By: Timothy Black
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear a shirt and tie, and an Illinois law license. Local hero-attorney Todd Kooperman is one of my favorite Chicagoans. In a mission after my own heart, Mr. Kooperman is taking on the system. He’s fighting the man. He’s squaring up against the establishment. He’s suing the parking ticket industrial complex. As a frequent (getter and) fighter of parking tickets, I am well aware of the frustration that comes wrapped in a bright orange envelope from the City’s Streets & Sanitation Department. There is little that is more annoying than leaving your house, approaching your car, and being greeted by the pompous little parking ticket perched on your windshield. I love to fight parking tickets. I fight every single parking ticket I get. Laura thinks (read: knows) it’s a waste of time – and we all know time is money – but, “they aren’t going to get away with this!” I say, as I drive down to 400 W. Superior St. to inevitably lose my dubiously-founded challenge. Parking tickets – ugh.
But I’m not alone in my disdain for the ol’ parking ticket. No – this fight has a new standard-bearer. Todd Kooperman has not only taken up the flag of fighting against parking tickets, he’s started GoFundMe campaign and hired Chicago civil rights attorney Mark Weinberg to challenge the ordinance that gives authority to the City of Chicago to write parking tickets. Specifically, he is alleging that the vague nature of the ordinance violates your rights because it does not mandate a timetable for advanced notice before handing out parking tickets to vehicles violating a temporary parking ban. Street cleaning parking tickets are the most common example. Mr. Kooperman argues that the ordinance should require a set amount of warning before the City can legally start firing up their trusty parking ticket machines. I agree.
Mr. Kooperman may only be 50% of the way to his GoFundMe goal of $1,500, but he’s 100% of the way into my heart. Keep fighting the good fight, Mr. Kooperman. Do not rest until you have conquered the parking ticket conglomerate that is the City of Chicago. God Speed.
