Wrigleyville Parking Rate 'Surge' Gets Tryout This Spring
(CBS) -- Those who insist on driving to Cubs games and concerts at Wrigley Field will pay premium prices at parking meters -- but not as onerous as some proposed.
The a year-long test begins Opening Day, April 10.
Taking a cue from the playoffs last fall, when $100 parking spaces weren't unusual, Chicago Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown suggested a "surge" rate of $12 an hour.
"That's crazy," Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) said, reminding Brown and others that it's been only a few years since metered parking in Wrigleyville cost 25 cents an hour.
He said some people are still angered that the Daley administration parking meter deal increased the rate to $2 an hour. For Tunney, who prevailed, $4 an hour was the upper limit.
The surge pricing encompasses about 1,100 meters in an area's bounded by Broadway, Belmont, Southport and Irving Park Road.
Because the meters have to be programmed in advance, Tunney said premium pricing will apply on days when rainouts occur but won't apply on the make-up days.
He said no decision has been made on playoff pricing because no one will know until late September if the Cubs will be in the playoffs for the third consecutive year and when the team would play at Wrigley.
