Livado Group, LLC, a Chicago start-up, operates the online Chicago parking map and public parking garage guide ParkingAnyTime.com. Launched from an apartment in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, Livado began developing ParkingAnyTime in late March 2007, to help residents and visitors navigate the difficult reality of Chicago parking.

Chicago Garage Parking

In September 2007, ParkingAnyTime's parking search went live. Not long after, Northwestern News interviewed the founders with rave reviews. ParkingAnyTime beta uses Google Maps to let car owners search for parking garage locations in some of Chicago's most popular neighborhoods including: the Chicago Loop, South Loop, West Loop, River North, River East, Streeterville, Gold Coast, Near North Side, Oldtown, Lincoln Park, DePaul, Lakeview, and Wrigleyville areas. Currently, car owners can locate over 300 garages with ParkingAnyTime.

Pending release, with "ParkingAnyTime 2.0" users will be able find parking outside of downtown Chicago. Suburban parking garages from Naperville to Evanston to Blue Island will be included as well. We anticipate increasing the number of mapped Chicago parking garages and parking lots to over 1,000 locations before the second half of 2008 and airport parking information at Midway and O'Hare International will be available too. We have to keep things under wraps until a more formal announcement, but we promise much greater functionality and features to boot.

Chicago Street Parking

Chicago residents and visitors can also use ParkingAnyTime to search for free or less restrictive on street parking. Street parking in Chicago neighborhoods can be difficult to find because many streets are very restrictive about who can park on them, at what times, and for how long.

Chicago regulates parking using parking meters, residential parking permits, industrial parking permits, disabled parking permits, loading-zones and more. Street parking can be restricted temporarily for a movie filming, for example, or permanently for special events like the 24 scheduled Chicago Cubs night games. For instance, here is a map of the parking near Wrigley Field. You'll notice, street parking is limited to Wrigleyville residents with very special permits – LV2 or 383.

As an FYI, the 2008 Cubs night game schedule will restrict parking:

April 21, 29, 30
May 12, 13, 14, 27, 28, 29
June 10, 11, 24, 25
July 8, 9, 24
August 4, 19, 20, 28
September 2, 3, 16, 17

Chicago Permit Parking Zones

Many other streets in Chicago's 50 Wards may also restrict non-resident parking, usually during the evening hours after 6 PM, but enforcement hours vary. One block on the same street might restrict visitor parking until midnight when the next block restricts visitors until 9:30 AM.

To add to the confusion, major streets can also be Snow Routes. If a car is parked on a snow route overnight and it snows more than 2 inches, the car can be towed or ticketed $50. Some snow routes even restrict parking every night between posted hours from December 1st through April 1st.

Busy streets can also get classified as Rush Hour Routes and parkers on one side or both sides of the street may have to move their car during the posted times or also be subject to tow, boot or ticket. It can be incredibly frustrating to park at a parking meter at 3:30 PM, only to get a ticket or towed because there is a separate sign post restricting parking from 4 PM - 6 PM due to rush hour. Using ParkingAnyTime, car owners can plan ahead to avoid streets with rush hour parking restrictions if the restrictions interfere with a schedule.

Parking Meters

The 36,131 parking meters have a very definite purpose on Chicago streets. They are usually placed on streets zoned commercial or mixed use to encourage parking turnover. Streets with parking meters are great places to park for visitors looking to shop or dine in under 2 hours. Last year, parking meters were divided into zones. Zone stickers were added for use with the City's ParkMagic trial. The service works somewhat like an i-Pass for the Illinois Tollway, but car owners also use their mobile phone to activate and pay a meter.

Different zones are represented by different numbers and colors and each zone corresponds to a posted per hour rate. Enforecement hours and even days vary citywide. Parking meters must be paid Monday - Saturday in most neighborhoods and all week in others, most notably some streets like Clark & Broadway in Lakeview. In the ParkingAnyTime coverage area, we help car owners distinguish which meters are free on Sundays and which aren't. We're also working on getting the rates added so you know how many quarters to bring. Parking rates are likely to increase soon. The city is attempting to lease out the parking meters to a private manager, just like the 99 year lease on the Chicago Skyway and Midway Airport privatization efforts. Hopefully, even if rates go up, we'll still get to keep our six free parking meter holidays:

• New Year's Day
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day (Fourth of July)
• Labor Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day

In either case, ParkingAnyTime will be there to help you get directions to the best parking in the busiest Chicago neighborhoods.

Street Cleaning

Probably the most frustrating parking regulation for residents is street cleaning. Street sweeping begins in April and can last through the end of November. Many car owners on the city's north side take the CTA to work and only use their cars on the weekends. Street parking is very tight in neighborhoods like Lincoln Park and Lakeview so residents may park blocks from their home. Street cleaning will usually take place once per month. Although street sweeping is usually scheduled months in advance by the ward's Streets and Sanitation department, most streets give no advanced indication to parkers when they must move their cars until the day before street cleaning will take place. It is not unusual for a car owner in these neighborhoods and others to be written 3 or more tickets per season at $50 each.

The City and some Alderman are trying their best to help though. The city is piloting an advanced warning program in the 1st Ward and they are updating their no parking signs this year with color codes corresponding to the day of the week cleaning will take place. Last year, Aldermans Daley and Tunney launched street cleaning schedules for their 43rd Ward and 44th Ward respectively. ParkingAnyTime is working diligently to introduce a street cleaning map with an interface like we use for other street parking restrictions and parking garages in Q2 2008.

The Future of Chicago Parking

We're working hard to bring you the most up to date picture for parking in the City of Chicago. Please contact us if you have feedback or any questions and stay tuned to our blog for updates and news.