Ticket Tidbits: John Kass, Carol Marin, Red Light Cameras, Milwaukee, Champaign & Being Very Sick
Each week or two, The Expired Meter offers up a potpourri of ticket and parking related news to keep you up informed and up to date.
ITEM: John Kass from the Tribune had an interesting take on the parking meter fare hikes in his Sunday column, explaining that ritzy Beverly Hills, California has more affordable parking meter rates than Chicago.
ITEM: Speaking of columns about parking meter problems, we never got a chance to mention Ms. Carol Marin’s first Sun-Times column on the subject and her followup column on the parking meter “boycott”.
Both, according to Ms. Marin, generated more response than anything she had ever written before.
ITEM: Ticketmaster reports in on the broken meter situation and how it’s effecting PEA’s.
“Due to recent problems with the meters, Department of Revenue management has
instructed their PEA’s when they log in a broken meter into their Autocite, they
also have to immediately call it into Revenue Security reporting the meter # and
address,” says Ticketmaster. “the good news for the citizens is that broken meters will get reported sooner, and also it will slow PEA’s down.”
Ticketmaster also reports new policies have slowed down PEA’s ticketing for street cleaning.
“With Street Cleaning tickets, management has instructed us to take a photo of the
car, and a photo of the sign (even if sign is 1/2 block away) (and if at all
possible with car in photo),” continued Ticketmaster. “Talk about time consuming. This will be a very long street cleaning season. The good news is that the tickets will be harder to fight.
The bad news, depending on where the signs are and how many cars are on a block, it
will slow us down.”
Thanks for the great info Ticketmaster!
ITEM: Check out this VERY interesting article on the back end of some area red light camera programs from today’s Chicago Tribune.
ITEM: 47th Ward Alderman Gene Schulter has introduced a change to the ordinance regarding B Truck Plates. Now, if you get a permit, you can park your pickup truck with “B” plates in the 47th ward without being ticketed.
In general, it’s illegal to park a truck, even if it’s just a small pickup truck, with “B” Plates on a Chicago residential street.
9-64-170(a)…Park Truck, RV (22 feet or larger), Self-Contained Motor Home, Bus, Taxi or Livery Vehicle on Residential Street. Pickup Trucks and Vans are exempted in Wards: 1,9,10,12,13,14,15,16,18,19, 21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,32,33,35,37,40,42,43,46,49 and 50 IF the appropriate permit is displayed.
Thanks to Ald. Schulter, you can add the 47th Ward to the above list.
ITEM: Our neighboring city to the north, Milwaukee, Wisconsin has also seen some parking meter rate increases recently. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Jim Stingl had some interesting insights into the increases in a recent column and it sounds very familiar to what frustrated people down in Chicago are saying.
ITEM: Despite protests from local downtown businesses, the Champaign city council has decided not to reverse the recent parking meter increases.
ITEM: The Parking Ticket Geek has been ill. Very ill.
I picked up some bug from my kids and was literally on my butt for over 10 days now. One of those days, I wound up in the ER at a local hospital after passing out at a local medical clinic. If anyone has ever wondered if riding in an ambulance is fun, let me tell you, it is definitely NOT!
So, to say the least, the Geek is VERY behind. Not only keeping up with postings but in responding to e-mails. Please accept my apologies and I ask you all to be patient with me as I try to catch up now that I’m starting to finally feel better.
Thanks for everyone’s patience.
Hello Expiredmeter Readers,
Just wanted to add, a couple of weeks ago, we were instructed to hold off on “B” plate enforcement. Apparently there are going to be several ward changes. We also have been instructed on to hold off on “covered license plates”. I can only assume it is because of the loophole that the Geek has provided. Also wanted to let you know, that effect of the new procedures with street cleaning violations are slowing us down considerably. Good for you, bad for the ticket writers. Also, spoke with several sweeper drivers, their onboard cameras are not much better. And on an upbeat note, I hope the Geek feels better.
Kind Regards
Ticketmaster
Here, get well soon: http://www.funny-ecards.com/cards/getwell/a-nasty-bug.html
Thanks for the kind words guys.
I am finally feeling better after nearly two weeks.
My advice, don’t get old. It sucks.
Before, I would just work through whatever I had contracted. This time around…holy crap! My butt got royally kicked.
So what was it? The flu?
47th Ward Alderman Gene Schulter finally has come around on the b-truck plates.
I get ticketed every 2-3 weeks for parking a truck on a residential street, but the law clearly states that it’s only for RVs, Campers, and COMMERCIAL trucks. I have to keep mailing in copies of my private car title to get out of tickets and they repeatedly keep ticketing me…
IP-
I really don’t know. It was some sort of viral infection. It was symptomatic of a traditional cold at times, but then for a few days I was running a fever and was nauseous. Then late last week, I had so much congestion in my lungs, it was painful to breathe and I got light headed a few times.
Whatever the hell it was, it sucked! I still have a lingering cough and congestion.
WTF?!?
BUT, you forgot to add the Dept of Revenue/Alderman corruption caveat. You won’t find it anywhere in the municipal code, but those in-the-know, know it exists.
Any truck can park anywhere their alderman allows. That is because, under the corruption caveat, the Dept of Revenue and police will follow their alderman’s orders and graciously allow trucks without permits, trucks without licences, trucks without emisions tests, truck without major body parts, etc. to park anywhere the alderman wants.
One very egregious example exists in Alderman Shiller’s 46th Ward. Alderman Shiller’s refuses to allow trucks to be booted. According to Dept of Revenue workers – who have been approached by locals to stop illegal truckers’ “parking passover” – each aldermen must approve the release of Dept of Revenue truck boots for use in their wards. (Normally, the boot trucks carry only car boots for, you know, for the Average Joe (Sucker) citizens.)
Where the alderman refuses the Dept of Revenue’s release of some or all truck boot release for his/her ward, the truckers can violate law with impunity. Just take a ride down the Wilson Avenue area some evening and place a few 311 service calls for truck parking enforcement and you can see exactly how this works.
Uptown Gal-
Are you saying the 46th ward is a truck parking “safe zone” of some sort? A truck haven if you will?
I don’t doubt what you say, but why would truck booting be different than car booting?
Very interesting stuff. I would LOVE to know and to learn more.
Thanks for the info.