Parking Permit Mixup Creating Parking Tickets In South Loop
The idea was to make things simpler and easier for drivers.
Second Ward Alderman Bob Fioretti proposed consolidating nine small residential permit parking zones into four big ones explains the Chicago Tribune.
The idea was hatched and the ordinance passed in the City Council. So far, so good.
But issues began when some 2nd Ward residents decided to get their 2012-2013 city stickers in late April when the City Clerk’s office made them available earlier than in past years.
The problem was that signs reflecting the new and improved RPP zone numbers had not been erected in the ward yet–the ones with the old numbers were still up. Drivers with the new city stickers sporting the new RPP numbers on their windshields started seeing bright orange envelopes underneath their windshield wipers.
Of course, according to the story, some 2nd Ward residents are not very happy getting parking tickets and have been complaining.
Both the 2nd Ward office and the City Clerk’s office say they communicated this potential issue with Department of Finance Street Operations which handles parking enforcement.
While the 2nd Ward office says only a handful of tickets were issued, this story in the Tribune should probably stop these tickets being written completely.
However, if you live in the 2nd Ward and get one of these improper tickets, reach out to Alderman Fioretti’s office and/or the City Clerk’s office. In cases like these, both places should be able to help drivers get the ticket vacated or get you a letter to successfully contest it.
Here’s the Chicago Tribune’s full story, “Problem Solver: Parking zone mismatch makes for sticky situation.”
Street Ops stopped issuing for “wrong permit number” before the story broke.
The Details that handle the morning and evening shifts for patrol were informed every day at roll call once the Memo hit the Street Ops level.
The memo went out to us in April as I recall. We are still checking for RPP violations in that area of the 2nd ward…but only if the vehicle has NONE or an Expired Temp RPP.
I do not know if Ser Co was told when Finance Street Ops was though.
The ultimate failure is with the Department that puts up new signs/replaces old signs. They are back logged. I’ve seen the Sign Hangers putting up New Permanent Street Cleaning signs On the Day that the cleaning is scheduled and watched the Tow Trucks come down the street and yank cars and trucks to the impound lot (this happened a few years ago in the 42nd Ward where they actually Tow for Street Cleaning violations.).