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Editor’s note: Such a shame. Hopefully no one will do anything to all those red light cameras either.
By Sally Ho~Chicago Tribune
The growing ire over Chicago’s parking meters took on yet another dimension Thursday when roughly 50 coin-fed meters were vandalized in the two North Side neighborhoods of Uptown and Ravenswood.
The damage included globs of goo smeared on the parking meters or left to dry in the coin slots. The vandals also wrote the words “SLAVE” and “KILL COPS” on a few of the meters’ display windows in black marker. Many display windows were completed covered by silver spray paint.
The goo obstructing the coin slots was likely an adhesive thought to be glue or putty, Chicago police said.
The putty is removable, and the meter usable if a motorist has “something to scrape it with,” Chicago police spokesman Robert Perez said.
Since Chicago leased the parking meters to a private company, Chicago Parking Meters LLC, earlier this year, city officials, the company and the meters themselves have been the target of controversy, with complaints about price increases, computer glitches that made some pay-and-display parking machines inoperable, and non-working and mismarked meters.
Police on Thursday said the meters were in the 5100 block of North Clark Street., the 5000 block of North Sheridan Road, the 1000 block of West Argyle Street, the 4900 block of North Winthrop Avenue and the 4900 block of North Kenmore Avenue.
On the meter-lined 5000 block of North Sheridan, where Supermart Grocery sits, manager Syed Ali said about 30 customers complained to him Thursday about the meters. He said the meters, which are a cause of frustration for customers, have been hurting business.
“They cannot park, so they come in a hurry,” Ali said. “They’re all very angry, saying all kinds of bad words.”
City officials “need to do a better job creating awareness when things change. There’s no confidence for the Olympics because of this kind of thing,” Ali said, referring to the city’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic games.
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