CHICAGO — The Chicago city sticker has always caused stress and frustration for procrastinators like me who get stuck in ridiculously long lines at City Hall or a corner currency exchange to buy decals on the day before the city socks scofflaws with late fees and tickets.
But this year, in an act of self-improvement, I somehow managed to avoid all that trouble by ordering my sticker online well in advance of deadline day.
I felt a great sense of pride for avoiding all that hassle after filling out the form and making my electronic payment, but got even more than that thanks to City Clerk Susana Mendoza's online raffle rewarding drivers who got their stickers online.
Since her first year in office, Mendoza has raffled off prizes to Chicago drivers who purchase their city stickers online. In the first year, she offered to take winners to lunch at Rosebud downtown or tickets to a Chicago Fire game, and a few thousand folks entered.
"I wanted to make online purchasing fun as well as save people time and money by not having to go to a currency exchange or City Hall and waiting a couple hours in line," she said.
"This way you can buy your sticker in your pj's or in the buff or whatever floats your boat. And there are no fees, no strings. You're not going to get spammed. And we're raffling off some really cool stuff."
This year, Mendoza offered up 17 prizes, including a baseball autographed by legendary Cubs pitcher Lee Smith; Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford's autographed hockey stick; gift certificates to City Winery, Dick's Last Resort and The Shambles in Wicker Park; a show at the Goodman Theatre; a basketball autographed by the Bulls, a ball signed by White Sox infielder Gordon Beckham; and, of course, a City Hall tour and lunch with Mendoza.
What surprised Mendoza was which raffle prizes were most popular — and how many folks hoped to win a lunch date with her.
"I wouldn't have picked lunch with me, but it's a super nice ego boost to have anyone want to have lunch with me without being mandated to do so," Mendoza said. "But every time we do this, it's so much fun and I get to meet really great people."
Most folks who entered the drawing picked the $50 gift certificate for food and drinks at City Winery (10,664), followed by the autographed Bulls basketball (7,965) and the hockey stick signed by Crawford (6,407).
"I was really shocked that the hockey stick wasn't No. 1 this year with the Blackhawks doing as well as they did," she said. "And I think it's funny that the White Sox did better than both the Cubs offerings. I'm a White Sox fan myself, you know."
Most online sticker purchasers (215,168) skipped the raffle all together, which Mendoza hopes won't be the case next year.
"We're trying to have fun with it but some people might by cynical and skeptical and think they'll get spammed to death," he said. "But there's zero strings. I just want people to see the benefit of going online, the money they save by not having to buy stamps or gas or waste their time in line."
Mendoza says she's not sure when she'll announce which online city sticker purchasers won raffle prizes.
But one thing is certain: If you're one of the 222 Cubs fans who picked infielder Luis Valbuena's autographed ball as their prize, you've got the best odds at winning.
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