Street Beat: Ticketmaster’s Triumphant Return!
GEEK EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s been a loooooong time since we posted a Street Beat from our friend Ticketmaster. Too long really.
The Geek has been preoccupied or perhaps obsessed, with all the crazy news surrounding the parking meter lease deal, that pretty much everything else got put on the back burner. Sorry Ticketmaster!
We’re going to make a concerted effort for posting more advice and stories from our favorite PEA in the future.
Ticketmaster is a Parking Enforcement Aide (PEA) for the city of Chicago Dept. of Revenue.
Ticketmaster has been pounding the pavement of the streets of Chicago, and issuing those darn bright orange violations for many years. Ticketmaster very graciously, answers questions from readers and share their knowledge and experience within the parking enforcement system to give our readers insight and information to hopefully avoid tickets altogether.
Ticketmaster-
If a vehicle is parked at a space near United Center where the block has “No parking during stadium events” signs, can the vehicle be ticketed at any time of day on a day of a scheduled event?
What if a vehicle is parked 6-6:30pm while the driver is picking up tickets, and the game starts at 7:30pm? (That was my situation a few times.)
Would that be an illegal situation?
Thank you.
-KMS
Hello KMS,
Good question. If a PEA could enforce that sign all day, it would really make
our job easier and maybe even plug the hole in budget. Sadly that is not the case.
The general rule of thumb that Revenue has us enforce 2 hrs before and 2 hrs after the stadium event (good news here is 9 out of 10 times Revenue personnel will be off the street by start time).
Remember, that is Revenue only.
CPD and SERCO operate independently of Revenue and may operate under different rules (although CPD is in more line with us, only because they are busy with their Valet Parking)
Now in your case, the straight forward answer is YES, you are parked illegally and subject to a ticket -n- tow. I know it can be hard to do, but try to get your tickets earlier in the day.
Kind Regards,
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster!
What’s the deal? What’s with these meters with the covers? Why are they
covered? I saw this one on Sheffield near Belmont?
Any clue?
Sid
Hello Sid,
The bag in the photos are usually used in an area that is being used for a special event or for security reasons.
Right after 911, there was a lot of them used in the loop. Sometimes SERCO would use them for their vehicles when they where collecting money from the meters.
Kind Regards,
Ticketmaster
PEA Restaurant Review
The Green House, 2700 S. Millard in Lawndale – Doesn’t look like a restaurant, however they have excellent Mexican food. I would encourage you to go onto the 2nd floor as it is a little bit more quiet. A little bit high (on a PEA’s Salary), however nice portions, and a friendly staff.
Story from the Front Lines
During probation, PEA supervisors will always remind you that you are on
probation and that you can be let go at anytime for any reason.
They will frequently recall the story of 5 PEA’s that were terminated right before Christmas. With that kind of fear instilled, as a probationary PEA, you really want to go out and hustle for those tickets.
Well, there was this one PEA (and no, it was not the Ticketmaster), who really wanted to make a good impression, and it was the first time they worked on a Saturday in the loop. They went around and time zoned all the cars displaying the handicap placard. After two hours, they went back and issued citations to any vehicle that was there over the time limit.
Unfortunately, per municipal code, there is no time limit for handicapped drivers with proper placards or license plates.
That PEA ended up ticketing 100 cars that way. Interesting enough, only five complaints came in. The PEA was commended for making a valiant attempt, however they needed to be instructed on the handicap privilege again.
Kind Regards,
Ticketmaster
Thanks Ticketmaster!
If you have a question for Ticketmaster, please send your questions to either:
askthepea@theexpiredmeter.com or ticketmaster@theexpiredmeter.com
Not sure what Ticketmaster had to do with the story.
Well, I’m not sure how we can make it more clear. But, to clarify, this is a column written by Ticketmaster. Readers with questions for a real, live PEA (aka Ticketmaster) send us questions for him to answer.
In addition, Ticketmaster regales us with an interesting and usually humorous story of being on the job as a PEA.
Sometimes, like today, he provides us with a review of a hidden gem of a restaurant he finds walking the neighborhoods of this fine city.
This is kind of a quick handicapped parking question for the Ticketing Gods but do the PEA’s and such usually check the issuing state of a Handicapped Placard, and if so does that affect anything? i.e. My mom has a handicapped placard that hangs from the rearview mirror from another state, when she comes to visit she brings it with her and then we use it in my vehicle. Does this create any known conflicts with parking regs? Apologies for the convulted and poorly worded question, couldn’t think of a better way to phrase it.
Hello TKM,
PEA’s will not check out of state handicap placards. We extend to them the same courtsey as IL placards. We do have the ability to run IL placards through a database to see if they are valid, if they are invalid, we will issue a citation. Perhaps another ticketing agency might be able to check them out.
Hello Ticket Fan,
While I wasn’t the one who issued those citations, I ultimately got paired up with that pea and had to reveiw the citations they wrote. As for the reason why the story came up, I was listening to the Geeks podcast and a caller called in asking about Handicap Placards and it brought back a funny memory.
hey ticketmaster…..want to talk about stress on probation….what about the pea who didnt get paid for a month straight…..after all that…they worked him like a dog and on his last day of probation…1 hour before he got off…they terminated him….now thats stress….