Sell A Guest Parking Pass On Gameday, Spend A Night In Jail
With spring training well under way and Chicago baseball fans starting to get excited about the upcoming city, the city is getting ready for baseball season as well.
Because Chicago may be cracking down on people illegally selling guest parking passes to Cubs or Sox fans looking for parking to catch a ballgame in Chicago.
According to the Tribune’s Clout Street blog, Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) who’s ward is where Wrigley resides, and Ald. James Balcer who represents the 11th, the ward where Comiskey Park calls home, are co-sponsors of a law that could send an offender to jail for a night for violating this law.
Residents of these two wards can purchase temporary guest passes for friends or relatives visiting them. But they cannot be re-sold at a profit to fans looking or a cheap parking alternative to parking lots surrounding the ballparks.
Despite the threat of fines of between $200-$500 for the practice, there are still residents who find a way to profit from illegally re-selling guest parking passes.
This abuse of the residential permit parking system has frustrated city officials for years, including Chicago City Clerk Miguel Del Valle who testified at city budget hearings condemning the practice and asking for action to stop it.
Although this potential new ordinance was not discussed at last Wednesday’s Transportation Committee meeting, look for it to be back in action at the April meeting so it can be in full effect for the start of the baseball season.
Here’s the Tribune’s full story, “Selling one-day parking permits around Wrigley, the Cell could bring day in jail.”
How exactly can they determine whether this particular violation has occurred?
Jeff- there are plain clothes officers everywhere. I’m skeptical because of so much clout cops look other way. Bridgeport prime example. I ve been seeing them sell them for years .
Ah, ok that makes more sense then. At first I was trying to remember whether the day passes had a serial number or some other way of tracing them back to the original purchaser, then I started imagining how difficult following through that whole process would be…
This is a huge waste of everyone’s time and money. There is already a M.C.C. law on the books for this, Soliciting Unlawful Business. All of these cases will be dropped at the first court hearing. Besides Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park have been is service for decades. If you’re too stupid to realize parking is going to be a problem in those areas you need your head examined. The people that live there want to make a few bucks just like the city and no one better dare take the mayors money.