UPTOWN — Amid complaints that state workers in a nearby office building are giving neighbors parking headaches, a block club straddling Uptown and Andersonville is pushing to expand permit parking in the area.
About 1,100 parking spaces along the 1200-1400 blocks of Argyle Street, Winnemac Avenue, Carmen Avenue and Winona Street, and on Glenwood Avenue between Foster Avenue and Argyle, would be affected, according to the 47th Ward alderman's office.
Members of the Winona Foster Carmen Winnemac Block Club are circulating forms asking residents for whether or not they support permit parking ahead of seeking approval from Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th) and the city.
Adeshina Emmanuel explains the process to implement permit parking, and what neighborhood residents and workers think of the plan:
The process requires that 65 percent of the 4,400 people in WFCW's boundaries support permit parking before the change can be considered.
WFCW President Randy Heite said the permit parking push resulted from a parking shortage spurred in part by people who use a building at 5050 N. Broadway, where the state recently relocated about 400 Department of Human Services workers. The building had been home to an Aon brokerage unit, but was largely empty since it moved in 2010.
Parking is an ongoing problem but has become worse recently, neighbor said.
"What happens is people who go and run errands or have somebody come into the house to do repairs … there's nowhere for these people to park," Heite said.
On three floors in the 10-story building, owned by Imperial Realty, DHS employees work to provide needy families, people with disabilities and others with various forms of public assistance. The workers have been there for about a year as part of the state's efforts to cut costs by consolidating DHS offices.
A representative for the workers, Fran Tobin, said permit parking would "actually make a bad situation worse." He's an organizer with the Alliance for Community Services, an organization composed of various entities, including a union representing state workers.
"Some of these [workers] are late for work because they are driving around and around looking for parking," Tobin said.
Uptown resident Mat Olson, a block club member, said he sympathizes with the workers' parking woes.
"But my opinion as a homeowner is that I'm more concerned about the residents who live here," said Olson.
Pawar's chief of staff Jim Pool said in a statement, "We have been working with our counterparts in state government to see what relief, if any, the state may be able to provide."
"The ideal solution here would be for the State of Illinois to provide parking for their employees," he said.
But the state hasn't promised to do so.
The state's stance, according to Illinois Department of Central Management Services spokesman Mike Claffey, is to "encourage employees to use mass transit and other sustainable transportation means whenever they are available."
"If an employee chooses to drive to work, they are responsible for parking legally," he said.
Renting spots in the parking garage across the street, also owned by Imperial Realty and containing more than 600 spaces, "would certainly be the most logical thing" to do, Tobin said.
Imperial President Alfred Klairmont said this week that he's going to give the state 66 free parking passes for employees to park in the garage.
"We want to be seen as a good neighbor," he said, adding that there's about 30 employees who currently have parking passes.
Any parking relief "would be welcome[d] by the community," Olson said, responding to Imperial's offer. He said Klairmont hadn't contacted his group.
Tobin noted there "are 400 people there as workers almost every day and 200 clients that come through" 5050 N. Broadway and conceded that not everybody could reasonably have a space but said "we're talking about at least several hundred spaces people need." He was also confused as to how Imperial would decide who to give passes to.
He was still encouraged by Klairmont's gesture.
"I would say that its a very helpful step forward," he said. "We're so glad that he's looking at that."
However, Tobin's group is still pressing state officials to "take responsibility for the damage they've made," and present a more thorough solution to the parking clash.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
