Parking, Chicago

Been using FasPark to help me find street parking in Chicago and have to say that it works pretty nicely. Does it find a spot for me? No, but it reduces my driving around looking for a spot like crazy.
Thought I'd share this with you all tech fans out there who like useful apps.

Chicago residents don't like it when you take their spots for an enormous amount of time. I am reading all this cheap parking reviews, but keep in mind residents pay a lot to live here. A lot more than the suburban areas. Take the train or move to the city. Stop with all this free parking, because it really isn't free. Yes, we do claim our spots in the winter with chairs, cones, or whatever artifacts will stick as we have done our due diligence in clearing that space, so we deserve to reserve it respectfully. It's a Chicago tradition & will not change any time soon. If you all who visit come with a shovel to clear a spot out, you can reserve that spot too. Until then, just pay a garage to park your car.

I recently used SpotHero to find parking for a trip to downtown Chicago. I was able to buy a spot for only $15 for the whole day (9AM-9PM), right in the heart of the Loop. The seller owned the parking space and was not going to be in the city for the whole day, so I ended up parking my car in a very secure spot at an awesome price. The website was very user-friendly and efficient. I was in and out within minutes. Definitely recommend SpotHero for anyone coming from the suburbs or just visiting from outside the area.

I recently used SpotHero to find parking for a trip to downtown Chicago. I was able to buy a spot for only $15 for the whole day (9AM-9PM), right in the heart of the Loop. The seller owned the parking space and was not going to be in the city for the whole day, so I ended up parking my car in a very secure spot at an awesome price. The website was very user-friendly and efficient. I was in and out within minutes. Definitely recommend SpotHero for anyone coming from the suburbs or just visiting from outside the area.

I recently used SpotHero to find parking for a trip to downtown Chicago. I was able to buy a spot for only $15 for the whole day (9AM-9PM), right in the heart of the Loop. The seller owned the parking space and was not going to be in the city for the whole day, so I ended up parking my car in a very secure spot at an awesome price. The website was very user-friendly and efficient. I was in and out within minutes. Definitely recommend SpotHero for anyone coming from the suburbs or just visiting from outside the area.

I've attended an uncountable amount of cubs games and the parking spots around wrigley seems to be increasing exponentially in price. Even when you park far off by Sheridan and irving park, its $20 to $25 bucks. A friend told me about an awesome website called Spothero where you can reserve parking and pay less than the normal Wrigley amount. I highly suggest checking Spothero.com for parking before attending a game. Actually they have parking spots all over Chicago.

Was able to park for my whole 8 day visit without paying meters. I was able to even use the car one day to visit Starved Rock and still found a spot when I returned! Drive along Chicago and Segwick - there are about two blocks of parking along Chicago and more if you park off Chicago but I was not too sure of the area so I stayed on Chicago which seemed safe...and it was. There were almost always lots of cars on the road or people walking by. No break-ins for me, none seen near my car, and NO PAYING FOR PARKING!!!! This area is where our dear friend lives and is right off the Brown line so if you parked here you could easily get to other parts of the city. This spot was in such a good location that each day we walked to the city center so we didn't need to keep accessing the car, but if we did it wouldn't have been problem to find parking again as there we often many open spots in the evenings. Enjoy the free parking and Chicago....what a fun city!

Updated 1/27/11

Parking in Chicago is expensive, especially during the week. Sometimes you can get early bird specials on the weekdays if you come early enough. If you are coming in by plane, you should not need to have a car.

If you are lucky enough to find a free or metered spot on the street, check all the signs very carefully. There are resident only parking zones, there are rush hour/business hour tow zones, no parking if it's snowing zones, leaf cleaning, etc. A lot of the meters have been replaced by Pay Box type meters, they will be located in the center of the block and you have to display a slip of paper with the expiration time on your dashboard. You can usually only park for 2-3 hours at these meters, they do take credit cards in addition to coins.

There are still a few free spots to park at in Chicago, no one who lives here will tell you where they are for fear that a) someone forgot to meter them or b) that they won't be available when they need them. If you think you've found a free spot, walk the entire block to make sure you didn't miss a sign. Chicago police LOVE to give out tickets.

If you need to park near Michigan Avenue or in River North, try the Sterling Self Park on Kinzie between LaSalle and Clark. Last time I parked there it was $8 after 3:00pm on weekdays and on weekends. If it's the weekend, you might check some of the garages in the downtown business area or in River North since their customers are mostly downtown only Mon-Fri during the day, some of the garages have weekend/evening specials.

The Millennium Park/Grant Park garages used to be a bargain but their 24 hour rate has risen to $23-$29. The Grant Park South garage has an $18 flat rate in the evening (as of 1/27/11).

Hotel parking is the worst, they seem to range around $30-40 per day. One of the few hotels that has free parking is the Best Western River North at Ohio and LaSalle, also Howard Johnson River North.

If you are downtown on a major event day such as a Bears game, Taste of Chicago, Chicago Marathon, etc., the garages will hike the rates even higher calling it "Special Events Parking". The closer you are to the event, the higher the rate will be.

If are you driving into Chicago and parking out in any of the neighborhoods in the snowy winter months, in addition to watching out for all the snowfall tow signs and resident sticker only parking signs, you also need to watch out for objects such as lawn chairs, milk crates, buckets or cones marking the parking spot for a local resident who shoveled out the spot for their car.

There's public debate about this practice every year after the first big snowfall but as it's a long standing tradition, some say endorsed by the Mayor, and it's not likely to go away anytime soon. It's technically illegal but then again so is ghost payrolling and dead people voting ;-)

So don't move those items littering the streets and try to park there, you may return to a nasty note if you are lucky, slashed tires or a broken window if you're not. One of the worst stories I've heard was about a poor clueless suburbanite who dared to move a cone, they returned to find their car buried in snow and buckets of water poured over their car. Needless to say, it was there for awhile.

But the worst is from the 2007 Darwin Awards:

"A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space...understandably, he shot her."

Most of the neighborhoods (gold coast, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Wicker Park, etc) have designated their sidestreets for residential parking. This means at certain times of day (sometimes all day), street parking is only for cars with residential permits. If you are visiting a friend in a particular neighborhood, they can get you a day pass to put in the right side of your car windshield. The pass MUST be filled out correctly and in pen- I know people who have gotten tickets for it not being filled out completely. Most of the time you can park on a major street the borders the neighborhood (i.e. Clark, Division, Fullerton) but you may have to pay for a meter. Also, be careful for signs that prohibit parking on these streets when the snow if over 2 inches or during rush hour.