I pray so I shouldn't have to pay parking meters
Offline Dear God: Parking Rates are Killing Us
Chicago Pastors seek exemption on parking collections
By JENEL NELS
Updated 2:07 PM CDT, Wed, May 5, 2010
Some Chicago pastors are pushing for a parking meter reprieve for their respective flocks.
Saying one collection plate is enough for their parishioners, they want the city to consider what churches contribute to city life and ease parking restrictions for their visitors, especially on Sunday mornings.
Among them is the Rev. Larry Rogers of the Israel Methodist Community Church.
While he concedes that there have always been meters in front of the 50-year-old church, he said the spike in the parking rates is akin to "pay to pray."
A year ago, it only cost a quarter to park in front of the church. Now it's $1.25.
Rogers and the Rev. Webb Evans would like the city to remove the meters in front of churchs, and they take issue with the fact that parking meters exist around perimeters of their church lots, but not on neighboring commercial arteries.
“We should have the freedom to go to church without having to pay a meter five or six feet in front of the door," Evans told the Chicago Tribune.
Churches in the business-heavy Loop also want changes.
“We’re not asking for special privileges," the Rev. Philip Blackwell of First United Methodist Church at Chicago Temple said, according to the Trib. "The strange hours that we keep are complementary to the way the rest of the Loop gets used."
A spokesperson for the city of Chicago’s Department of Revenue says the agency makes accommodations on an as-needed basis, but it does not base those needs on what the institutions give back to the community, the newspaper reported.
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I have to go to work during the week and don't think it is fair that I should have to pay parking meters. I contribute enough to the community and shouldn't have to pay twice both twice taxes on the hours i work, plus with parking meters.
I also shouldn't have to pay if I'm at a sporting event as I pay taxes on that. Oh. And I shouldn't have to pay taxes either.
God
Heaven
Preyer answer Div.
J.C.'s desk:
Dear Miss Obsidianwords
It's not that dad and I don't care about the parking problem in Chicago, but golly jee whiz we are like busy up here. My Vicor on earth is up to his mitre in yet another child molesting scandal. That horny German could have avoid the mess 30 years ago by useing his head but NOOOOOO! he waits till the last minute to drop to his kees and now the SOB has me and dad on overtime. My cousin Mohammed keeps asking us for 70 virgins like every five minutes. We are running out of virgins!!!! Dad's even talking about a work release program with Satan to keep up with demand.
Then there's Uncle Satan, he's been on dads back since Pope Benny closed off purgatory: Without permission!!! Unc Belzee didn't like getting all those molesting Priests and Gay fundies dumped on him all at once. Now don't get me wrong I love my big Uncle an he wouldn't a fly but you don't want to see him yellin' and swearin' like a drunkin Bishop. Man it is getting noisy around the house.
Now those Chicago pricks are complaining to us about the politicians they elected. Yeah got "free will" jackasses, now go unelect them. Cousin Mohmmed and me always disagreed with that "free will" crap but dad never listens. Tell the pricks toll collectors are human to and they can live with their free will crapola. I got a head ache!
Love as always
J.H.Christ
savior
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
If I park in the same spot on the same day am I exempt too?
NO,
So my answer is FUCK NO! If the law is that you park in a space with a meter, then you pay the meter. Why you are there doesn't mean shit.
If you don't want the meters, then change the law and get rid of them, but don't give special license to religion.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
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From .25 to 1.25 seems like a large increase.
The price of parking is out of control in Chicago
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=39137
"When Chicago announced its lease of the city's parking meters to a private company more than a year ago, it also announced simultaneously the parking rates would be going up.
Today, rates increase 75 cents to $4.25 per hour in the Loop. In the neighborhoods, rates increase a quarter to $1.25 per hour.
When the meters were first leased, it was announced hourly rates would continue to increase for the next three years, eventually reaching $2 in the neighborhoods in the year 2013 and getting up to $6.50 for one hour in the Loop.
Meantime, as the rates have gone up, the company running the meters is touting the changes made to the system, such as a new way to dismiss parking tickets handed out for a malfunctioning machine."
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Austerity sucks, you have to pay a lot more and you get less service. I don't blame that guy for trying to use his god to evade it. God should be good for something at least.
There are twists of time and space, of vision and reality, which only a dreamer can divine
H.P. Lovecraft
God has already been good enough to them. Thanks to my massive google-fu, I have learned that as of feb 10, 2010, they are exempt from all costs associated with city permits, fees and licenses. I think that they can give some consideration to the city for pretty much letting them do whatever they want to for free whenever they feel like doing something.
=
[sarcasm] Ah, the joys of outsourcing. Private companies contracted to provide government services will be so much less expensive than those spend thrift bureaucrats. [/sarcasm]
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
Well, what was the reason for the outsourcing? There had to have been some driving force to get the city to turn over the parking meters to a private company that would now have to get a cut of the profits. If parking meters are a source of income, you would think that the city government would jealously guard them rather than relinquishing them to an outside group.
I'm just not getting the logic behind this.
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
British General Charles Napier while in India
Well apparently the mayor said it was to protect the taxpayer and 'move the city forward'.... looks like it was the first city in the US to do this? Right after Obama was elected so I am sure they made the decision by riding the wave of elation that was felt in the city ~
Here is a story regarding the leasing
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Hey, I don't get the logic for outsourcing either. It just makes no sense to me. And this time I am not being sarcastic.
Let's take a service - I don't care which one - say, IT - and contract it out to another company. The other company has to make payroll and has overhead and all the costs of doing business the original company also has. The contractor can only make money by hiring from the bottom of the barrel. It has to cut corners on support somehow. So it doesn't train the workers, or give them the latest equipment or software. You then get guys straight out of high school ( I've looked at a number of job descriptions that have "education required: high school" ) who have never supported corporate software and hardware before, never provided professional help desk before, and the contracting company is wondering why their people are complaining about IT all of a sudden. Well, duh.
And you had better write into the contract just what you expect the fees to be and you had better limit the yearly increases in some fashion or your outsourcing is going to cost many times what you were shelling out when you were direct hiring to get the work done. Maybe if you hire a company that is going to have people from third world countries provide the support labor costs can justify some phone support outsourcing. But it is never less expensive when you are talking about on site support.
It is no surprise to me that parking meters were viewed as a candy bowl by the contractors in Chicago. And I'll bet the fees just keep going up because there were no limits stated in the original contract. People who live there might want to vote the stupids out.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.