Chicago Parking Wars
The citizens of Gotham City err…Chicago are as mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore!They are tired of parking meters being trashed, broken, malfunctioning and having to pay hundreds of dollars in fines for tickets or just to keep their car in a municipal parking deck. The revolution has begun residents are taking to the streets – and showing Chi-town’s Transit Authority what they think of crap meters.
A picture is worth a thousand words – or in this case only two.
First off, who uses parking meters anymore? They are all but stripped from the sidewalks of cities like Montreal & New York (*at least in Midtown) – replaced by computerized stations which few people can comprehend how to operate. Chicago’s LAZ Meters have been (slowly) replaced by higher prices, computerized monitors that, half the time, don’t seem to function. And what do you suppose those living in the area did after email/phone complaints were ignored – they fought back. Don’t mess with a Chicagoian…Chicagoite?
Spray Paint the F**ker
If the meter cop can’t read whether or not your time has expired, they can’t give you a ticket…right? One attempt to piss off LAZ and get the city to do something about Chicago’s parking situation is my painting over meter screens. That way a supposed busted machine has to be replaced. Wouldn’t it be a bitch of LAZ just replaced plastic over the screen and left the meter broken?
Stuff it with Pennies
Apparently, pennies are still useful. Another way those fighting back against LAZ’s crap meters and rising prices is by stuffing them with pennies – causing each to flash error messages. Don’t have any change? Some have been squirting Super Glue into slots.
Smashing and Breaking Into
Now, Automopedia in no way condones acts of violence against inanimate objects, but face it – America was found on the idea of revolution. Slamming a Sammy Sosa baseball bat into a piece of metal every now and then never hurt anyone. Tearing off LAZ instruction stickers, ripping out coin boxes and taking your aggression out with something hard have all been results of price hikes and bad civil service. We get the feeling Chicago’s Parking Wars have only begun.
Photos Courtesy of theexpiredmeter.com
*During my last trip in NYC in December I did not notice any – but I mostly went between Midtown and residential parts of The Bronx.
Mar 30th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
[...] this gives the residents of Chicago some bright ideas. Share and [...]
Sep 17th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
[...] trouble-maker in me enjoyed the reports of people disabling the parking meters, from stuffing them with pennies, super-gluing coins in the slots, spraypainting the display cases, [...]