# What's up with the new parking meters near the UIC med center S of Roosevelt?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-new-parking-meters-near-the-uic-med-center-s-of-roosevelt/466842>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 7, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-new-parking-meters-near-the-uic-med-center-s-of-roosevelt/466842 "2008-10-07T14:30:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-new-parking-meters-near-the-uic-med-center-s-of-roosevelt/466842/1 "2008-10-07T14:30:41Z")

</div>

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\>To: [letters@chicagoreader.com](mailto:letters@chicagoreader.com)  
\>From: Francisco Quinteros \<francisco.quinteros@gmail.com\>  
\>Subject: The parking situation near UIC  
\>Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:39:12 -0500  
\>X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.753.1)  
\>  
\>  
\>Dear the Reader  
\>  
\>I am a former UIC medical student. During my time there we had the  
\>option of paying for a parking lot spot or parking on the streets.  
\>Initially we all paid, but after a semester hardly anyone did. You  
\>see, just as far away as the parking lot was a goldmine of street  
\>parking - the streets south of Roosevelt, north of 16th, east of  
\>Damen, and west of Damen.  
\>  
\>There is very little in the area I mentioned above and the few  
\>buildings are all on Roosevelt, Ashland, or Damen. The southern  
\>border is an elevated train track. So you basically had this large  
\>area of cross streets with all the blocks having nothing but grass or  
\>vegetation overgrowth. This whole area was used by UIC and Rush  
\>staff, students, and patients. Recently I have started to conduct  
\>research at UIC and I have been driving back to the medical campus.  
\>I was shocked to see the city has put Zone 3 parking meters at every  
\>possible parking spot in this area. This area of what was once free  
\>parking has been turned into the wasteland it once might have been.  
\>No one parks there anymore. It’s become a desolate 4x4 block of  
\>nothing but parking meters that are not bringing in any revenue.  
\>  
\>I was wondering a few things:  
\>  
\>1. Do you know anything about what’s going on here? It seems like  
\>the University and the City of Chicago must be in cahoots here. If i  
\>had to roughly guess how many parking meters they just installed, it  
\>would be close to 1,000 of them. I don’t know how much they cost,  
\>but they’re not being used because people are finding even further  
\>places to park. I parked a mile away today because I wasn’t going to  
\>pay 25 cents for every 15 minutes of parking, but now tehre are no  
\>options for patients unless they want to park in the very expensive  
\>and small lot near the hospital.  
\>  
\>Well, actually, I guess it was just one question. I know this has  
\>become a giant pain in the ass for UIC and Rush staff, students, and  
\>also patients and their families. This is obviously a cash grab  
\>since there is NOTHING there but barren fields and by putting meters  
\>there they are trying to cash in.  
\>