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1) It's Dec. 1 in Chicago, which means hundreds of motorists were towed for the city's #overnightparkingban which was first created in 1980 under Mayor Jane Byrne, who used snow preparedness as a campaign issue -they haven't been updated since.
2) Two years ago, we dug into the questionable logistics of a blanket towing policy, that has hurt many financially. That investigation found that you were more likely to get towed on days it doesn't snow. interactive.wbez.org/towing-the-lin… 
3) The worst hit area is usually Wicker Park in the @Alderman_Moreno 's 1st ward. That's because the area is saturated with residential parking zones, and Milwaukee and Division streets are both on the #overnightparkingban, leaving few places to park
4) The #overnightparkingban was meant to be a snow preparedness function, but the city does most of the towing on weekends, when there isn't a rush hour to deal with
5) The #overnightparkingban is an unchanged part of Chicago's history that when originally implemented had parking lots available to drivers in various locations, and had police officers announce with bullhorns that cars were to be towed documentcloud.org/documents/3226…
6) Edgewater, parts of Rogers Park, Lakeview, Uptown don't get their cars towed, because former Alderman Helen Shiller (46th) lead the charge in the '90s to remove portions of the #overnightparkingban carving out a nice North Side perk
7)That's right, a contiguous grid was broken up, leaving a random fragment on a corner of Roger's Park in the @JoeMoore49 's 49th Ward. Because of its proximity to a police station, it's also gets doubly penalized with both a $60 ticket and a $170 tow interactive.wbez.org/maps/snow-tows…
8) A @WBEZ investigation we did, revealed that the city's winter preparedness plan is actually uncoordinated and has almost no effect on how the city deploys its plow trucks, but lands up with 29% getting tickets, 53% getting towed and 18% getting both wbez.org/shows/wbez-new…
9) CHICAGO LOSES MONEY ON THE #OVERNIGHTPARKINGBAN because the city privatized that part of city towing in 1997. Chicago pays a private firm 100% of the time to tow cars for $126.21 per car, which is 80% of the tow fee. wbez.org/shows/wbez-new…
10)The #overnightparkingban fees don't account for the dozens of impound employees and 15 Field Investigators that accompany the tow trucks, which means that it's a giant gimme to the contractor at the expense of city and residents.
11)The private firm #UnitedRoadTowing has a $60 million contract with Chicago that didn't need City Council approval, but was directly approved by @StreetsandSan and @ChicagoMayor. The per-car tow rates far exceed inflation and rise with no logical reason documentcloud.org/documents/3227…
12) Chicago maintains that the #overnightparkingban is necessary even on days when it doesn't snow as a deterrent, which hasn't worked as the annual number of cars towed has remained at or around 10,000 cars
13) That could be because the city's signage is combined with its 2" snow routes, which take up every major street. And people confuse them, and the city's haphazard enforcement only leads to more confusion.
14) Which leads to a big secret the city doesn't want people to know. They have never since 1980 activated the 2 inches or more towing ban. The signs you see everywhere for getting towed for snow are a largely for show
15)Police have ticketed though, but in an uncoordinated way. The police aren't officially supposed to ticket for 2" routes unless City Hall says so, they never have, and as of last week (I asked) , still haven't
16) The result: is only black and Latino neighborhoods gets ticketed for snow routes, (against CPD policy) wbez.org/shows/wbez-new…
17) So yet again, every TV news crew parked at the lots this morning asking residents about how mad they were that they were towed, as a reminder that we still have this almost 40 year old winter policy that the city loses money on. Cool.
Editor's note: I do not drive, and haven't owned a car since 2004. I live by the red line and lakefront bike path. I am fortunate. Many are not.
