No Love for the Live Aboards

In our first week at Belmont Harbor, Mark came home with the mail and a disappointed look on his face. “They’re trying to…well…maybe it’s not that bad. They’re trying to charge us the nonresident rate.”

He slaps on the table a new invoice – this one from the Chicago Park District, Marine Department, managed by Westrec Marinas, which says that a PO Box does not constitute proof of Chicago residency, and we have to prove we are residents with drivers’ licenses and two utility bills. Or else pay $1,143.56 by May 18th.

Our driver’s licenses give the River City address, but we don’t get utility bills. And all mail comes to the PO Box.

I’m not too upset about it, though. “Will you call them tomorrow?” Mark asks, and I agree – I can be more charming on the phone. We go for a run at the lakeshore, and I spend the entire time mulling over my argument. We live on board a boat, you see, so we have the licenses, but no utility bills. And there’s always the issue of revealing that you live onboard – the boating community doesn’t take kindly to us live aboards. By the time we get back from the run, Mark feels better, but I’m pissed off.

The next morning I call Westrec. I explain my situation to the guy on the phone, that I live on a boat and don’t get utility bills. “You’re on your husband’s boat, you mean,” he says. This irks me, but whatever. He transfers me to Mr. Munson. I explain our situation to Mr. Munson. He tells me that Live Aboards do not constitute residents, because how does he know we’re not spending our winters in Florida? I tell him we’ve both lived in this city a dozen years. For the past three, Mark has lived on the boat. He spends the winters at River City, the summers on the lakefront. This is the first time we’ve ever gotten a notice like this. I tell him we can send the driver’s licenses, but all the mail comes to the PO Box.

He’s not budging; it’s gotta be a driver’s license and two utility bills.

“It’s the same as if you’re applying to be a policeman or a fireman,” he says, “You have to prove your residence.”

If I wasn’t trying to be diplomatic, I would have told Mr. Munson that I wasn’t applying to carry a firearm and drive fast vehicles on behalf of protecting the public; I was applying to keep my boat parked on a dock at the rate of a Chicago resident. They are not the same thing.

Instead, I ask him, “What else can I do?”

“You can write a letter to Scott Stevenson.”

“Who is that?”

“Regional Vice-President.”

I thank him for his time and get off the phone. I do an online search for Scott Stevenson. In an April 22nd article in the Chicago Tribune called “Moor, moor, moor: Rising Chicago harbor fees make waves, but boaters agree operation smoother,” all about the 8% increase in Chicago Harbor mooring since last year, Mr. Stevenson is quoted as saying, “If a boater is having a hard time financially, they have the option of selling [the boat].”

This is who we’re going to make our appeal to?

“These harbors were supposed to be affordable boating for Chicago,” Mark says, “But it’s only affordable to the rich.”

The thing that is the most frustrating is that no one is disputing the truth. We do live in Chicago. We are residents. We have paid the $4,674.25 for a dock in Belmont Harbor from May 1 – October 30 (that’s $779.40 a month, all you who think boating is a good way to save money…). But boating is big city business; if you can’t provide the documentation, the human factor does not matter. There is no one you can get on the phone and just reason with.

So we are taking an alternate route. Mark found his City of Chicago vehicle registration, which identifies our street address at River City, and his car insurance, which also gives the street address. I wrote a letter to the nice woman who sent us the call for more documentation, explaining that all our mail is sent to the PO Box, but here’s two more pieces of identification, plus the license. Mark is going to fax it all today.

We’ll see what happens.