Lake Michigan (Chicago) Parking

May 14, 2010 9:05 AM

What are the best places to park near Lake Michigan in Chicago? By best I mean free (or very cheap) and not far away (don't want to spend the dog walking time walking to the Lake). The area I had in mind was south of the loop to Hyde Park maybe. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
posted by blairsyprofane to Travel & Transportation around Chicago, IL (4 answers total)

My sister graduated from U of C in 2005. I never had any trouble parking on the side/residential streets in Hyde Park. Sometimes had to circle a bit but I always found something.
posted by sbutler at 9:14 AM on May 14, 2010

Best answer: 31st street has copious parking to the south... it might be metered now, but it's been free in the past.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 9:16 AM on May 14, 2010

Cold Lurkey is correct, there's a ton of parking at 31st street. It seems to be metered now.
posted by borkencode at 12:45 PM on May 14, 2010

Daley is going to start metering all beachfront parking.

For the time being, however, and if you're willing to drive, Montrose beach has a dog friendly area with plenty of free parking lots of space all fenced in. but it IS way up north ...

You can check out this site for more info Mondog.

Although they are creating a new website at the moment, this still has good info.
posted by Max Power at 2:44 PM on May 14, 2010