Some churches seek reprieve on paying for parking

This Tribune story has a Chatham angle to it:

Pastors in the Chatham neighborhood also resent the fact that parking meters have been installed on the perimeters of their church lots, but not on nearby commercial arteries.

"I think it's interfering with my religious activity," said the Rev. Webb Evans, 96, who keeps an office at Israel Methodist Community Church. "We should have the freedom to go to church without having to pay a meter five or six feet in front of the door."

Ald. Freddrenna Lyle, 6th, who has met with religious leaders in Chatham, said she has urged officials to stop enforcing parking restrictions in her ward on Sundays. She said officials need to draft a citywide policy that would exempt churches from parking regulations on Sundays.

"At a time when we have a culture that is seemingly going backward in its civility, in its respect, in its conforming to social norms, if anything we need these churches as our partner," Lyle said.

This is related to the issues surround the privatization of parking meters in the city. Read the whole thing!