Results tagged “parking”

Every time our car gets towed from the Chicagoist Happy Hour, we resign ourselves to our fate: a long, expensive ride down to a random city lot somewhere incredibly inconvenient. Endless lines. Administrative hurdles that make tax forms look easy. And sometimes, we're lucky enough to find someone generous enough to give us a quasi-official hearing. We always lose. And then it's ramen noodles again, for months. But at least the hearing made us feel better about the situation.

On Tuesday, the City Council called on Tim Mitchell, Daley's Superintendent of Parks, to answer questions about the District's plans to install parking meters at city beaches this fall. The Park District will contract with Standard Parking to manage the meters, which will charge users a dollar an hour for parking at city beaches. In July 38th Ward Alderman Tom Allen expressed outrage at the deal, saying "The slogan is, 'Come out and play' —not 'come out and pay.' We want to revisit this. People own the lakefront. People own the beach. In this economy, that's the only vacation people can afford."

In a symbolic move, 33rd Ward Alderman and Rules Committee Chairman Dick Mell and 38th Ward Alderman and Transportation Committee Chairman Tom Allen are demanding that the Chicago Park District cancel its plans to install meters in over 4,000 parking spots in lakefront spaces. "The slogan is, 'Come out and play', not 'come out and pay.' We want to revisit this. People own the lakefront. People own the beach. In this economy, that's the only vacation people can afford," Allen told the Sun-Times. The Park District announced in May that they would begin charging for parking this fall. Mayor Daley, already bruised and battered from voter outrage over the parking meter privatization debacle, dodged comment on the matter, telling the Tribune, "That's the park district."

Still reeling from the spike in parking meter fees and where that money's going? Rest assured, the price to park in a Chicago garage daily is up only $1 from last year, according to a new parking rate survey released this week.

To keep overnight parking free at two lots in his ward, Alderman Joe Moore (D-49) said he will pay the Park District $89,000 a year for three years according to Chi-Town Daily News. Moore says the money will come out of his city stipend (taxpayer money) which aldermen get each year for improvements in their wards. The Park District’s Loyola and Leone parking lots used to be free but the Park District recently approved a 25 cents an hour overnight parking fee to generate revenue needed to balance the budget. The daytime fees at Loyola will increase to $1 an hour. Moore told NBC Chicago, “I don’t have any real serious problems with them increasing the meter rates during the day when parks are open” he said, “But leave us alone at night.”

Remember last week's downtown parking meter box meltdown? You know, the one caused by a "glitch"? Well, now comes speculation from The Parking Meter Geek that the whole thing could have been an intentional attack.

• A pilot for American Airlines was arrested yesterday for showing up drunk for his London-to-Chicago flight.
• It looks like there will be a new judge in the Drew Peterson case, though who that new judge will be is not yet known.
• For sale: Parking space at Naperville Metra stop. $8,900 OBO.

The Chicago Park District has announced it will begin charging $1 for parking along the lake in the fall, ending free lakefront parking. Along with the charges being applied to the 4,400 once free parking spots, 537 metered spots will see fees double or quadruple according to the Tribune.

44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney suspended "indefinitely" aide Zodak Yonan, whom the Tribune busted on Monday for parking around the ward with a homemade placard. Yonan displayed the placard, which reads "44th Ward Official Business" next to a City of Chicago seal to avoid feeding the meters. "Nobody gave it to me. I made it," he told the Tribune. "I've worked for the alderman's office for 25 years. We're so busy in the office, sometimes you forget to put the money in. The sign is there for the meter maids to know. There's no problem with that." Tunney told the Tribune that "we don't have any official 44th Ward business signs. I don't even have one."

We’ve seen plenty of arrest-worthy parking meter shenanigans over the past couple of weeks: graffiti, vandalism, filling meters with pennies, gluing quarters into meter slots and more. The rage of Chicago residents over the increased parking fees seems to be growing steadily, and we expected to see stories about an upsurge in arrests and tickets as the city and the police retaliate. What we didn’t expect: threats of arrest for… paying parking meters.

A few weeks back, we discussed the Chicago tradition known as "dibs." It now seems that Ald. Dick Mell (33rd) has had it up to here with you kids and your dibs, issuing this email to constituents.

A new plan being considered by the mayor could add a new fee to those wanting to park downtown in an effort to reduce congestion and to raise funds for public transit. The new ordinance, which Mayor Daley introduced ninja-like yesterday apparently hoping we'd be so worried about snow and plows that we wouldn't notice, would also charge per-minute fees on trucks that block traffic during peak hours. But the ordinance seems kind of vague and shady.

The mayor's ordinance makes no mention of specific congestion fees. It merely gives the city's revenue director unbridled power to set the rates and adjust them without City Council approval. A study under way by the Civic Consulting Alliance will determine the size of the increase.

Continue reading "City Mulling "Congestion Fee""

City council hearings began yesterday on Mayor Daley's newly-released 2009 city budget, and our aldermen don't seem to be very happy about many of its proposals. Daley's plan to slash police force hiring was a hotly contested item, as well as the scheme to boot cars after two tickets instead of three - a projected $48 million revenue generator.

The city's License Committee added Alderman Brandon Reilly's 42nd Ward, which includes the Loop, River North and the Gold Coast to the list of wards where private businesses will have the legal authority to boot cars parked on private property. "It seemed like an interesting concept. I figured we’d give it a try,” Reilly told the Sun-Times, pointing out that illegal parkers wouldn't have to travel to remote lots to spring their towed vehicles, and that a private attendant would be on duty to remove the boot once the fine had been paid.

What's With the Two Inches?

Artur Shehu is still on the lam, but he was charged yesterday with two counts of first-degree murder for killing his parents. Syrja Shehu, 66, and his wife Safo, 67, were each shot once in the head, and were found dead in their Villa Park home early Monday morning, after Artur placed a call to the police. He was gone by the time police arrived.

A new ordinance kicking around City Council says disabled people with city-designated parking spots in front of their homes would no longer have to display a permit sign on their windshield. Apparently people often forget put the sign on their dashboard when they park, and they get tickets--and then they complain to their aldermen.

at the Hyatt Regency Ballroom. Because who wants to shake hands in a cold Iowa parking lot when you can kick it at the Hyatt in Chicago?

It wasn't your imagination. There really were extra problems on Lake Shore Drive this morning, with 20 vehicles damaged and 3 people injured. Stupid potholes. Now it's even more convenient for the City to take your money! New robot kiosks now accept payments for your parking tickets, water bills and red-light tickets. An update to this morning's story about the 4-year-old who was shot and killed: her brother has been charged, as a juvenile,...

What's the Speed Limit?

Chicagoist wasn't the only one reminiscing about Harold Washington this week. With the Cook County Commission deadlocked over the budget, County Commissioner Bill Beavers lashed out at the opposition in a press conference yesterday, saying that if Stroger were white, his budget proposal would pass. “This is a remake of the Harold Washington days with the 29, 21,” Beavers said, adding “it’s basically dealing with who’s going to control the county, white or black.... If...

On a weekend where gratefulness is foremost on our minds, it’s unfortunate that crime keeps moving forward. We’ll lead off with one story for which we can be thankful is not all bad news:Remember Nicolas Orbovich, the concert violist whose 1892 instrument worth $100,000 was stolen from the back seat of his unlocked car in a Michigan City, Indiana, Wal-Mart parking lot? It’s been found, with the help of Lake Station, Indiana, pawn shop, Orbovich’s...

The City Council passed Mayor Daley's insane budget with a vote of 36-14. Only in Chicago is that "a departure from the overwhelming victories" of years past. The tax package was a closer call, but still passed 29-21. The approved plans include doubling the phoneline surcharge to $2.50 per month to support the city's 911 centers, raising the tax on wine and beer, a 5-cent tax on bottled water, higher parking tickets, and dozens of...

Extortion is funny, violence is hilarious, and murder provokes a smirk in Bad Guys in Suits, Hobo Junction’s quirky late-night tribute to the hardest times our hard-time town has ever known. It’s 1933 and the mob rules Chicago with an iron fist. When you’re not waiting on a bread line or begging for work, you take solace in a radio voice urging you to keep your chin up.

We just *had* to keep the subject from our Jam update email as the title of this post, it's just too priceless. We have a sneaking suspicion that unless you have cash burning a hole in your pocket, most of you will be spending your dough on costumes and candy-themed adult beverages this weekend.

Crook County Board President Todd Stroger unveiled his $3.2 billion budget Wednesday. Stroger has struggled to give the appearance that his government is small and fiscally responsible, eliminating about 735 positions over the last three fiscal years, and reducing 1,800 positions from this year's budget. Now he claims that bringing the county's tax take to $888 million by 2009 — by tripling the county sales tax and doubling gas and parking taxes — is necessary...

Blago and Mrs. Blago raked in $267,490 last year — $19,000 less than the year before. Still, that's about six times the median household income for Illinois. Todd Stroger told the Trib he'd "make the hard decisions," when it comes to his insane budget. Hard decisions like trying to raise the sales tax in Chicago to 11 percent. Speaking of people who want more of your money, ComEd wants to raise prices, too. And...

taxes. Our favorites? "$35 tax on eating hot wings on El," "A 30 cent tax every time the El stops, everyone gathers by the door, then it moves four feet and THEN opens its door," and "$50 tax on every Walter E. Smithe commercial joke that doesn't make sense."

Mayor Daley unveiled his $5.4 billion budget today, and with it the expected $108 million increase in property taxes and the 10-cent charge on bottled water. City stickers for SUVs will be more expensive, parking fines will be higher, the tax on liquor will also increase, and the monthly phone surcharge that covers 911 costs will go from $1.25 to $2.50. Also, every time you hear a baby giggle, you have to give the City...

We’ve already been involved in a tumultuous love/hate relationship with the new Dominick’s on Chicago Avenue in Ukrainian Village, so we thought we were perhaps not alone in finding a love connection at the ole grocery store. So today, we bring you this grocery edition of the Monday Missed Connections, with all sorts of accounts of people making eyes at or around the meat counter. Paging jeans and T-shirt guy: missed connection in aisle four....