Posted on 05/13/2007 11:36:24 AM PDT by Krankor
PARKING Crews find more eligible cars in those communities, city says
Minority neighborhoods on the West and South sides are getting kicked harder by city booting crews than other parts of the city, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of city data.
But the city says no neighborhood is safe from the dreaded booting vans, it's just that they happen to find more boot-listed cars in minority communities.
The neighborhood with the most cars booted per person in 2006 was the Near West Side, where 1,699 vehicles got the clamp, or 3 for every 100 residents. Though it includes gentrifying Little Italy and University Village areas -- it is nearly 60 percent minority.
In fact, 24 of the top 25 community areas in boots per capita were mostly black or Hispanic.
But at the bottom of the list of 77 neighborhoods was Mount Greenwood -- 90 percent white and home to many city employees. There, only 18 cars were booted, or .10 vehicles for every 100 residents.
Yet the city takes extra pains to apply the booting fairly, according to Revenue Department Director Bea Reyna-Hickey. All boot crews work the North Side one week and the South Side the next. They are required to drive all streets in their assigned zones, "like a paper route," and wind up covering every street in the city at least once a month, she said.
Cars with three or more parking tickets are fair game for booting.
Reyna-Hickey said lower density (and mostly white) areas like the Far Northwest and Southwest sides have more single-family homes with two-car garages. As a result, fewer cars are on the street to get booted. She said more crowded, dense areas, whatever the racial makeup, are likely to get more boots.
"All I know is that we're equitably patrolling these areas," Reyna-Hickey said. "But they [boot-listed vehicles] are where they are."
'Poor . . . get hurt the most' That doesn't shock Iona Brinson, who got booted several times when she lived in the East Garfield Park, which had the second-highest per-capita boot rate.
"It's going on where minorities live from paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to pay the tickets," she said.
After each booting, Brinson has gone on payment plans, where for either a 25 percent or 50 percent down payment, the boot is released.
Though she works full time, she can't always make the payments, so she gets booted again. Brinson has paid nearly $3,000 over the past three years. "I keep getting tickets and my payment plan goes up. I told them I'm a single parent and they don't want to hear that, they want their money."
Reyna-Hickey said the payment plans have made it easier for poorer people to get their cars back. More than 68,000 people were on the plans in 2006, up from 40,000 in 2005. In all about 80 percent of those booted are able to redeem their cars, up from 71 percent in 2003.
"We have an obligation to enforce when people don't pay their tickets because it's not fair to the people who do pay their tickets," she said.
On the North Side, Edgewater has the 53rd highest per capita boot rate, but that didn't save Don LeBlanc, who got booted for the third time Thursday. He had paid two of his five outstanding tickets two weeks ago. But the remaining three were enough to get him booted. "It was a case of do you want to eat? Or do you want to give them the money? You want to eat."
A union carpenter, LeBlanc wasn't working regularly enough to pay all the tickets at the time. But just before he got booted, he got a paycheck and was able to cover the $260 necessary to get the boot released. "This is one of the most crowded cities. It's economics, and it's the working class and the poor who get hurt the most," he said.
Top 10 spots
Boots per 100 people
1. Near West Side 3.02 2. East Garfield Park 2.98 3. Washington Park 2.77 4. Humboldt Park 2.77 5. Woodlawn 2.75 6. Near South Side 2.61 7. South Shore 2.6 8. West Town 2.59 9. Austin 2.4 10. Greater Grand Crossing 2.33
They have such a firm grasp of the obvious... next they will tell us that poor areas have higher rates of ALL crime.
Not just that! People in poorer areas have less money! Oh the humanity!
Obey the law and don’t get parking tickets. End of story.
“’Poor . . . get hurt the most’ That doesn’t shock Iona Brinson, who got booted several times when she lived in the East Garfield Park, which had the second-highest per-capita boot rate.
“It’s going on where minorities live from paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford to pay the tickets,” she said.
After each booting, Brinson has gone on payment plans, where for either a 25 percent or 50 percent down payment, the boot is released.
Though she works full time, she can’t always make the payments, so she gets booted again. Brinson has paid nearly $3,000 over the past three years. “I keep getting tickets and my payment plan goes up. I told them I’m a single parent and they don’t want to hear that, they want their money.”
She is paying a $1000.00 a year to accommodate her preference to park illegally, she should stop doing that.
What a joke, they are so poor they are oppressed by their own stupidity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.