Category Archives: Chicago Parking Meter
Death, Taxes, & Parking Meters
Benjamin Franklin famously said, “The only things certain in life are death and taxes,” over 200 years ago.
But today, in modern Chicago, you can add parking meters to Franklin’s adage.
Surprisingly, parking meters and taxes have combined in a particularly galling fashion.
Tribune columnist Eric Zorn tipped off The Expired Meter to this toxic combination on Tuesday when he pointed to a relatively new policy from Chicago Parking Meters, LLC to begin charging city and county parking taxes at the handful of metered parking lots across the city.
According to the Chicago Parking Meters website, the company had not been charging drivers the taxes (but paid them anyways) until they changed that policy this February and began passing on the taxes to drivers.
Parking Meter Vandalism On The Rise?
Is parking meter vandalism on the rise again?
That’s the question posed in an email which included the photograph above from an observant reader.
The photo shows a meter made completely inoperable by black spray paint which covers all signage and digital readouts on the face of the pay box.
“Geek! Check out this photo I took today,” says reader Ron. “There’s also a big gold colored spray painted piece of graffiti down the side of the machine. Has there been an upswing in meter vandalism lately?”
None of the neighboring machines were touched according to Ron.
While we’ve noticed a few pay box machines with some naughty four letter words scribbled on the front of a meter or two, there doesn’t seem to be any dramatic increase in vandalism like the city saw in the spring and summer of 2009.
Big Apple Explores Parking Meter Privatization
Uh-oh.
New York City seems to be taking tentative steps toward embracing privatizing their parking meter system, according to the Wall Street Journal.
After putting the initial idea on hold for several months, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has restarted the process exploring the idea of a private firm operating the city’s 39,000 parking meters.
Trib Problem Solver Gets Driver Parking Ticket Justice
You gotta give it to the Chicago Tribune’s Jon Yates.
He gets things done.
That’s probably why he’s called the Problem Solver.
In his most recent column, Yates takes up the parking ticket dilemma of a local driver who very carefully parked on a metered side of a northside street where meter enforcement ends at 6 PM.
After working out at a local gym, he returned to his car to find a parking ticket on his windshield for an expired meter issued at 6:03 PM.
Ouch.
Turns out, directly across the street, metered parking ends at 9 PM. Confusing to be sure, but a mistake on the part of the ticket writer.
‘Monster’ Created From Parking Meter Receipts
Chicago Artist Designs ‘Parka the Hutt’ from Expired Parking Stubs: MyFoxCHICAGO.com
Chicago Magazine’s Jeff Ruby disdains parking meter receipts.
Ruby opens his story about his loathing for these little receipts in the May issue of the magazine this way:
“Suddenly they’re everywhere. Nestled in gutters, clogging up dashboards, swirling around alleys and avenues like ticker tape after a parade. I unknowingly spent an entire day with one stuck to the bottom of my shoe. Nobody’s sure what to call them. Parking stubs? Pay box receipts? Beelzebub’s confetti? Three years ago, they didn’t exist, but today they have become as much a part of Chicago’s fabric as kielbasa and bribery.”
Hatred for the meter receipts turned those little white and green slips of paper littering Chicago’s streets into artistic inspiration for Ruby.
Chicago Magazine Wants Your Meter Receipts
They settle between dashboard and windshield, slip under seats, and coalesce on the floor of your car’s passenger seat.
If you drive and park often on metered Chicago streets, those damn white with green parking meter receipts will infest your car if you’re not careful.
But now, instead of sticking your expired meter receipts into the trash, Chicago Magazine wants you to send your old parking meter receipts to them.
What the hell for you ask?
LAZ Driver Strikes Pedestrian In Bucktown
How's my driving? 877-242-7901
It wasn’t much of a Happy New Year for one pedestrian in the Bucktown neighborhood just before the end of the year.
On December, 30th a driver of a vehicle owned by LAZ Parking struck a pedestrian at the intersection of Damen and Webster, sending the unfortunate pedestrian to the hospital according to the 32nd Ward Service Office.
There was no additional information on the status of the pedestrian.
Parking Meter Firm Bills City Another $2.1 Million
Documents Show Hidden Cost Of Lease Deal To Taxpayers
An LAZ employee documents a closure along Irving Park Road at California Ave. for Chicago Parking Meters, LLC
While Chicago’s infamous parking meter lease deal quietly celebrated its third anniversary the first week of December, the city was releasing documents chronicling more evidence the privatization of the city’s more than 36,000 parking meters turned out to be more costly for taxpayers than originally imagined.
Financial statements, released by the Chicago Inspector General’s office via their Open Chicago government transparency initiative, reveals what many critics of the lease deal had feared–the city would end up owing or paying Chicago Parking Meters, LLC millions of dollars in compensation when any sort of change or activity by the city impacts parking meter revenue for the company.
Financial statements for the company show that CPM has billed the city an additional $2,191,326 in “True-up Revenue” through the end of 2010.
As the notes from the independent auditor’s report by accounting firm KPMG LLP to the financial statements explains:
Chicago Tonight Weighs In On Chicago Parking Meters’ $13.5 Million Bill For Free Disabled Parking
WTTW’s Paris Schutz puts together a nice nuts and bolts synopsis of Chicago Parking Meter, LLC’s recent $13.5 million bill for an overabundance of motorists utilizing handicap license plates and disabled placards to park for free in metered spots.
Chicago Parking Meter Payboxes Getting Makeover
No, it’s not a re-run of Oprah.
But, Chicago drivers might be surprised by the fashionable new look your parking meter pay boxes are sporting.
