MAC News

Vice President's Column

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Abstract

A few weeks ago, I used something called ParkChirp for the first time. This happened because I had the day off and decided to take the kids to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), which is just down the street from the Hyatt Centric Chicago Magnificent Mile, our hotel for the Chicago Annual Meeting. The MCA is great, and I encourage everyone to check it out while you’re in town. But here’s the thing: parking is $40, and that seemed excessive to me. Anyway, the best way to describe ParkChirp (or any of the myriad other parking apps that are out there) is that it’s kind of like Airbnb for parking garages. You indicate where you want to park and when you’ll need the spot, and it tells you what your options are on a map, with prices. Then you use a QR code on your smartphone to scan in and out of the garage. We ended up parking in the same $40 MCA garage, but only paid $18. All this to say: use public transit, if at all possible, but if you are driving to MAC in Chicago, there are alternatives to the $65/day parking rate at the hotel. I can’t guarantee you’ll get a substantially better rate, and it might be a longer walk, but maybe it’s something?

How to Cite:

Joseph, B., (2023) “Vice President's Column”, MAC Newsletter 50(4), 3-4.