Lincoln Park Neighbors Say They Weren’t Warned Ahead Of Pride Parade Towing Bonanza

LINCOLN PARK — More than 80 vehicles were towed from a half-mile stretch of Stockton Drive before this year’s Chicago Pride Parade after the street was temporarily designated as a float dispersal route, but several Lincoln Park residents say they never saw the parking restrictions that led to their cars being hauled away.

At least five residents who spoke with Block Club said they routinely park along Stockton Drive between Diversey Parkway and Fullerton Avenue.

Before they parked ahead of the June 28 Pride Parade, they specifically looked for temporary “No Parking” signs before leaving their vehicles over Pride weekend, only to return after the parade to find their cars gone and hundreds of dollars in towing and impound fees awaiting them.

The Department of Streets and Sanitation, however, said temporary signs were posted June 24 and June 25 — a few days before the June 28 parade — and that 81 vehicles were towed after the Chicago Police Department designated Stockton Drive as a “float dispersal route.”

The conflicting accounts have left residents questioning whether the temporary restrictions were communicated clearly enough, particularly because Stockton Drive was not included in Pride Chicago’s publicly available list of streets scheduled for temporary no-parking restrictions.

Residents also said they could not find Stockton listed in parking alerts sent ahead of the parade by city officials and local aldermen.

Block Club also reviewed Pride Chicago’s published parking restrictions and newsletters distributed by the 43rd Ward ahead of the parade. Stockton Drive was not listed as a temporary no-parking zone.

Nafas Rabiei, a University of Illinois Chicago doctoral student, said she parked on Stockton Drive June 26 and returned the following evening to retrieve an item from her car. Both times, she said, she looked for temporary parking signs and saw none.

When Rabiei walked back to Stockton Drive Monday morning to head to work, her car was gone.

“If I’d seen some sign there, I wouldn’t park there,” Rabiei said. “I would find somewhere else.”

Cynthia K., who has lived near Stockton Drive for more than 35 years and asked that Block Club identify her only by the first letter of her last name for privacy reasons, said she also checked Pride Chicago’s online parking information the night of June 27 after noticing cars disappearing from the street.

Stockton Drive wasn’t listed, she said.

“I’ve lived here for over 35 years, so I know the Pride Parade. I know where you can park and where you can’t,” she said.

The next morning, she looked out from her apartment window and watched tow trucks hauling away dozens of vehicles from Stockton Drive. By then, her own vehicle had already been removed.

“It was insane,” she said.

Cynthia spent about five hours waiting at the city’s impound lot before paying about $300 to retrieve her vehicle.

Another resident, Nikola Sinik, said he and his girlfriend parked her SUV on Stockton Drive around 11 p.m. June 27 because parking elsewhere in the neighborhood was scarce and they didn’t see any “No Parking” notices.

When they returned around noon June 28, he said every vehicle on that stretch of the street had disappeared.

The couple waited two to three hours at the impound lot before paying $300 to recover the vehicle, only to discover what Sinik said was significant damage to the front bumper and fender of the nearly new SUV. He said they remained at the lot for nearly two more hours to file a damage claim.

Abhi Patel said he paid $450 to retrieve his car after it was towed from Stockton Drive.

In an email to the 43rd Ward office shared with Block Club, Patel asked the alderman’s office to investigate the towing operation and help affected residents seek refunds, writing that neighbors had started comparing their experiences after the incident.

Chicago’s municipal code generally requires temporary tow-zone signs to be posted at least 24 hours before vehicles can be towed and charged fees.

When asked about the towing issue, an aide with Ald. Timmy Knudsen’s office referred all questions to Pride Parade organizers, who then referred all questions to the city’s Streets and Sanitation department.

The city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation said the temporary parking restrictions were properly posted.

Department spokesman Ryan Gage told Block Club temporary “No Parking” signs were posted on Stockton Drive on June 24 and June 25 ahead of the parade. The street was designated by the Chicago Police Department as a float dispersal route after the parade, requiring temporary parking restrictions, Gage said.

Gage said 81 vehicles were ultimately towed from Stockton Drive.

The department provided Block Club with work orders showing crews installed 26 temporary “Tow Away Zone” signs along Stockton Drive between Cannon Drive and Fullerton Parkway and returned June 26 to verify the signs were in place before the parade.

Stockton Drive does not appear on Pride Chicago’s published list of streets scheduled for temporary no-parking restrictions ahead of the parade. The website, however, also advises motorists to “carefully read signage before parking.”

Parking restrictions for the Pride Parade and other public events are coordinated through city agencies and are not installed or added by event organizers.

For residents whose cars were towed, the unanswered question isn’t why Stockton Drive needed to be cleared. They say it’s whether they were given enough notice to move their cars before tow trucks arrived.

“If it was just me, I would say maybe I was wrong,” Rabiei said. “But when I see different people have the same problem, I think it wasn’t just me.”