Your chances of receiving a parking ticket in Chicago have shot up since earlier this year.
A ticketing blitz in the city has led to a 26 percent spike in parking meter violations so far in 2009, according to city records provided to the Tribune in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
The area in and near the Loop accounted for half the increase in tickets.
The stepped-up enforcement contributed to a $7 million year-over-year increase in parking ticket revenue, which totaled $119.2 million from January through August, the Chicago Department of Revenue reported.
Fines assessed from tickets go to the city’s nearly depleted general fund. Revenue collected from a four-fold increase in parking rates this year is kept by Chicago Parking Meters LLC, which paid the city $1.15 billion as part of a 75-year lease to manage on-street parking.
The company and its operating partner, LAZ Parking, are working to earn back the Daley administration’s confidence after a poor start in February that included broken meters, inaccurate meter fee signage and meters that over-charged for parking. In the midst of those problems, the city got tougher on “parking scofflaws.”
The extra emphasis on enforcement may be contributing to an abundance of parking spaces in many parts of the city where finding street parking was previously luck of the draw.
“The area in and near the Loop accounted for 50 percent of the increase in parking meter violations,” said Ed Walsh, spokesman for the Revenue Department.
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Go figure
Some ticket facts and figures:
327,650
Tickets issued in the first eight months of 2009 for expired meters or overstaying a pay-and-display parking spot.
259,849
Tickets issued in the first eight months of 2008 for the same thing.
13%: Increase in ticketing in the first four months of 2009 compared with the first quarter of 2008
22%: Meter violations — the top revenue producer — accounted for roughly this percentage of all tickets issued by the Revenue Department this year and last.
