Vandals, CTA Attack Uptown Parking Meters

Vandals Try to Destroy Meters and CTA Removes Perfectly Good Meters Once again, the big media and another local blog got local coverage wrong. The big media might be forgiven; they don't live in Uptown. Chicago News Bench saw a parking meter that was spray painted gold yesterday (Wednesday, June 3) near N. Sheridan and W. Wilson. According to Chicago Breaking News, "About 50 coin-fed parking meters were vandalized today in the three adjacent North Side neighborhoods of Uptown and Ravenswood, according to Chicago police." Wrong. They were vandalized yesterday. Chicago Breaking News was quoted without question by Uptown Update, which ran a photo of a non-vandalized, expired but perfectly funtional meter (which had nothing to do with vandalism) in their version of the story today. (Click photos to enlarge them.) As so often happens, Uptown Update ran none of their own photos. Chicago News Bench actually put down our tub of ice cream and got off our Lazy-Boy recliner to visit the streets of Uptown. We walked around and found the vandalized meters pictured here. The meter that was spray painted gold yesterday (above) is still functional. We watched a woman plug coins into it. No problem. It just looks nicer than it did before the new paint job. CTA Removes Perfectly Good Meters While the media are all aflutter about a few "vandalized" (but still functional) meters, they seem to have missed the fact that CTA has effectively destroyed more than 30 meters. As we walked the filthy streets of Alderman Shiller's 46th Ward, we noticed that all of the parking meters have been removed from the triangular parking lot behind the Wilson Broadway Mall. That's in the heart of a business district that needs all the help it can get, where parking is badly needed. The CTA has claimed that lot for its own "Under the L Monthly Parking Program." The program started on June 1, but the lot was empty this afternoon when we took these photos. Now, a public parking lot that used to help local merchants and their customers is vacant. Nice use of land, City of Chicago. Way to go, CTA. Leave a Comment Here... See our cool merchandise... Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Hey! ChiNewsBench is on Twitter