Chicago parking violations  are up dramatically this year according to a great, data-laden piece by Tribune transportation writer Jon Hilkevitch.

This 26% increase in parking tickets compared to this time last year has resulted in an additional $7 million windfall for the city.

Interesting enough, nearly 50% of the jump came at the expense of drivers parked at expired meters  in the Loop or just outside of downtown at the new 24-7 pay boxes.

The only good news is that police ticket writing is down 10% from last year. This is mainly due to a lack of morale within Chicago police ranks.

A good portion of this increase can be directly attributed to the large-scale increase in the ranks of Parking Enforcement Aides (the ticket writing personnel of the the city's Department of Revenue). As we reported back in August, close to 50 new PEAs were hired and on the street at the end of last year and the first part of this year. The hiring push netted an additional 32 PEAs on the streets writing tickets.

Don't expect to see an end to this enforcement push either. The city expects to see increases of parking tickets in 2010 from the Dept. of Revenue, but also Chicago Parking Meters (CPM) and their operations partner LAZ Parking is gearing up to add an additional 20 people enforcing meter violations shortly. Shortly after this initial crew hits the streets, even more LAZ personnel is in the works.

Per the parking meter lease deal, CPM has the option to hire their own enforcement to insure people pay those meters.

LAZ's 20 people will account for at least a 10% increase in ticket writing bodies on the streets of Chicago.

Read all the brutal details in today's Chicago Tribune.