Street sweeping tickets in Chicago are grossly unfair. They post signs up on the street 24 hours before the street cleaning, and if you don't happen to check your car EVERY DAY then bam, you're hit with a $50 ticket. It's easy to get 2, 3, 4, or more of these tickets in any given year. Nothing is more frustrating.
One of the most aggrevating aspects of the street cleaning tickets is the fact that there are NO PERMANENT SIGNS telling motorists when they're going to do the street cleaning. Basically, the city can at any given time throw up a sign, and if your car happens to be parked there you're out $50. And make no mistake, this is a government agency confiscating property from private citizens -- namely, you're $50. It's a violation of due process, it's got to be unconstitutional, and it drastically reduces quality of life for the people of Chicago.
This being the case, the mission of SCAM -- Street Cleaning Awareness Mission -- is to reduce the number of street cleaning violations issued in Chicago, starting with teh 48th Ward. There are a number of ways to approach this, everything from handing out flyers with copies of the street cleaning schedule, to posting signs, to more high-tech approaches such as iPhone apps, Google Map applications, automated warnings, etc.
This blog will document the experiences of SCAM in our mission. Hopefully aggrevated, annoyed, and motivated people in other wards will be able to draw from our experience and reduce the amount of these tickets in their wards as well.
