It seems there were just too many complaints.

That’s what 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack and his staff believed when he decided to try to eliminate the practice of private booting in the 32nd Ward.

“We’ve had numerous complaints,” said Patryk Piwinski, an assistant to Ald. Wagauspack. “I myself have fielded four or five (complaints).”

When we say private booting, we are essentially talking about the only company licensed in Chicago to perform this type of “service”–Global Parking Management.

According to Piwinski,  the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s” back was a police report of an assault on an individual by a Global Parking Management employee. The altercation allegedly occurred at the Village Discount Outlet parking lot on Roscoe and Hoyne, in the Roscoe Village neighborhood on Saturday, November 22nd.

“That was the turning point,” said Piwinski.

As Piwinksi explained by e-mail, Waguespack, a member of the city’s Committee on License and Consumer Protection, is going to put forward a revision to a standing ordinance that will remove the 32nd Ward from the list of wards in which Global Parking Management can operate.

According to Piwinski, Ald. Waguespack intends to introduce this ordinance revision today, Monday December 8th in committee meeting starting at 11 AM within or adjacent to the city council chambers in City Hall. I’m told the meeting is open to the public.

So, if you have thoughts on this issue or have a beef with Global Parking Management you would like to air in public, you should get your butt down to city hall this morning.

There are currently 16 wards in which private booting is allowed, which includes: the 1st, 14th, 21st, 25th, 27th, 30th, 32nd, 33rd, 34th, 40th, 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 46th, 48th and 49th wards.

If you are not familiar, private booting is the practice of affixing a boot to a vehicle parked in a private commercial parking lot.

In simpler terms, it’s if you park your car in the 7-11 parking lot, but instead of going into the 7-11 to buy a Slurpee and this month’s Swank magazine, you cross the street to get lunch at Jumbo Jim’s Hotdogs.

Instead of having your car towed, (because you are technically trespassing in this parking lot because you’re not shopping at 7-11), a dude from a company hired by the 7-11 slaps a boot on your car and won’t release it until you cough up $115.

Global Parking Management has rules posted on very large signs that spell out the terms on which you can park in one of the lot’s they oversee.

In essence, you can park there if you patronize the business or businesses that are listed on the sign. However, if you go into another business or elsewhere and NOT directly back to your vehicle, you will be booted. You can be booted even if you shopped at the store(s) in question, but stop into Starbucks for a coffee on the way back to the parking lot.

Here’s more info on the practice of private booting by Global Parking Management.