Screwed by the City
Just now I ran into Bruce from Upstairs. He showed me a parking ticket he got in the mail that says he owes the City $150 for parking illegally near Illinois Masonic, four miles away. Get this–he was out of town the weekend he “got” the ticket, and his car was parked in our neighborhood the entire time.
WTF?
Contesting a ticket in Chicago is a big pain in the ass. You have a week to either pay (in person, through the mail, or online) or check the little box next to the option to contest. If you pick the latter, then you have to show up within the next three weeks, and it’s first come, first serve. Doors open at 8:00 a.m.
If you ignore the ticket altogether, they send you a notice in the mail. If you ignore that one as well, then they come to your house and take all your pets. If you don’t have any, they’ll take your neighbors’ pets.
According to the Department of Revenue’s Web site, contesting the ticket in person does not increase your chances of winning. What they don’t tell you is that you have no chance of winning. I’m positive, however, that employees and their families aren’t eligible to play, if you know what I mean. And obviously, as in Bruce from Upstairs’s case, no purchase is necessary to win. Pfft. You’re better off playing the lottery.
If, like most people, you aren’t a lucky winner, you have 35 days to appeal the decision, though on the Web site, it doesn’t say whether or not this can be done online or through the mail.
Now, who’s going to go through all that for a $30 meter violation? Or a $50 street cleaning parking violation? A $150 ticket though, that might be a different story. Seriously, you’re better off just paying the damn thing, and the City knows this.
But a “ghost” ticket? (This town has many ghosts, you know.) Even a ghost ticket for say, $30? My initial reaction would be to curse them out, even if they couldn’t hear me. Then I’d contest. If I have no material evidence I’d have to go to court to present my case. I mean, come on, how can you prove that you weren’t actually parked at the meter that you supposedly violated?
So let’s say I show up in court and they decide against me, which they would. I now have a month to appeal. Is it worth it? Is it?
My Kind of Town
Think about it…..you’ve got to give those nepotistic city employees something to do! You wouldn’t want all those clerks to be out of a job would you? The local aldermans family would be devastated by the economic impact.
And anyway, I always go and fight the ticket just to be a thorn in their side.
There’s something worse than Chicago, believe it or not. It’s Elburn, way out west before DeKalb. That sleepy little bump in the road is, according to the internet, one of the top speed traps in the country. One of their cops once wrote me a ticket for not have a front license plate. He said he’d do me a favor and write me a “local Elburn ticket”, which was only $35, as opposed to a “state ticket” which was $75. What a scam. Not wanting to add to the Elburn coffers, I fought the ticket, insisting that I be issued the “state ticket” instead. HA HA HA HA HA. They through the whole thing out when they discovered I worked for a local newspaper. Seems they didn’t want word of their “local ticket” scam leaking out.
OOOOOOPS. It’s all over the internet now. Probably translated into 53 languages too!
October 1, 2004 8:09 am
I got a parking ticket and had a witness that my car wasn’t there, and pictures showing the address on the ticket didn’t exist and the judge said these were just my observations, and not from an official source, I had to pay. The truth doesn’t count when your fighting the city.
November 15, 2004 3:35 pm
I also got a ticket and my car wasn’t there, and I have proof it was done by police to get even, they did it for a friend who sells drugs to them some guy named Eddy in Edison Park 7035 olcott.
The judge didn’t even want to know, her job was on the line and has to side with the city. City corruption at it’s best. Oh well you can’t fight city hall.
November 15, 2004 3:41 pm