Chicago Travel Forum

Hey y'all,

I plan to drive down to Chicago in June for Twins/Cubs. I plan to be in Chicago from Thursday to Sunday. I'm staying with my brothers in a nice downtown hotel that wants to charge me 45 a night for parking. I'm thinking there must be a neighborhood or area near an EL train I can park on the street...and then just take the train downtown.

Any ideas of good neighborhoods? Is this even a possibility or do I need a permit to do even that?

Thanks for any advice you can give. Sorry if I park in your neighborhood...I have a Honda, and I'll park it well :)

Let me know what you think.

Lucien

I'm sure there are still neighborhoods that have free parking but it seems to me that I'm always either parking at a meter or in a garage these days now and it's just going to get worse now that da Mayor has decided to privitize parking meters. Most locals will not give you advice on where to park in their neighborhoods or places they frequent, free parking spots are one secret that they are not willing to divulge. You might check with yooperprof here on VT, I know that sometimes he does park in the neighborhoods and take the el in.

If you do get advice on a place to park make sure you look up and down the entire block you park on to make sure there are no "resident only" signs that require you to have a sticker to park there. Also watch out for street cleaning signs that tell you what day they'll be doing that. And whatever you do, do not leave anything inside your car

If you decide to park downtown, there's a Sterling self park on Kinzie between LaSalle and Clark that has $8 parking on the weekends (Fri-Sun). I've never parked there overnight so I'm not sure when the next $8 kicks in but it sure beats $45. There's also the Millennium Park garages, the cheapest of which looks to be $23 per 24 hour period

http://www.millenniumgarages.com/Source/Rates.aspx

I parked near Downtown on southern Michigan Avenue from Saturday night until Monday morning once, but I couldn't have come earlier or stayed later than I did.
There are a few El stations around town that have park & rides. Howard's is like $5/day. Metra also has quite a few stations that have park & ride lots. The problem is the overnight, in that none allow it. It would be a total pain to park, ride the train in, then ride the train back out, pay for the day, find an overnight spot, then come back before 8am and move the car back to the garage.
You could try parking at one of the lots around Midway or O'Hare airport for the weekend, then ride the El in from there. It won't be free, but it definitely won't be $45/day either.

According to the CTA's website only Rosemont and Cumberland have overnight parking rates but then it lists Skokie, Linden and Howard as having 24 hour/daily rates, not sure how long they let you park there. Rosemont and Cumberland would be off I90 near O'Hare, the other three are off I94 (the Edens Expressway) before you hit the Kennedy. I've seen the Cumberland station from the expressway so I think it's easy to get to and quicker than parking at the airport. Expect a 40-55 minute el ride from there.

http://www.transitchicago.com/riding_cta/park_and_ride.aspx

Both airports have long term parking, there's a $12 lot I park at across from the orange line el station at Midway (outdoors, cash only) but that's extra driving and a 30 minute el ride. I park at the $9 F lot at O'Hare but that involves a short bus ride, a short airport train ride and then a 45-60 minute el ride.

You don't want to park at a Metra station, the parking there is primarily for daily commuters and your car will be one of just a few cars in the lot overnight.

I've had some luck in the past in the Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhood, which is on the Blue Line at the Damen stop, but this was a few years ago. I was back in the neighborhood two months ago, and it seems as if there was still some free street parking 3 or four blocks from the train station (Damen at Milwaukee). It's a florishing neighborhood and pretty safe, although you certainly want to make sure you don't leave anything "out" in your car. Also, if you want to try this, make sure you arrive in the neighborhood early in the afternoon - if you arrive anytime after 3 pm, you're not going to find anything.

You don't say where you're driving down from. I regularly drive down from northern Michigan, and I've become very fond of leaving my car in Milwaukee and taking Amtrak down. There are 7 trains a day, and the trip takes 90 minutes, which usually beats the driving time. The RT ticket is about $40, parking at Milwaukee is $5 a day, and best of all you don't have to fight the traffic on the Edens!

Hey All,

Thanks for all your advice. I'm driving from Minneapolis and this give me alot to think about.

Thanks Again.

Lucien