How To Avoid The Boot

More than 169,000 parking tickets were issued during the first eight months of this year in the 42nd Ward, which includes Chicago's downtown and Gold Coast areas. That's 44 percent more tickets than the next highest ward.

But when it comes to applying the Denver boot, the 42nd Ward is nowhere near the top. Motorists parking in the congested ward were booted 612 times. Thirty-eight other wards have higher booting numbers.

That's just one of the tidbits from the ward-by-ward booting and ticketing breakdown released to aldermen Monday during Day One of City Council hearings on Mayor Daley's tough times, 2009 budget.

Once again, the 41st Ward tops the list with 1,434 boots through Aug. 31. No surprise there. The ward includes O'Hare Airport, where a private parking manager has free rein to roam the world's largest indoor garage and surface lots in search of scofflaws with three or more unpaid tickets.

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