I was surprised to read that Oak Park does not allow overnight parking in areas outside the permit zones. Do other areas also have this rule? I know I have left my car for days in many area without a problem. See:

http://www.oak-park.us/Public_Works/Parking_Passes.html

Overnight passes are issued for on-street parking in areas not designated as permit zones. An overnight pass is issued for only one night and will be issued to the same car only five times in a calendar year. If you need an overnight pass for more than one night, you must call each night. An overnight pass does not allow daytime parking or override daytime restrictions that may exist. To receive an overnight parking pass call 358.PARK (7275), option 2, between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m.

There are numerous areas within the city where one must have a zone permit to park at night.

Would the street signs indicate this?

Yep.

There are also many, many areas where no permit is needed.

The street signs can be, shall we say, ambiguous/confusing/contradictory.

Or missing.

Or obscured by foliage.

Or....

Be careful out there.

Agreed. Check the entire block. Look very carefully.

To answer the question, unlike Oak Park and many suburbs, there are no overnight parking bans on residential streets in Chicago. Many residential areas, as indicated above, do require a permit to park overnight. Some residential areas require a permit to park at any time. Most of the main streets allow overnight parking, however, some require you to pay 24 hours a day, but most are free after 9 p.m.

Be careful of streets that do not allow overnight parking during the winter (marked with signs - from 12/1 to 4/1) or streets that do not allow parking if the snow is over 2" (again marked). Some blocks have so many parking signs it is confusing. When in doubt, follow the one that seems the most restrictive.

Here is a link to a city site about winter parking restrictions:

http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/w...OID=-536889066

Be careful about leaving your vehicle unattended for longer than a certain number of days (IIRC there was an OMNI thread about it recently) - apparently your vehicle can be classified as "abandoned" and bad things can happen to it.

I think after seven days it can be considered abandoned.
Upto seven days should be fine.

Good point: I have a friend who is a retired cop. At one time, he was writing tickets all night for cars parked during snow ban periods - even though there was not a flake of snow on the ground.

That's because on the arterials where it's posted like that, it's not a snow ban, it's a winter ban.

Or might have been writing them to get the numbers up.

In Chicago, permit parking is street by street, sometimes block by block. There are winter rules as noted above. Moreover, unpredictable bans arising from "snow routes" in Winter (where parking becomes illegal whenever there is 2"+ snow) and "street cleaning" at other times mean that you can't leave your car unattended for long.

Basically, smaller streets are safer for a quick getaway, but do read every sign on the block. If someone can keep an eye (and move the car if necessary), then you are safe. Otherwise I'd look into paid parking.

Ahh, how quickly we forget.

The City is VERY gun shy about no parking on streets in snow season because Jane Byrne more-or-less beat the Machine to become Mayor in 1979 due to Mayor Bilandic's failure to have the streets cleared after the great snows of '79. See more below.

(By the way, I was there and it was quite remarkable. The City failed to even try to clear the streets on the [Black] South and West Sides and did a really crappy job even in the ethnic and lakefront wards. The streets were impassible for weeks and there were gun fights over dug out parking spaces. It was so bad I was unable to go to Lutz's pastry at 2501 W. Montrose for weeks! The whole thing was one of the big factors in eventually bringing Chicago's first Black Mayor Harold Washington to the Mayor's Office)

"Byrne responded by announcing her decision to run for the Democratic nomination for mayor. Campaigning with funds mostly donated by her new husband, Jay McMullen, and lacking an efficient political organization, Byrne's chances of winning seemed nearly impossible. Even her major campaign issue, the taxicab fare increase, lost its potency when a federal grand jury found no wrongdoing. But snow, which started to fall on New Year's Eve, 1979, gave her an issue to win the mayoralty.

The heavy January and February snow brought Chicago to a near standstill, interrupting public transportation and garbage collection. The inability of the mayor to devise and implement an adequate snow removal plan angered the city's residents. Charging that under Bilandic Chicago was no longer "the city that works," the underdog rode the issue to victory. A break in the bad weather permitted a record turnout to the Democratic primary and secured Byrne the upset victory. In the general election the following April, heavily Democratic Chicago gave Byrne a landslide with 82 percent of the popular vote over Republican Wallace Johnson. Her victory, which included a sweep of all 50 wards, gave her the largest margin of votes in the history of Chicago's mayoral contests. "

from http://www.bookrags.com/biography/jane-byrne/