Tag Archives: parking

State to crack down on holiday handicapped parking violators

Nov 23, 2016 | WLSAM Staff

(CHICAGO) Illegally parking in handicapped spaces violates the law, and the spirit of the holiday season — and that includes the holiday shopping season, Secretary of State Jesse White said Tuesday, announcing stepped-up enforcement of parking violations beginning this Friday, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

As temperatures fall and shoppers flood malls across the state, able-bodied Illinoisans may be tempted to use a disabled friend’s parking placard or simply pull into a handicapped space, White acknowledged at a press conference at the Thompson Center. But that temptation should be tempered by the knowledge that members of the Secretary of State’s police force will be patrolling shopping centers starting with the Black Friday holiday shopping kick-off.

Able-bodied shoppers who take a space that’s reserved for the handicapped offend “common decency,” White said.

“When you do things like that, you don’t care for your fellow man and woman,” White said. “If you don’t belong there, don’t park there.”

Handicapped parking spots, and the adjacent, striped areas are typically both nearer to entrances and provide extra space so that drivers or passengers in wheelchairs or walkers can get out of their car and into stores more easily, said Bill Bogdan, White’s disability liaison. It can be nearly impossible for a person in a wheelchair to even exit their vehicle from a smaller space, said Bogdan, who uses a wheelchair.

Bodgan often joins the White’s parking enforcement crews on patrol, and he’s heard the excuse from illegal parkers that they believed they’re entitled to use a parking space simply because they’re driving a car that has a relative’s parking placard or handicapped license plates. But the parking privileges apply only when the disabled person is along for the ride, Bogdan said. And, he added, when parking scofflaws find themselves talking to Bogdan, they tend to stop trying to use technicalities to justify taking a space from someone who actually needs it.

“When I come wheeling up in the chair, they tend to get the statement loud and clear, and those excuses go out the window,” Bogdan said.

Other than violating common decency or ignoring the holiday spirit, parking violators risk stiff fines and penalties:

Mis-using a parking placard: $600 fine, 6-month license suspension
Parking placard violation, second offense: $750 fine
Parking placard violation, third offense: $1,000 fine, 1-year license revocation
Parking in a handicapped space: fines up to $350
Using deceased person’s placard: $2,5000 fine, 1-year license revocation
© Copyright 2016 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Effort aims to catch shoppers abusing disability parking

Nov 22, 2016 | WLSAM Staff

(CHICAGO) The Illinois Secretary of State’s office plans a statewide sting operation to catch those who illegally park in disabled spots at shopping malls.

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White plans to announce the tenth-annual effort on Tuesday in Chicago ahead of the Black Friday shopping rush the day after Thanksgiving. Secretary of State police will conduct compliance checks at malls across Illinois during the holiday season.

Fines for parking in a spot reserved for those with disabilities without a placard or special license plate is up to $350. The fine for illegally using a placard or disability license plate is $600 and possible six-month driver’s license suspension.

There are more than 630,000 disability placards and nearly 66,000 disability licenses in use in Illinois.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Wrigleyville Parking Expected to Be Upwards of $300

Oct 25, 2016 | WLSAM Staff

By Jen DeSalvo, The John Howell and Ray Stevens Morning Show

DNAinfo Chicago is reporting that fans heading to the World Series games in Wrigleyville may be paying upwards of $300 to park! Keeping in mind that there is no commercial parking lot like there is at Soldier Field, the United Center or Guaranteed Rate Field (reminder: that’s the new name of where the White Sox play), it is fairly difficult to find any parking, let alone cheap parking.

Most street parking in Lakeview falls under permit parking, and without a 383 pass, a car will be ticketed and towed. Residents oftentimes have an extra parking space which they are willing to rent to an out-of-town Cubs fan, but those spaces come at a premium.

The best options come from the city’s reliable public transit systems such as the CTA and Metra. Information directly from those agencies can be found below.

Source: Cubs Fans: Be Prepared To Shell Out Up To $300 For World Series Parking – Wrigleyville – DNAinfo Chicago

Metra

From Metrarail.com

World Series Bound… Destination Wrigleyville!

Chicago Cubs fans, whether you are lucky enough to have tickets to the weekend games or just want to enjoy the experience around the ballpark, take Metra and CTA and avoid the traffic and cost of parking.  Buy tickets right from your smartphone too, with the Ventra App, including the Saturday and Sunday unlimited ride $8 Weekend Pass.   Please remember that all departing times from the city will leave on regular scheduled service, so plan accordingly. 

Directions to Wrigley Field from Chicago Union Station:

  • Walk six blocks east to the CTA Red Line (State Street Subway). Take Red Line trains going north to the Addison stop, just steps from the ballpark, or
  • Board a CTA bus to the CTA Red Line (State Street Subway): No. 1 Bronzeville/Union Station or No. 151 Sheridan at the Union Station Transit Center, located along Jackson Blvd. between Canal Street and Clinton Street just south of Union Station. Take Red Line train going north to the Addison stop.

Directions to Wrigley Field from Ogilvie Transportation Center:

  • Walk six blocks east to the CTA Red Line (State Street Subway). Take the Red Line north to Addison, or
  • Board a CTA bus to the CTA Red Line (State Street Subway): No. 20 Madison, No. 56 Milwaukee or No. J14 Jeffery Jump to connect to the State Street Subway. Take the Red Line north to Addison.

Directions to Wrigley Field from Millennium and Van Buren Street Stations:

  • Walk two blocks west to State Street to take the Red Line to Addison.  

Directions to Wrigley Field from Metra’s UP Northwest Irving Park Station:

  • Board CTA bus No. 80 Irving Park to Clark Street.

Directions to Wrigley Field from Metra’s Milwaukee North Grayland Station:

  • Walk south on Kilbourn Avenue to Addison Street. Take CTA bus No. 152 Addison east to the ballpark.

Directions to Wrigley Field from Metra’s UP North Line Davis Street Station:

  • Walk one block east to the CTA Davis Station. Board a Howard-bound Purple Line train to Howard and then transfer to a 95th-bound Red Line train to Addison.

Directions to Wrigley Field from Metra’s Rock Island Line:

  • Get off at the 35th Street/”Lou” Jones Station. Walk to the CTA Red Line and take the train going north to the Addison stop.

For additional schedule information, contact Metra Passenger Services at 312-322-6777 or call the RTA Travel Information Center at 836-7000.

CTA Options

Trains

Red Line
The ballpark is just a half block west of the Addison stop on the CTA Red Line.

To get to the Addison stop from the south (including downtown), take a Red Line train toward Howard. From the north, take a Red Line train toward 95th.

The ballpark is also just a couple of blocks south of the Sheridan stop on the CTA Red Line.

Purple Line Express

Before weekday night games, rather than run express from Howard to Belmont, regular Loop-bound Purple Line Express trains will make an additional stop at Sheridan.

Linden-bound Purple Line Express trains will not make special stops at Sheridan. Purple Line Express service operates only during weekday rush periods. For service back north after the game, use the Red Line from Addison or Sheridan (where you can transfer to Purple Line local service and Yellow Line trains at Howard).

Buses

You can also use CTA bus routes #8 Halsted, #22 Clark or #152 Addison(connects to the Brown and Blue lines) to get to, or within a few blocks of, Wrigley Field.

Feds focus on LAZ executive for alleged parking meter bribe

Jun 17, 2015 | WLSAM Staff

(CHICAGO) Federal agents have been investigating an executive with the firm that manages Chicago’s privatized parking meters on allegations he took kickbacks to steer a meter contract to a favored company, according to a court record obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

FBI agents filed an affidavit for a search warrant in February to search two email accounts tied to an executive of LAZ Parking who allegedly received $90,000 in bribe payments to steer the contract for parking meters, which produced gross revenues of $22 million and monthly service fees.

The Sun-Times is not naming the executive because he has not been charged. When reached Tuesday, he said the allegations in the FBI affidavit were “news to me” and declined to comment further. The FBI declined to comment.

A LAZ spokeswoman said Tuesday that they first learned about the allegations against one of their employees when the Sun-Times contacted them.

“We are a company that is committed to our employees and base our values on integrity, trust and honesty,” LAZ spokeswoman Mary Coursey wrote in an email. “We will fully cooperate with the proper authorities to insure that this matter will be handled in a professional and swift manner.”

The feds say the businessman who paid the bribe is a cooperating witness, who is charged with paying a bribe to an official in another city on another parking meter deal.

The cooperating witness is not named in the affidavit. The feds wrote that he was president and CEO of a company that landed a contract to supply parking meters to Chicago Parking Meters LLC, the consortium that landed the 75-year deal to privatize Chicago’s meters.

The FBI raided his offices some time after July 22, 2011, according to the affidavit.

Those details appear to fit the case against George Levey, whose Cale Parking Systems USA Inc. provided parking meters to Chicago Parking Meters LLC. Federal prosecutors in Oregon accused Levey last year of bribing a Portland official and paying for his travel, golfing green fees and strip clubs in return for help landing parking meter deals. Levey’s attorneys filed a plea agreement in Oregon in late April.

Levey could not be reached for comment Tuesday, and his attorney declined to comment.

The feds allege the scheme unfolded as Chicago’s plan to privatize its parking meters began taking shape near the end of 2008. The LAZ executive and the parking meter company CEO allegedly sat down together at a Florida restaurant.

The CEO wanted his meters in Chicago, so they cut a deal, according to the affidavit. In return for as much as $90,000 in bribe payments, the LAZ executive allegedly helped his Florida restaurant companion land a contract to supply Chicago’s parking meters.

The FBI said the LAZ executive gave the parking meter CEO inside information about the criteria used to pick a supplier. A three-member panel that included the LAZ executive selected the parking meter CEO’s company.

In October 2009, the wife of the LAZ executive allegedly created a shell company to receive the “bribe payments,” according to the affidavit. Over three months in 2010, the feds said the parking meter supplier’s company made four payments totaling $90,000 to that shell company.

But apparently it wasn’t enough.

In July 2011, the LAZ executive’s wife allegedly wrote an email to the parking meter CEO that read: “Hi George. Do you need me to send you an invoice for 2011?”

The CEO believe she was asking for more money, according to the affidavit. But by then, the contract had apparently turned out to be far less lucrative than expected, and the CEO was souring on shelling out any more cash.

So he wrote to the LAZ executive, “You and I will need to meet,” according to the affidavit. He allegedly complained that Chicago Parking Meters had “hammered us down in all areas” and eventually concluded, “a fair payout may have already happened.”

The LAZ executive then allegedly tried to set up a meeting. But two weeks later, the parking meter CEO wrote back to offer a “reality update” and complain about changes to the original deal, according to the FBI.

“Obviously I am making this statement because the fee issued last year in my opinion is quite fair as a full payment,” the cooperating witness allegedly wrote.

The feds showed up to search his office shortly after he sent that email, according to the affidavit. The raid generated some publicity.

And the LAZ executive did not respond.

— Chicago Sun-Times

© Copyright 2015 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Plenty of bike parking for Mumford & Sons concert at Montrose Beach

Jun 16, 2015 | WLSAM Staff

(CHICAGO) If you’re heading to the sold-out Mumford & Sons concert Wednesday at Montrose Beach, leave your car — and your selfie sticks — at home, organizers say.

Gates open at 3 p.m. for the concert at Cricket Hill inside the lakefront park on the North Side. The British rock band is touring after the release of its third album, “Wilder Mind,” and is joined by opening acts The Maccabees and Son Little.

No parking will be provided for the event, according concert organizer JAM Productions. Concertgoers are strongly encouraged to use public transportation, bike or take a Divvy bike instead of driving.

JAM Productions is providing a free bike valet for the first 4,000 bicycles on site, the concert’s website said. Cyclists can drop off their bikes and gear at the east entrance along Montrose and pick them up after the event.

Divvy representatives will also be at the east entrance to valet bikes before the event and provide additional bikes after the show, the website said.

The CTA will provide extra bus service along the No. 78 Montrose, No. 81 Lawrence and No. 146 Inner Drive/Michigan Express routes from 4 p.m. until one hour after the concert ends, the transit agency said.

The Red Line will also have extra train service for concertgoers, the CTA said. The Wilson station is about two blocks west of the lakefront park.

Anyone walking to or from concert should stay clear of Lake Shore Drive and use the pedestrian underpasses below it at Montrose, Wilson and Lawrence.

Montrose, Wilson and Lawrence streets will also be closed to traffic east of Lake Shore Drive because of the concert.

The show will go on rain or shine. The first act starts about 6 p.m. and the show should end by 10 p.m. Attendees must bring printed copies of their tickets, as tickets on cellphone screens will not be accepted, the concert’s website said.

Small backpacks, water bottles, blankets, strollers and nonprofessional cameras are allowed. Lawn chars, umbrellas, selfie sticks, coolers and other large items are prohibited.

Outside food and drinks will not be permitted, but there will be vendors selling food, beer, wine and cocktails inside the park.

© Copyright 2015 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

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