Chicago 2016 QUARTERS; Olympic Size Blunder

Today’s Tribune deposits a few more minutes in the on going blunder that is Chicago Parking Meters and the $200 Million Annual Company running the show; LAZ parking.

…LAZ Parking, was poorly prepared to take over Chicago’s parking meters when the handoff from the city took place Feb. 13, the firm acknowledges.

Meanwhile….

Mayor Daley along with many of Chicago’s business elite are trying extremely hard to bring the Olympics to Chicago, putting the city on display as a “World Class” city.  Well guess what, like it or not they have a hard image to overcome thanks to our former Governors, and a legacy of shameful politics and crime.

I’m not against the idea of the Olympics coming here, however, I have a hard time swallowing what I’m hearing; my gut tells me as a resident I’m going to be paying for this somewhere.

What does this have to do with Parking, or scooters for that matter?

If the Olympics do come to Chicago, what do you think the message will be when tourist from all over the world along with the world media are running around looking for 28 quarters every 2 hours? Not to mention the sticker on the meter will most certainly be wrong, displaying the wrong rates, or times, or both.

Below the story from the Tribune is a link to a graph displaying parking rates for Chicago and other Cities. I’m not so sure this information is correct but I will give the Tribune the benefit of the doubt.

However, what they do not take in account is that these other “World Class” cities have Motorcycle and Scooter Parking.  Take San Francisco, for $5 you can park your scooter or motorcycle all day and also have the peace of mind that some idiot is not going to try moving it to gain a space. (Yes, That has happened to me)

Chicago, Mr. Mayor, and area Alderman this city needs designated scooter and motorcycle parking in and around the Loop.  Look around at any of the “World Class” cities up for these 2016 Olympics you desire so badly, they all have parking for scooters and Motorcycles.

In the next few weeks I will be gathering information and finding ways for us to act. We need better management of these meters, we need more options for paying, we need some of these BS loading zones to be removed, and we MOST CERTAINLY NEED SCOOTER AND MOTORCYCLE PARKING.

Now, I’m not sure how effective petitions are but in the world of twitter and 24 hour news media on twitter, I’m sure our voices will be heard.

…..I got to go feed the meter hand me that Crown Royal bag of quarters