Where to park is a question on the mind of all residents who own a car without a designated parking space. Parking was so severe and expensive in my neighborhood in the 42nd Ward that I sold my car and designed a plan to help solve the problem:
1. Provide tax incentives for building new garages. A three-story parking facility could fit a neighborhood as well as new housing currently being built.
2. Work with the CTA, local officials and municipal agencies to improve service and seek alternative transportation systems similar to San Francisco’s system of transporting bicycles on public transit.
3. Work with members from the community to share parking space for nighttime residential use between schools, churches, temples, government lots, hospitals, medical offices and vacant lots.
4. Open the parking lots along the lakefront and in Lincoln Park for overnight parking for lakefront residents.
5. Redesign unused space under the “L” to accommodate additional street parking. Provide diagonal parking on residential streets that are wide enough for 60-degree or 45-degree parking. This could increase the number of spaces on the streets by 100 percent.
As an alternative to parking permits, we must seek more innovative solutions to provide parking close to home and greater accessibility to local businesses.
