Last Day To Get City Sticker, But Then Again, Not Really
Pay attention procrastinators!
Your 2008-2009 Chicago city vehicle sticker expires today.
Yes, say a tearful goodbye to last year’s orange sticker with the bicycle safety theme.
June 30th is officially the deadline to obtain your 2009-2010 Chicago city vehicle sticker, as required of all vehicles registered with a Chicago address.
However, despite last year’s city sticker expiring today, in truth, you still have time to obtain your new 2009-2010 city sticker.
That’s because the city gives you a 15-day grace period to obtain your 2009-2010 city sticker.
In other words, until July 15th. City sticker enforcement officially begins July 16th.
Despite the June 30th deadline, city sticker procrastinators still have several options open to them to remedy their sticker-less situation.
Order On-Line
This website, along with the Chicago City Clerk’s office strongly recommend you order online via the City Clerk’s website. It’s fast, easy and a much better route than your next option.
In fact, City Clerk Information Coordinator Kristine Williams says if you place your order on-line by Friday, July 3rd, you will have your city sticker in your hot, sweaty hands before July 15th.
“We are telling people to order their sticker by this weekend to help ensure delivery by July 15,” says Williams. “…we ask for 10 – 14 business days to receive a sticker. If they order it online or by the mail and it is July 14 or 15 and they still haven’t received the sticker, they should contact our office at 312-742-9200 and we will help them with next steps, which may include issuing a temporary 30 day
sticker.”
Wait In Line
We believe waiting in line for 30-90 minutes for anything is stupid. Not only that, it’s a waste of your time, is painful and sucks the soul from your very being. Don’t do it.
But, we understand some people are just masochists. So, if you really feel the need to stand in line to get your city sticker, you have several options.
There are three Office of the City Clerk facilities you can go to in person. Of course, there is the main one in City Hall, but two others, one at 5430 W. Gale St. on the northwest side, and at 5674 S. Archer Ave., on the southside. Here is the detailed list of locations and hours of operation.
In addition, there are four Department of Revenue Substations you can waste your time in line at:
• 4770 S. Kedzie Boulevard
• 2006 E. 95th Street
• 2550 W. Addison Street
• 400 W. Superior Street
Here is the information on the four DOR locations along with hours of operation.
Reports of the longest lines are coming from the DOR offices.
Community Vendors
There are many other places you can purchase your 2009-2010 city vehicle stickers, which may be a more intelligent option than DOR and City Clerk offices.
These include some banks, many Dominick’s Finer Food stores and nearly every single Currency Exchange in the entire Chicagoland area, including the suburbs.
Here’s the official list of all participating vendors, or search for your neighborhood Currency Exchange here.
For a small fee of $5.50, you can get your city sticker quickly and with virtually no, or minimal wait times. $5.50 is many cases is well worth it if you need your city sticker right away and/or can’t spare the time to wait in line at a city facility.
Tune in tomorrow for a special all city sticker, Ask The Parking Ticket Geek column.
How are the Currency Exchanges printing the license plate/zone information on the stickers?
I’m sure TPG will fill us all in about that. I got mine online and it seems they put a white sticker on top of the sticker with the pertinent info. Either they’ve got software to do it or it will be handwritten is my guess.
Did anyone else have a heck of a time getting last years off? I swear the crazy temps did a number on the thing. After I peeled off the sticker, every inch of the adhesive was still left on my windshield. It took 10 minutes for the Goo Be Gone to penetrate it and get rid of the gunk.
BTW,I’d love to know though what dogs have to do with a city sticker? It makes sense to me to have the theme be about vehicles, roads, or road safety. How about a tribute to the Chicago pothole?
I’m surprised (ok, I’m not surprised) that so few cars on my bock have the new stickers on their cars. Hint for getting stickers off of their cars (that is for those who don’t already do this)- use a lot of glass cleaner and a razor blade. Spray glass cleaner on an edge and then jam the blade between the sticker and the windshield. Every time you get stuck use more glass cleaner. When the sticker is off (or mostly off) then spray more glass cleaner on and use the blade to scrape off all the residual stuff on the windshield. Oh and keep a paper towel on the windshield to catch the cleaner and the sticker pieces. Wipe off the glass and you are done.
I have a friend who owns a Currency Exchange.
As I recall, they have blank city stickers and they print another sticker with all the pertinent info, that is laid on top of the city sticker.
The City Clerk’s office prints directly on to the actual city sticker.
>Hint for getting stickers off
or just get “sticker shield” at Menards. Used correctly, it is undetectable.
Or do what I’ve done for years now, carefully use a paper towel moderately dampened with with lighter fluid or naptha (same thing really). As the towel gets coated with the freshly liquefied glue, a kind of solvent-based synthetic rubber adhesive, fold it over to expose a fresh surface and continue cleaning until all the glue is removed. Throw the saturated paper towel into your outside garbage container to avoid a build up of flammable fumes as the solvent evaporates. Also use one of these for best results: http://tinyurl.com/razorscraper
YEA! I am happy to report that “The City That Works” actually got my sticker processed and mailed to me before July 15th! I had reported in an earlier post that I could not get the website to accept my Toyota Yaris as a car, that the computer kept changing it to a Class A Truck. Then I went to the city’s ‘retail’ outlet on Addison and was appalled at the lines stretching into the horizon. So I had mailed my check in on June 6th, hoping that my sticker would arrive before July 15th. Well, today, July 6th, my sticker finally arrived! Only 30 days later! What about those poor saps who mailed theirs in after June 15th? Oh, and the receipt says the sticker was purchased on June 23, although my check didn’t go through the bank until July 1st or 2nd, and I didn’t receive it until today. At least it has finally arrived and I can apply it in the morning at long last.