [Typo: The year on the flyer reads 2007 which has been scrawled over with an '8' but the date (Sunday, October 5) is correct.] Check out the full flyer after the jump. more ›

A new battle pitting citizens against the city is brewing in Bucktown where 137 cars were towed over the weekend to clear the roads for a 5K race, an action that residents say happened without warning. The Streets and Sanitation Department begs to differ; spokesman Matt Smith claims the signs were posted Thursday night and Friday warning residents of the Sunday morning race. A home-made sign posted in the neighborhood Sunday morning directed residents to call Ald. Scott Waguespack's office if they felt their cars had been wrongly towed. Tim Eberline, whose car was towed while he spent the night with a friend, was told when he got his car out of the impound that "by immediately retrieving -- rather than putting in the paper work to appeal the tow -- he was told he was pleading guilty and had no further recourse." There must be a mix-up because the city would never pull a fast one on its residents for the purposes of financial gain. more ›