Alternative parking for Embassy Suites downtown (Chicago, Union: hotels, safe neighborhood, college)

[karkeenie]

I'm bringing a group of volleyball players and parents to Chicago in mid-June for a volleyball tournament. We're staying at the Embassy Suites downtown, but was hoping to find an alternative for parking since there will be about 5 cars parking there every day/night. The rate is $41/day...we're planning on walking everywhere, so I feel bad charging the parents for parking the car when we begged them to drive down in the first place.

Any suggestions? I know there is a similar older post out there about this, but I was hoping there were some new options out there by now.

Thanks!

[alwaystraveling25]

Originally Posted by karkeenie

I'm bringing a group of volleyball players and parents to Chicago in mid-June for a volleyball tournament. We're staying at the Embassy Suites downtown, but was hoping to find an alternative for parking since there will be about 5 cars parking there every day/night. The rate is $41/day...we're planning on walking everywhere, so I feel bad charging the parents for parking the car when we begged them to drive down in the first place.

Any suggestions? I know there is a similar older post out there about this, but I was hoping there were some new options out there by now.

Thanks!

You have two options that I can think of, but both of them are going to invest a little bit of time on the drivers to your vehicles:

1) Drive the cars to a neighborhood that does not require a permit to park (such as Lakeview west of Racine). You can either take a cab to the hotel (after having dropped off your stuff already) or take public transportation there. When you are ready to go, take a cab to your car in the neighborhood and then drive it back downtown. If all the drivers take the same cab it should make it pretty cost effective. We did this back in 2005 when I was still in college: we drove out to West Lakeview, dropped our cars off on a city street, and took a cab to the hotel. It is a pretty safe neighborhood and nothing happened.

2) Drive your cars out to a "CTA Park and Ride" and pay the daily fee. Deprecated Browser Error will show you what lots you can park in for "24" hours access. Keep in mind that this will cost you money, and you will have to take the blue (or red, or whatever color you choose) line to go get your car. But, it will be in CTA lot, which will be different then a city street.

Please keep in mind that if you do either of these actions, there is a chance that something could happen to the vehicle (it could be bumped and scratched, or something worse). Also, walk up and down the entire street to make sure there are no "No Parking", "Tow Zone", "Permit ### Required", "Cubs Night Game Tow Zone", or "(Day of Week) No Parking" signs. You don't want to come back to find your car ticketed, booted, or towed.

The first option worked well for me, and the second one works as well.

Good luck!

[chet everett]

If anything I think parking options are decreasing as the Mayor tries to extract more revenue.

Cheapest reliable parking for "storing" the car might be the Amtrak near Union Station. That would be longish walk from Embassy Suites, but you could probably cob together a public transit route:

Chicago Union Station :: Parking

Chicago Hotels, Navy Pier Downtown Chicago Hotel, Embassy Suites Chicago near Magnificent Mile

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[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by alwaystraveling25

You have two options that I can think of, but both of them are going to invest a little bit of time on the drivers to your vehicles:

1) Drive the cars to a neighborhood that does not require a permit to park (such as Lakeview west of Racine)...

Only parts of Lake View (like south of Belmont for the most part) west of Racine are not zoned. Things have changed the last couple of years. I believe these maps cover most of the zoned areas in Lake View.

44th Ward Service Organization (http://www.44thward.org/Parking%20Pages/Parking_Zones_Map.html - broken link)

http://www.scottforchicago.com/pdf/Ward32Permit.pdf (broken link)