About 50 coin-fed parking meters were vandalized Thursday on the North Side in Uptown and Ravenswood, according to Chicago police.
The coin slots were obstructed with an adhesive thought to be glue or putty, said Police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez. The putty is removable “if they have something to scrape it with,” Perez said.
The meters also have been sprayed with silver paint. Police said the meters are in the 5100 block of North Clark Street, the 5000 block of North Sheridan Road, the 1000 block of West Argyle Street, the 4900 block of North Winthrop Avenue and the 4900 block of North Kenmore Avenue.
Since the city leased the parking meters to a private company earlier this year, they have been the target of controversy, with complaints ofprice increases, computer glitches that made some pay boxes inoperable, non-working and mismarked meters.
It was not immediately known how long it would take to affect repairs, although Avis LaVelle, spokeswoman for Chicago Parking Meters LLC, the private company, said all meters reported damaged should be repaired within two days.
If a meter is “visually inoperable,” Chicago Revenue Department ticket-writers are trained to not issue tickets, said Ed Walsh, a spokesman for the department. Anyone who comes upon a broken meter should report it through the city’s 311 non-emergency line, and if they receive a ticket, they should contest it, Walsh said.
