Tomorrow is December, which means that the city's overnight parking ban goes into effect this evening. The ban will affect 107 miles of vital arterial streets from 3-7 a.m., through April 1, regardless of snowfall. Here's a handy map for the overnight parking ban (PDF). more ›

With the impressive first day numbers of towing in regards to the city's winter parking ban - which went into effect in the wee hours of Tuesday morning - all eyes were on how many cars would be towed in night two. While numbers were down, as expected, it was still an impressive haul with 164 more cars towed, bringing the two-day total to just shy of 400 total cars. That breaks down to almost 50 towed per hour (the ban is in effect from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. each night) and almost 4 cars per each of the 107 miles in the ban zone. And with a minimum of $200 in fees for each car ($50 ticket plus minimum of $150 towing fee), that's at least $79,600 for the city so far. more ›

We warned you yesterday that the winter parking ban started in the wee hours of this morning and, sure enough, the towing patrol is out in full force. Our pal The Parking Ticket Geek reports that Streets & Sans towed 234 cars overnight as the ban took effect, a 40 percent increase over last year's first night haul. So be wary of the various parking zones because with the city badly in need of money, they won't hesitate to haul off any cars they can get revenue from. more ›

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. more ›

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 ›

The towing business has a bit of a bad rap, a perception seemingly validated by new county legislation meant to put a damper on towing shenanigans. But Wrecked, SpeedTV’s new reality show premiering this month, features local legits O'Hare Towing Service. Business owners Bill and Marci Gratzianna hope the show will help to return some respect to the towing industry, as well as highlight its importance and incredible difficulty: more ›