Ald. Fioretti Wants To Re-Evaluate Winter Overnight Parking Ban
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago has been spared any major snowfall so far this fall, and one of the candidates challenging Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants the city to re-evaluate its winter overnight parking ban.
2nd Ald. Bob Fioretti introduced a proposed City Council resolution Wednesday that takes aim on the nighttime ban that bars parking on 107 miles of city thoroughfares regardless of the weather between 3 and 7 a.m. from Dec. 1 to March 31. More than 200 cars were towed early Dec. 1 this year.
The ban became law shortly after the January 1979 blizzard, the fourth-worst snowstorm on record in Chicago and the one that propelled the late Jane Byrne into the mayor's office.
Fioretti said forecasting technology has improved greatly in the intervening years and said the ban has been enforced at the discretion of various Streets and Sanitation commissioners. He wants a council subcommittee formed to study the ban, prepare recommendations and draft what Fioretti calls "reasonable regulations."
Fioretti said, since 1886, the National Weather Service has documented only 41 storms that have produced 10 or more inches of snow.