Monthly Archives: August 2011
Cop Gets Booted, Booter Gets Detained
Chicago Police Officer Racks Up 62 Parking Tickets : MyFoxCHICAGO.com
Tempers might be flaring between the Chicago Police Department and Department of Revenue employees.
Last Friday, according to Fox Chicago News, a boot van driver was trying to boot a Corvette on a street adjacent to the main police station.
Turns out, the Corvette’s owner was a cop, who happened to walk out when his car was being booted.
Sinkhole Sucks Down SUV Saturday
Crazy.
One moment you’re driving down the street.
The next, the asphalt below your vehicle has given way and your car plunges tires first into a huge sinkhole.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, this happened at the intersection of Foster and Elston on the Northwest this past Saturday morning.
NYC Mayor Wants Red Light Cameras On Every Corner
New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg wants more red light cameras in the Big Apple.
Bloomberg was quoted in the NY Daily News that he would like to put RLCs “on every corner” and embarrass scofflaws by making their names public.
Right now, NYC has 150 red light cameras, which is the maximum number New York state allows in NYC. But now Bloomberg wants to bump that number up to 225, but needs help from state legislators up in Albany.
But Chicagoans shouldn’t worry that the Windy City, the current red light capital of the USA, would lose its top ranking.
Night Game Triple Header Starts Monday
Oof!
Look out Lakeview, the Cubs play the Atlanta Braves three night games in a row starting Monday and lasting through Wednesday.
Wrigley Field night game parking restrictions start at 5 PM.
Stay out of Lakeview if you can. Don’t get towed and ticketed parking on a side street without the proper Residential Parking Permit or Guest Pass.
Driver Gets The Boot, Car Gets The Tire Iron
This story really makes no sense.
AmySue Mertens, a writer for the Chicago Journal newspaper, reports on a recent odd incident in the West Loop.
According to Merten, it seems the owner of a freshly booted vehicle, seemingly flipped out and took his frustration out on his own car by smashing windows and pounding dents in the body with a tire iron, then removing the license plates before leaving the scene.
One theory for this behavior could simply be a somewhat understandable mental breakdown or some sort of fit of rage.
Chicago Test Drives New ‘Pothole Killer’
Chicago to Lease ‘Pothole Killer’ Trucks: MyFoxCHICAGO.com
Don’t be scared.
Sure, just because it looks like some sort of evil robot truck out of Star Wars and shoots hot, sticky asphalt out the end of an industrial sized stinger is no reason to be frightened.
That’s because this crazy looking truck is called the “Pothole Killer”, relatively new technology that can allegedly patch potholes faster with less manpower and lower cost than how they do it now with a dump truck, a steam roller and a four to six person crew.
Crosswalk Stings Hit Northwest Side Saturday
Watch out for fake pedestrians Saturday morning drivers.
The Chicago Police Department and Chicago Department of Transportation will be up on the Northwest side of the city Saturday morning conducting crosswalk enforcement.
CDOT calls it their Crosswalk Enforcement Initiatives program. We call it a crosswalk sting operation.
While drivers must be mindful of pedestrians and always allow them to cross safely at crosswalks, conducting undercover operations where faux pedestrians walk in front of cars and drivers are fined $50 to $500 seems a bit punitive.
Perhaps educational outreach would be more productive. But of course, education does not bring in revenue.
Here’s the list of locations for Saturday morning:
Vacation Parking Tips: Avoiding RPP, Street Cleaning And Other Violations While Out Of Town
One smart driver has nearly a full week of RPP guest passes posted to ward off parking tickets
Going to your house on the lake for a week?
Or perhaps you’re flitting off to Martha’s Vinyard for a long weekend.
Whatever your destination, when you park your car on the streets of Chicago, you need to take some proactive steps to make sure you don’t return from your vacation to find bright orange tickets adorning your windshield.
Street Cleaning
Check with your local aldermanic office, or check the city’s street cleaning schedule online, to make sure the street sweepers are coming to your street when you’re away.
Either find a nearby street without street cleaning while you’re gone, or get a neighbor or friend the extra set of keys to move your car for you.
Residential Permit Parking
If you’re car is spending the next week or so on a Chicago street with Residential Permit Parking restrictions, you need to make sure you have the proper city sticker or guest passes posted.
Butt Wiper Back Behind Bars For Burglary
Man Who Mailed Feces Smeared Parking Ticket In Jail
Alexander J. Bailey is no stranger to trouble.
Bailey, of the 6N600 block of Medinah Road in Medinah just recently got caught by DuPage County Sherrif’s deputies with allegedly carrying away a bunch of stolen items recently according to the Daily Herald.
The DuPage State’s Attorney thinks the 23-year old is behind a string of 11 recent burglaries in his home town.
But Bailey is actually famous or maybe infamous is a better word, for some other anti-social behavior–mailing back a parking ticket payment envelope to the Village of Bartlett after wiping his butt with it back in April, 2010.
Former Alderman Pulls Fast One With RPP Zone
Eugene Schulter was alderman of the 47th Ward for a long time. 35 years to be exact.
The key word being “was.”
You see, Schulter lost his seat on the Chicago city council last February when newcomer Ameya Pawar came in and defeated him for the post.
But Schulter had gave himself one last present of clout before he left office–a brand new Residential Permit Parking zone for his block according to the Chicago Tribune.
