Car towed from private property in South Side

Inside the city both regimes exist side by side, which is exactly why people get confused. A car taken off a public street by the city is an impound or a relocation under the municipal code. A car taken out of an apartment or retail lot is a relocation under state law by an Illinois Commerce Commission licensee, and the sign, distance, notification and rate rules all apply to it.

Auto Pound #2 at 103rd and Doty Avenue is on this side and runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and it is one of the two pounds the city sends abandoned vehicles to. That makes getting a car out of that specific lot a real local question here rather than a generic one. A City of Chicago tow has published fees: $250 to tow a vehicle under 8,000 pounds and $350 at 8,000 pounds or more, with storage at $50 or $100 per day on the same weight split, under Municipal Code 9-92-080. Payment is cash, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express or Diners Club only, with no checks and no money orders. To release a vehicle you need photo identification, proof of ownership as a title, a current registration card or a bill of sale under 30 days old, current state plates and a Chicago Vehicle Sticker where required, and all charges and fines paid in full. Vehicles are normally stored no less than 21 days from the date the city mails notice, with a right to one 15-day extension under 9-92-100(a); request it from the Auto Pound Office at 312.746.4954.

The South Side covers Douglas, which most people call Bronzeville, at roughly 21,100 residents, Grand Boulevard at 25,200, Hyde Park at 30,600, Woodlawn at 23,800, South Shore at 53,600, Chatham at 39,900, Englewood at 23,200, Auburn Gresham at 43,800, South Chicago at 27,600 and Roseland at 36,600. Chatham and Auburn Gresham are both about 92 percent Black, Roseland 91.8 percent and South Shore 90 percent; Hyde Park is the outlier at 40.7 percent White, 26 percent Black and 16.9 percent Asian, shaped by the University of Chicago and the Midway Plaisance. The Dan Ryan, the Bishop Ford and I-57 carry the expressway traffic, Lake Shore Drive runs south toward the Skyway, and Stony Island, Cottage Grove, Halsted and the 79th and 87th Street corridors carry the rest. The Metra Electric District runs parallel to Lake Shore Drive through Bronzeville and has five stations along South Shore's branch. The single most useful local fact on this side is that Auto Pound #2 sits at 103rd and Doty Avenue, open around the clock, and it is one of the two pounds the city sends abandoned vehicles to. Operators cover the Dan Ryan and Bishop Ford, the lakefront south of 47th, and the Hyde Park campus, running flatbed for expressway recovery and wheel-lift for the local call.