Has The Parking Meter Revolt Begun?

As teams of LAZ Parking's employees slowly, but quite surely, canvas the city changing the parking meters to their new, much higher rates, another movement seems to be blossoming in reaction to these changes.

At first, it seemed just random when a broken meter was spotted. There's no big surprise in finding a broken meter in Chicago--they're everywhere.

But the number of broken meters seemed to be increasing and e-mails and comments began pouring into this website with tips, along with bits and pieces of information. Websites with very strident points of view have popped up over the past few weeks advocating everything from a simple boycott to using pennies or nickels to fill up the meters to capacity and render them temporarily inoperable.

Spray Paint

Nearly 20 parking meters, spanning an entire block of W. Irving Park in the Albany Park neighborhood, were spotted with the front and back of their heads spray painted black. Once spray painted, these meters are unreadable by Parking Enforcement Aides, meaning vehicles can't be ticketed as it's impossible to see if the meters were fed or not.

Decals Removed

LAZ Parking's new decals have been removed in a concerted effort along Lincoln Ave. and other streets in the Lakeview neighborhood, leaving long stretches of meters without any instructions on how and when they should be fed. This leaves the meter without the proper information required by law to be an operational parking meter. A motorist could easily contest any expired meter ticket on these meters because they don't exhibit the proper information.

One tipster named Bryan says, "In some cases, these decals just peel right off the front of the meter with little or no effort. When these stickers were originally applied, the weather was very cold and it seems the adhesive didn't adhere correctly. These stickers just come right off."

Super Glue

In Boystown, along Halsted and Broadway just north and south of Addison, a multitude of meters have their coin slots jammed with coins and what seems to be Super Glue or some other high strength adhesive. By our count, 40-50 meters had been vandalized in this way just in that area, with reports of this also occurring at spots along Clybourn, Irving Park, Lincoln Ave. and elsewhere.

One individual under the name "Illinois Patriot" is calling for direct vandalism attacks to disable parking meters.

"WE, the people, need to start fighting back! Here are some ideas to fight back:," states Illinois Patriot in a communique to The Expired Meter. "A good shot of expanding foam should feed the meter's coin slot nicely. Don't get caught... Epoxy putties and VHB sided foam tapes show additional promise for field expedient mayhem and merriment."

Meters Removed or Damaged

Someone actually removed one parking meter in Lakeview, again along Lincoln Ave., after it was loosened during a traffic accident.

"It was there on Saturday afternoon, but missing Monday morning," said a local business owner who asked to remain anonymous.

Another meter we found in Boystown had the entire coin box removed.

Overfeeding Meters With Pennies

One local blogger has championed feeding meters with pennies and nickels instead of quarters. While the other change does not register, once the meter's coin reservoirs are filled, the meter will read FAIL and is inoperable, cannot be fed and is essentially a free parking spot.

"I've done it a couple of times," says John, the Angry Chicagoan about his Penny Revolution. "I keep thinking one of these days I need to buy a few roll of pennies just to screw with them. A penny, nickel and dime are all legal tender. Consider it a gift to LAZ Parking. No jury in the world will convict you for giving someone money."

And in fact, there seems to be no municipal law restricting the use of coins in denominations other than quarters to feed parking meters.

"We are finding a lot of pennies and nickels in coin slots," confirmed an LAZ Parking employee who repairs meters that we confronted on the street. He wouldn't give us his name. "We see a lot of that going on."

LAZ Parking employees are working hard to keep up with fixing the inoperable meters.

"We see quite a few of them (broken meters)," said Reggie Johnson, a LAZ parking worker employed through a temporary labor company who's helping with the meter rate changes. "We log them (the broken meters) in and later on a repair crew comes out. Last week a crew I was working with fixed 200 meters in a (eight-hour) shift."

Some individuals are taking softer, more traditional community organizing approaches to exhibiting their anger.

One campaign at group action portal The Point lists its primary objective as "To force Chicago Parking Meter LLC to freeze the parking meter rates until Jan 1, 2011." It's an objective they plan to meet by asking drivers to boycott city meters.

At ChicagoParkingMeters.com, a single-page website promises that beginning in April, "This site will be a web 2.0 portal for community organization focused on supporting our rights as residents of the city of Chicago."

Others are simply making the decision not to park in normally congested areas like Lincoln Park, Wicker Park and Lakeview. Parking is now plentiful on busy streets where it was once impossible to find. It seems people are deciding just not to park in metered areas.

It's just a simple economic reaction to the higher rates.

One reader named Mike explains by saying, "The new Sunday meter regulations are set to ruin the city. The streets in front of our west loop condo used to be packed with cars Saturday nights and Sundays; no more. The spontaneity of going out to eat, shopping and visiting friends is already affected. Thank you Mayor Daley."

Others plan to exit the city permanently.

"After more than 20 years here I'm done, just done," says Chicago Tom. "Our condo is for sale and when it does, we're outta here. In one last act of defiance, my wife is going to drive our car and intentionally get a red light ticket with photo/video - we'll have the plates disguised. When the video/photo is viewed, they'll see my bare ass pressed against the back window accompanied a couple middle fingers. We'll then drive out of town for the last time."

Check out The Expired Meter for even more information and advice about parking, fighting parking tickets and red light tickets in Chicago.

Comments

[rjmiller]

Some areas its $2 per hour, like around the MCA. Who carries around several dollars worth of quarters?

[Ravyn]

Just wondering if everyone mad at all this and the Olympic bid and everything else problematic about the city will band together and vote Daley out the next election? I'm not originally from Chicago and was just shocked to learn there are no term limits and essentially Daley is like a little dictator who gets re-elected time and time again no matter what he does. His policies now and the policies of the governor are causing people to pack up and leave. Personally, I'm giving the city 2-3 more years and if things don't improve, I'm out of here, too.

[47th]

I hear ya, and I've lived here all my life! It is very frustrating, but I really feel the end of Daley is coming. With a true representative government, this would be the greatest city in the country! With Daley and his kind, it's a laughingstock cow town!

[Bethab]

The problem is the people who go up against Daley. Last time it was a rabid, anti-choice, crazy guy. We are still better off with Daley than that!

[mergina]

Just imagine any member of any town anywhere, who, in this day and age, thinks that these expensive mechanical nightmares are the best way to generate revenue. The very idea, that they would approve madness on this scale is abominable. When elected officials can think of NO OTHER WAY than to ticket, tax, tow, boot, fine and tax its residents into moving, to generate revenue, THEN THOSE ELECTED OFFICIALS ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOB AND NEED TO BE REPLACED FOR THEIR INCOMPETENCE. There is probably a backroom deal that spawned this latest fiasco. Nothing is done in this town WITHOUT SOMEONE'S POCKET BEING LINED. The DALEY GANG. What a bunch of idiotic thugs.

[Hereslookingatu]

Parking meters, at their inception, were a means of turning over business for local proprietors. However, it wasn't long before the city began using the revenue, in a less insidious way, toward public works. This is why parking meters were free on Sundays-- a last vestige of the mandated Sunday closing laws. The money went to the city, and Sunday was selected as the day of rest, a way to honor both the religious and secular among us. This is my greatest problem with the privatization of meters: it provides private revenue, private policing and is an abuse of our tax dollars since its practice lacks the common or collective consciousness behind application.

The city of Chicago is no longer our steward but our pimp. Do meters seem like a small issue not worth getting worked up over? In my mind, it's the quintessential abdication of the reciprocal relationship that exists between a citizenry and its body of governors. We should honestly ask ourselves how much this business deal really differs from the Vichy government hand-over of power to the Nazis. On its face, it's hardly different. Combined with the selling of our roads and tollways, it's a white flag from our government, who, having tried every trick in its book, can no longer sustain is rule and provide the tax payers with their rights; they've relinquished their positions, and frankly, if it's so damn hard, we should take it from them and redistribute.

There are no excuses.

[speckdog]

The Nazis, dude?

This gives the term 'wingnut' a whole new meaning. Your 'rights' as a taxpayer do not include access to parking meters, or parking your personal vehicle wherever you please. And as I understand it from the Constitution, your 'rights' actually derive from being a citizen, not from being a consumer.

[Hereslookingatu]

Oh, that's fine. Your confusion would be easily cleared up if you studied some early 20th century European history, But probably you know everything and there's no need. Probably because you read Huffo everyday, right ?

I might encourage you to open a book, take a glace at some contemporary social theory. You needn't adopt any one philosophy or worldview--and, in the interest of being hostile, careless and contrarian, you can go ahead and call them all bs (impress your friends, dude)--but it's fairly established that contemporary society will flex its muscle through patterns of consumption rather than iron rule of constitutionality. Have you ever thought about contemporary definitions of accountability, due process, civil disobedience? I'd go further, but frankly speckdog, I think it's probably too nuanced for you.

[mergina]

Daley does not care if every single one of them is smashed to oblivion. He has ALREADY gotten his cut.

[LeftRight]

The biggest problem is that they are providing private revenues, while still requiring PUBLIC enforcement!! The CPD is the one still handing out the tickets!

[lvogt]

The city does collect revenue from both the meter owners and the fines. I would prefer they were owned by the city so profit would not flow out but my issue is with the price of parking and the ineptness of eveyone involved.

[lvogt]

These meters are an outrage. So far I have managed to avoid their use altogether and continue to do so.
Elections will come and I will make my displeasure known.

[okfoxtrot]

We need new leaders in Chicago, a new Chicago government.

[edheller]

All but 5 of our city aldermen voted to approve this lousy deal to privatize the parking meters.
How does it make sense to get a one-time "payoff" of 1.5 billion dollars and no future parking revenue for 75 years?

And still we have potholes!

It's time to vote the aldermen out.

If you're an alderman who voted against the parking meter deal, better speak up louder so we don't vote you out too.

[edheller]

and while we're at it...

I challenge every alderman in the city of Chicago!
Go out and survey every street in your ward.
Document every pothole and work to remedy the situation.
You are responsible for making sure your ward is maintained for the residents of your ward.
Dig into your war-chests and purchase some asphalt if you have to.

[thephenomenologist]

If this is really the snow revolt, then i call upon chicagoans throughout the city to rise up now ! smash the meters ! deface the meters ! curse daley aloud ! this nonsense must end, so RISE UP MY BRETHREN, THE REVOLT BEGINS NOW !

[ChiProgressive]

Thanks parking ticket geek.

Now it'll only take a roll of pennies to park all day at a downtown meter.

expanding foam eh...

[montemalone]

The problem is that all those cars are now clogging the few neighborhood spaces for residents. I unfortunately live in a building with no garage, and the kind parking operators in adjacent buildings will allow me the privelege if handing over my keys for only $300-400/mo. The permit zone is only enforced 6p-6a, so now attempting to use my car during the day means I likely won't find a place to park when i get home.
Yeah, I know, my choice to have a car, but I need it for my job.

And yesterday, I saw a metermaid do something to a meter, one of 2 with a car parked on LaSalle, then proceed to write a ticket. Can they override the display?

[TheGhostOfTomJoad]

Hopefully the rebels are just warming up.

Daley needs to go.

[BVictor1]

For what. Parking was too cheap before.

[nemain]

for who??? Too cheap? Maybe it's you that is making too much. Wake up pal, most people don't make enough money to feed the meters. The cost of going downtown to the museum has jumped from 20-30 dollars a person to 50 dollars a person. That will hurt spending all over the metro area. We are in a recession just in case you haven't noticed.

[Eric8869]

I'm glad to hear this actually. Although I am not for breaking the law these politicians seem to be able to do anything to the public without response. This was a ridiculous change shoved down the throats of Chicago citizens.

I think we should continue this protest but also make this a HUGE issue to our politicians. Let someone become a new Mayor of Chicago based on Parking Meters and Potholes alone!

[Bethab]

Awesome...I'm on it!

[bluguy8]

good for them-- government has enough money--if they don't cut down on their salaries and office space--thats where the pork is.. i hope they don't get caught

[LeftRight]

The problem is that this isn't government. This is the company that bought the parking meters for a discount at the previous price, and then increased their margins by a factor of up to 8!!

[nemain]

the government still sold us out to this company.

[coolmob5]

Do these vandals think they won't pay for these pranks ultimately? Not too bright. The Sundays stink, but the rates aren't that ridiculous. We live in a big city, folks.

[LeftRight]

The rates ARE that ridiculous. The city was making 20 million dollars per year at the old rate. At that rate, they UNDERsold the lease to the meters, since they would make more than that over the 75 years of the lease. Had the city gone ahead and slowly increased the rates to the value they are at now, while retaining control, they would have had a LOT more money, and happier people!

[Alexander Hamilton]

Is this how you calculate the future value of money? No wonder we are in so much s**t.

[nemain]

Another person who has no idea what this does to businesses and people's spending habits downtown. It is costing more in the loss of business than it was worth the price hike.

[academic-one]

I used to frequent river north and downtown businesses but no longer. Now its easier for me to shop in the suburbs. Sundays wont be free parking anymore so can run in and out of Michigan ave shops like I used to. Well trust me that businesses will suffer, but our politicians will use the economy as an excuse and defend the high meter chages. Have lived in the city all my life and Im 60 but looks like its time to go. Big brother cameras watching intersections meters that cost $3.00/ hour, museums upping their rates. Chicago is becoming a city for the wealthy.