Junk Car Towing for Cash in Clearing

Clearing got its name from the business of moving goods: farm products from the area were “cleared,” meaning delivered, through the airport and the railroads, says Wikipedia’s Clearing article. It became a town in 1912 inside Stickney Township and joined Chicago only three years later, in 1915, because its growing population needed city services. The southern part of Midway Airport lies within it. For us it’s a drive of a little under 6 miles: west on 55th Street to Central Avenue, south past the airport, and onto 63rd Street.

Harlem to the tracks, 59th to 65th

Wikipedia puts Clearing’s borders at Harlem Avenue on the west, the railroad tracks just east of Cicero Avenue on the east, 59th Street on the north and 65th Street on the south. The same article lists Clearing East, Clearing West and Chrysler Village as its neighborhoods, with Chrysler Village tucked against the eastern edge. North of 59th you’re in Garfield Ridge, and along the east side the blocks meet West Lawn. The suburb of Bedford Park lies to the south, and beyond it Burbank, another town we serve.

Chrysler Village

Chrysler Village sits between Midway and the Clearing Industrial District, from Lavergne Avenue on the east to Long Avenue on the west, and 63rd to 65th Street. Its brick single-family homes, duplexes and townhouses went up in 1943 around Lawler Park, and the 64-acre district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 27, 2014. A tidy wartime grid like that makes pickups easy to describe: “the duplex on Long, two doors from 64th” is all we need.

Lawler Park itself, 6.2 acres created in 1947, has a brick recreation building and hosts Little League softball. Hale Park and Nathan Hale Elementary School, at 61st Street and Melvina Avenue, are another good reference point, with an outdoor pool and a field house.

Industry, old subdivisions and the “Lost Village”

The Clearing Industrial District was founded in 1909, before Clearing was even a town. Wikipedia also mentions a puzzling subdivision that appears on maps as early as 1870, between today’s Nashville and Narragansett Avenues and 59th to 63rd Streets, which local historian Robert Hill calls the “Lost Village.”

If the vehicle you’re selling is a work vehicle, that’s fine too. A cargo van, a stake-bed pickup or a company SUV that has reached the end is welcome on our trucks, vans and SUVs page. If the vehicle sits on business property, the seller arranges access with whoever runs the lot. Bigger and odder things count too. A camper that has sat beside the garage for years, or a motorhome that hasn’t started since the last trip, belongs on our RVs and campers page, and we arrange the right tow for it. If a camper and a car are both going, one call covers both.

Streets with snow rules

The city’s two-inch snow route data lists 63rd Street through Clearing from Harlem Avenue east, plus Cicero Avenue from 63rd to 65th Street, Marquette Road at the east end and 59th Street along the top. When two inches of snow is on those streets, parking stops. A dead car on a numbered side street isn’t on the list, but it still faces the city’s abandoned-vehicle rules if it sits too long.

A note on old cars and historic plates

Chicago’s Municipal Code section 9-80-110 lets police and Streets and Sanitation ticket and tow a hazardous dilapidated vehicle left in full view of the public, even on private property. The same subsection carves out inoperable historic vehicles more than 25 years old. The city’s other tests for abandoned cars on the street still apply to them, so read our guide to inoperable car rules in Chicago before assuming an old project car is safe where it sits. If you’re deciding between finishing the project, selling it privately or junking it, our guide on junking versus a private sale or trade-in can help.

ZIP codes

Clearing splits between two ZIP codes. On the city’s ZIP boundary file, matched to 2020 census blocks, about 87 percent of residents are in 60638 and about 13 percent in 60629, along a strip at the east end near Cicero Avenue.