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Quote "At every key point, state officials made decisions that undercut taxpayers and helped the companies that market video gambling" And that is one reason w

Quote "At every key point, state officials made decisions that undercut taxpayers and helped the companies that market video gambling" And that is one reason why I left Chicago. Both city and state are corrupt. I remember receiving an automated ticket for running a stoplight on a date when I wasn't even in Chicago.

bbarn 8y ago
I can beat that one :) My car was stolen in 2001. I lived on the north side, off of the lake (Uptown - not the best, but not the worst part of the city). I reported it stolen. In 2002 I got a parking ticket by mail from the far west side of the city, where I've never been to this day. This was in the paper ticket era.
- reaperducer 8y ago
  In Houston I had a car stolen from a dealership after I traded it in. The thieves took it on a joyride, blowing through pretty much every toll plaza in the region. When I got a bill in the mail from the Toll Road Authority, all it took was a five minute phone call to clear it up. No paperwork or anything needed. The toll people said they'd confirm with the dealership and take care of everything. I don't miss Houston. But I miss the people of Houston.
- kasey_junk 8y ago
  I got a new license plate for a car I had just bought. 2 weeks later I got ~30 tickets in the mail going back 5 years. Apparently they had been misentered and just sat in some queue waiting for that plate number to go live.
droopyEyelids 8y ago
You're not wrong, but your point is incoherent. Chicago is the one part of the state that didn't legalize video gambling.
moorhosj 8y ago
Which non-corrupt city and state did you move to?
- mikestew 8y ago
  Are you asking in good faith, or as a setup to respond how parent's choice is just as corrupt? I ask because parent didn't say they moved to a non-corrupt jurisdiction, they just said they moved away from Chicago. Pedantry aside, if parent's answer is "someplace other than Chicago", then they're probably better off. That place has been a cesspool of corruption, both state and city, since I was a kid; and I'm not young.
  - behringer 8y ago
    I've been all over. They're all corrupt.
    - bilbo0s 8y ago
      I've been all over as well. You are correct, they all are corrupt. That said, we generally don't care about the corruption in other places. For instance, I recently learned that Pennsylvania has a problem with corrupt DA's the same as Wisconsin does. Now I know. Now I lament the situation of people in Pennsylvania. But all that said, I'm from Wisconsin, so I'm a little more concerned about the bent DA's we have here. Maybe the original comment was posted by someone from Chicago? In which case, why would he care about corruption elsewhere? For instance, why would he care that people in Wisconsin are out 4 to 5 billion bucks for a Foxconn factory? Yes, he may lament our situation. He might even get a little upset by it when he hears about it on the news... but in the end, Chicago is his concern, not some local-yokels in up in Fond du Lac, Cambria or Superior. Whereas for me, it's infuriating maybe in the same way that all the parking tickets people are talking about seem to infuriate people from Chicago.
      - moorhosj 8y ago
        The point is that moving from one place because of corruption won't necessarily save you from corruption.
sn41 8y ago
Yep. A related story about the sleaze in Chicago - Around 10 years ago, I received a parking ticket on a street, at a part where they had no parking meters! Part of the street had meters, I pulled up to a slot and noticed it had no meter. One week later, I got a 50 dollar ticket. There was no way I could know whether the parking slot was free or not, since I was just visiting and not a Chicago resident. Later I came to know that the city of Chicago was undergoing a dubious parking privatization initiative round about then.
- diaktifkan 8y ago
  Judge will throw that out for you. Go to the South Side. They hate that shit.
selectodude 8y ago
I mean, they literally send you a video of your car running the stoplight. If you weren’t in Chicago, your car was.
- cabaalis 8y ago
  Is "I mean" a common preamble in Chicago/Illinois? The reason I ask is that I've seen 2 other comments that start with "I mean."
  - ComputerGuru 8y ago
    Yes, it is. It’s a common preface for a counter argument, and is perceived (or at least intended to be perceived) as being politer/less argumentative while pointing out a (presumes) flaw in the original argument or defense. Also used to make what is considered a very obvious rebuttal to the original argument.
  - newnewpdro 8y ago
    This is a relatively new trend I've observed in recent years. I've lived in IL decades ago, nobody started sentences with "I mean" unless they were clarifying what they last said. People have started doing it here in CA as well, it's not unique to IL and it's not a long-established pattern. As far as I can tell, it's basically the new "uhhh" people would use to stall as they organize their thoughts. What surprises me is how habitual it has become, to the extent that people now start written sentences with "I mean" when they're not clarifying anything at all.
    - hombre_fatal 8y ago
      So* , I grew up in Texas and the "I mean" prefix goes back in my schooling years as far as I can remember. Though it usually is coupled with a bitchy attitude like the rhetorical "You do realize $X, right?" * I'd say if there's a new one, it's the annoying "So" prefix. Mark Zuckerberg says it a lot. Common on HN as well. And the usage I'm referring to, like "I mean", is when it doesn't call back to anything and could be removed without consequence.
    - 8y ago
bduerst 8y ago
I got a ticket for running a light in Chicago, but because I was from out of state, it took them 'extra long' to send me the ticket in the mail (their words when I called). By the time they had mailed me the ticket, the deadline to pay had already passed and the fine had doubled.
- diaktifkan 8y ago
  Just don't pay it. Red light cameras are a scam.
- brink 8y ago
  Something like this happened to me as well. I skipped a toll station on the highway; which should be fine. A sign tells you that you can pay online within 7 days by searching your license plate. The next day I searched my license plate to pay what should have been $3-$4 in tolls and nothing came up. A month later I got a letter in the mail telling me that I owed the state around $100 for the tolls I "failed to pay" with nearly $90 assessed in late fees. The whole system is scummy. Literal highway robbery.
  - kss238 8y ago
    Having used the IPass online payment system multiple times, it sounds like you did not read warnings on the website. On the online website, it says the search feature does not show the violations immediately and you should not rely on it. "The optimal timeframe for a successful search is the second and third weeks following the missed toll. Many missed tolls will not appear until one week after they were incurred due to the need to review the images of the license plate." Instead you should select the tolls you missed manually and then paying them. I have done this numerous time, noting the toll and time I missed and have never received a violation after I paid it online. I have also used the search feature one week after I missed the toll and all of my missed tolls appeared. It's unfortunate that you had to pay a fine but you shouldn't blame the state for your errors.
    - ams6110 8y ago
      Assessing a $90 late fee on a $4 debt is something we would be livid about if it were a credit card company. The state is literally robbing people here because they are corrupt, bankrupt, and desperate. I think it's despicable.
deads 8y ago
For what it's worth, ProPublica Illinois has also been looking at tickets (though just parking, not speeding/camera tickets, at least not yet). https://projects.propublica.org/chicago-tickets/ https://projects.propublica.org/chicago-tickets/
bleriot 8y ago
That’s just another reason why Chicago’s population is lower today than 25 years ago, and Illinois has lost population for five years straight. Corruption and bad policies are rampant, so why start a business or stay there if you can leave?
- notfromhere 8y ago
  Chicago's population has been relatively stable over the last 25 years. Reason its lost population since the 1950s is white flight and deindustrialization, but it's recovered better than any other industrial rust belt city. The white collar business sector of the economy here is booming, so chicago is a complicated city with a complicated history
  - reaperducer 8y ago
    Chicago's population has been relatively stable over the last 25 years Wikipedia disagrees with you: 1980 3,005,072 −10.7% 1990 2,783,911 −7.4% 2000 2,896,016 4.0% 2010 2,695,598 The white collar business sector of the economy here is booming Which is great for The Loop, and adjacent areas. But there are 50 neighborhoods in Chicago, and most are seeing population decline.
    - kevinh 8y ago
      1980 and 1990 were both more than 25 years ago. Wikipedia puts the 2017 estimate at 2,716,450, which is roughly the same as the 1990 numbers.
    - brianwawok 8y ago
      Well show the entire metro area. People moving to the burbs lower the city pop but raise the burb. That said, I personally moved from Chicago to Indiana. Some stuff better, some stuff worse.
      - tomcam 8y ago
        Where in Indiana? What are the pros & cons?

bbarn 8y ago

I can beat that one :) My car was stolen in 2001. I lived on the north side, off of the lake (Uptown - not the best, but not the worst part of the city). I reported it stolen. In 2002 I got a parking ticket by mail from the far west side of the city, where I've never been to this day. This was in the paper ticket era.

reaperducer 8y ago
In Houston I had a car stolen from a dealership after I traded it in. The thieves took it on a joyride, blowing through pretty much every toll plaza in the region. When I got a bill in the mail from the Toll Road Authority, all it took was a five minute phone call to clear it up. No paperwork or anything needed. The toll people said they'd confirm with the dealership and take care of everything. I don't miss Houston. But I miss the people of Houston.
kasey_junk 8y ago
I got a new license plate for a car I had just bought. 2 weeks later I got ~30 tickets in the mail going back 5 years. Apparently they had been misentered and just sat in some queue waiting for that plate number to go live.

droopyEyelids 8y ago

You're not wrong, but your point is incoherent. Chicago is the one part of the state that didn't legalize video gambling.

moorhosj 8y ago

Which non-corrupt city and state did you move to?

mikestew 8y ago
Are you asking in good faith, or as a setup to respond how parent's choice is just as corrupt? I ask because parent didn't say they moved to a non-corrupt jurisdiction, they just said they moved away from Chicago. Pedantry aside, if parent's answer is "someplace other than Chicago", then they're probably better off. That place has been a cesspool of corruption, both state and city, since I was a kid; and I'm not young.
- behringer 8y ago
  I've been all over. They're all corrupt.
  - bilbo0s 8y ago
    I've been all over as well. You are correct, they all are corrupt. That said, we generally don't care about the corruption in other places. For instance, I recently learned that Pennsylvania has a problem with corrupt DA's the same as Wisconsin does. Now I know. Now I lament the situation of people in Pennsylvania. But all that said, I'm from Wisconsin, so I'm a little more concerned about the bent DA's we have here. Maybe the original comment was posted by someone from Chicago? In which case, why would he care about corruption elsewhere? For instance, why would he care that people in Wisconsin are out 4 to 5 billion bucks for a Foxconn factory? Yes, he may lament our situation. He might even get a little upset by it when he hears about it on the news... but in the end, Chicago is his concern, not some local-yokels in up in Fond du Lac, Cambria or Superior. Whereas for me, it's infuriating maybe in the same way that all the parking tickets people are talking about seem to infuriate people from Chicago.
    - moorhosj 8y ago
      The point is that moving from one place because of corruption won't necessarily save you from corruption.

sn41 8y ago

Yep. A related story about the sleaze in Chicago - Around 10 years ago, I received a parking ticket on a street, at a part where they had no parking meters! Part of the street had meters, I pulled up to a slot and noticed it had no meter. One week later, I got a 50 dollar ticket. There was no way I could know whether the parking slot was free or not, since I was just visiting and not a Chicago resident. Later I came to know that the city of Chicago was undergoing a dubious parking privatization initiative round about then.

diaktifkan 8y ago
Judge will throw that out for you. Go to the South Side. They hate that shit.

selectodude 8y ago

I mean, they literally send you a video of your car running the stoplight. If you weren’t in Chicago, your car was.

cabaalis 8y ago
Is "I mean" a common preamble in Chicago/Illinois? The reason I ask is that I've seen 2 other comments that start with "I mean."
- ComputerGuru 8y ago
  Yes, it is. It’s a common preface for a counter argument, and is perceived (or at least intended to be perceived) as being politer/less argumentative while pointing out a (presumes) flaw in the original argument or defense. Also used to make what is considered a very obvious rebuttal to the original argument.
- newnewpdro 8y ago
  This is a relatively new trend I've observed in recent years. I've lived in IL decades ago, nobody started sentences with "I mean" unless they were clarifying what they last said. People have started doing it here in CA as well, it's not unique to IL and it's not a long-established pattern. As far as I can tell, it's basically the new "uhhh" people would use to stall as they organize their thoughts. What surprises me is how habitual it has become, to the extent that people now start written sentences with "I mean" when they're not clarifying anything at all.
  - hombre_fatal 8y ago
    So* , I grew up in Texas and the "I mean" prefix goes back in my schooling years as far as I can remember. Though it usually is coupled with a bitchy attitude like the rhetorical "You do realize $X, right?" * I'd say if there's a new one, it's the annoying "So" prefix. Mark Zuckerberg says it a lot. Common on HN as well. And the usage I'm referring to, like "I mean", is when it doesn't call back to anything and could be removed without consequence.
  - 8y ago

bduerst 8y ago

I got a ticket for running a light in Chicago, but because I was from out of state, it took them 'extra long' to send me the ticket in the mail (their words when I called). By the time they had mailed me the ticket, the deadline to pay had already passed and the fine had doubled.

diaktifkan 8y ago
Just don't pay it. Red light cameras are a scam.
brink 8y ago
Something like this happened to me as well. I skipped a toll station on the highway; which should be fine. A sign tells you that you can pay online within 7 days by searching your license plate. The next day I searched my license plate to pay what should have been $3-$4 in tolls and nothing came up. A month later I got a letter in the mail telling me that I owed the state around $100 for the tolls I "failed to pay" with nearly $90 assessed in late fees. The whole system is scummy. Literal highway robbery.
- kss238 8y ago
  Having used the IPass online payment system multiple times, it sounds like you did not read warnings on the website. On the online website, it says the search feature does not show the violations immediately and you should not rely on it. "The optimal timeframe for a successful search is the second and third weeks following the missed toll. Many missed tolls will not appear until one week after they were incurred due to the need to review the images of the license plate." Instead you should select the tolls you missed manually and then paying them. I have done this numerous time, noting the toll and time I missed and have never received a violation after I paid it online. I have also used the search feature one week after I missed the toll and all of my missed tolls appeared. It's unfortunate that you had to pay a fine but you shouldn't blame the state for your errors.
  - ams6110 8y ago
    Assessing a $90 late fee on a $4 debt is something we would be livid about if it were a credit card company. The state is literally robbing people here because they are corrupt, bankrupt, and desperate. I think it's despicable.

deads 8y ago

For what it's worth, ProPublica Illinois has also been looking at tickets (though just parking, not speeding/camera tickets, at least not yet). https://projects.propublica.org/chicago-tickets/ https://projects.propublica.org/chicago-tickets/

bleriot 8y ago

That’s just another reason why Chicago’s population is lower today than 25 years ago, and Illinois has lost population for five years straight. Corruption and bad policies are rampant, so why start a business or stay there if you can leave?

notfromhere 8y ago
Chicago's population has been relatively stable over the last 25 years. Reason its lost population since the 1950s is white flight and deindustrialization, but it's recovered better than any other industrial rust belt city. The white collar business sector of the economy here is booming, so chicago is a complicated city with a complicated history
- reaperducer 8y ago
  Chicago's population has been relatively stable over the last 25 years Wikipedia disagrees with you: 1980 3,005,072 −10.7% 1990 2,783,911 −7.4% 2000 2,896,016 4.0% 2010 2,695,598 The white collar business sector of the economy here is booming Which is great for The Loop, and adjacent areas. But there are 50 neighborhoods in Chicago, and most are seeing population decline.
  - kevinh 8y ago
    1980 and 1990 were both more than 25 years ago. Wikipedia puts the 2017 estimate at 2,716,450, which is roughly the same as the 1990 numbers.
  - brianwawok 8y ago
    Well show the entire metro area. People moving to the burbs lower the city pop but raise the burb. That said, I personally moved from Chicago to Indiana. Some stuff better, some stuff worse.
    - tomcam 8y ago
      Where in Indiana? What are the pros & cons?