Not sure if it's related to this specific parking meter deal, but I'll share my worst Chicago parking horror story:
It's Black Friday, maybe 2010. My siblings and I go out for a drink somewhere downtownish. Street parking is tight. So we pull into parking for a corner business center (anchored by a bank, with a few other retail stores, all closed for the evening). There's some tiny "no parking here unless you're a business patron" sign that we genuinely don't see.
After our very happy evening drinking reasonably-priced Chicago beverages, we return to the car.
It's got a boot on it. The guy who installed the boot is just sitting there in his truck, waiting for us to get back. He tells us that we parked illegally and need to pay $150 (maybe more? at least that) to get the boot off.
Something about it felt like society was eating itself alive. Just funneling money into some cynical investors' bank accounts while restricting us from making use of totally available, no-cost resources (an empty lot) that are themselves supported by ux taxpayers.
I once had my car parked in an un-zoned spot. Took my dog for a walk (~8am) and walked by the car to make sure everything was ok. Took my dog for another walk when I got home from work (~5pm). Walked by the car, it was gone, there was a big hole in the ground where my car had previously been located and NO PARKING signs were up that were definitely not there in the morning. It also looked like regular maintenance work, nothing catastrophic (could have waited a day or two for the cars to clear out).
My car was nowhere to be seen.
I found the car a few minutes later down the block. It had been towed to another spot. Unfortunately they left it in a zoned area and I had been ticketed for parking without a zone permit.
Just one of the many fun parking experiences I had living in Chicago!
Parking in most of the city is incredibly tight, and there is a land and maintenance cost to having it. You shouldn't be looking for using that space for free.
Even in the suburbs there are situations where parking is for that business and that business only.
You might be interested to know that putting a clamp on a car is illegal in the UK. You can still 'fine' illegal parkers, but you can't clamp them. It is not really a fine though, it is a civil matter similar to breach of contract. I successfully appealed one due to inadequate signage, but I had to go to the tribunal.
Better still, in France there was mass civil disobedience at the introduction of clamping. Random people put superglue in the lock of any clamp they saw until they were withdrawn! I have always admired the French for that.
I had this happen at a smaller city in NY state, except they had the car towed instead of booting it. In retrospect I’m not sure it’s totally unreasonable, since running a night time public parking lot could bring different risks and costs than a daytime lot. There is definitely a cash grab component though.
This is very, very common in Chicago. Many business parking lots have a guy parked there all through the day to just boot you immediately and then take your money when you return.
It's Black Friday, maybe 2010. My siblings and I go out for a drink somewhere downtownish. Street parking is tight. So we pull into parking for a corner business center (anchored by a bank, with a few other retail stores, all closed for the evening). There's some tiny "no parking here unless you're a business patron" sign that we genuinely don't see.
After our very happy evening drinking reasonably-priced Chicago beverages, we return to the car.
It's got a boot on it. The guy who installed the boot is just sitting there in his truck, waiting for us to get back. He tells us that we parked illegally and need to pay $150 (maybe more? at least that) to get the boot off.
Something about it felt like society was eating itself alive. Just funneling money into some cynical investors' bank accounts while restricting us from making use of totally available, no-cost resources (an empty lot) that are themselves supported by ux taxpayers.
Why do we do this to ourselves?