Cash for your junk car in Harvey

Harvey is next door to us, and the drive is simple: up Crawford Avenue a block, then east on 159th Street (US 6) for about three and a half miles. Most Harvey addresses are 10 minutes or so from us, which helps when you want the car gone the same day.

Harvey at a glance

Harvey is a city of about 20,300 people (2020 Census) on 6.2 square miles in Thornton and Bremen townships. It borders Markham, Posen and Hazel Crest on the west, and Dixmoor, Riverdale, Dolton, Phoenix, South Holland and East Hazel Crest on its other sides. It started in the 1890s as an industrial town on the Grand Trunk Western line, home to plants like Whiting Corporation and an Allis-Chalmers engine works, both long gone.

Harvey’s mail uses 60426, and part of the city shares 60428 with Markham.

Roads a tow truck uses in Harvey

• 159th Street (US 6), our route in from Markham.
• 147th Street / Sibley Boulevard (IL 83) across the north side.
• Halsted Street (IL 1), the main north-south road on the east side.
• Dixie Highway (Chicago’s Western Avenue under another name) and Wood Street (Chicago’s Ashland), plus Park Avenue, 171st Street and Vincennes Avenue.
• I-57 and the Tri-State Tollway pass just outside the city limits.

One local quirk: Harvey’s house numbers don’t follow Chicago’s grid. The city has its own dividing line at Ashland Avenue, and Halsted jogs near 150th and 159th. If an address looks odd on a map, give us a cross street.

Harvey reference points

• The Harvey Metra Electric station at Park Avenue and 154th Street, next to the Pace Harvey Transportation Center, and the 147th Street/Sibley station at Clinton Street.
• UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial hospital, at One Ingalls Drive.
• Thornton Township High School, founded in 1899.
• The old Dixie Square Mall site at 151st Street and Dixie Highway.
• Parks such as Briggs-Ellis, Lincoln and Holmes, and Kickapoo Woods forest preserve off Halsted at the north edge.
• Neighborhood names you’ll hear: North Harvey and West Harvey.

Housing and pickup spots

Harvey has more variety than Markham. About 63% of homes are single-family houses, but 28% of units are in buildings with two or more units, including some larger apartment buildings, and about 7% are mobile homes. Fewer than 6 in 10 homes are owner-occupied. So a Harvey pickup can be a driveway, a two-flat’s back parking pad, an apartment lot or a mobile home park.

What helps:

• Apartment lots: tell the manager a tow truck is authorized, and tell us about gates or assigned spaces.
• Alleys: Harvey (§ 10-60-020) allows alley parking only to load or unload, with 10 feet kept clear. A car stored in an alley is a problem; a car loaded from one is fine.
• Yards: if the car is on grass, see the yard rule below and let us know about soft ground.

Harvey’s rules on parked and inoperable cars

Harvey’s code is stricter than most. The key sections, all in Title 10 of the city code:

• What counts as inoperable (§ 10-76-130): a vehicle without a current valid plate, or one that’s rusted, wrecked, dismantled or won’t run. A car “under repair” counts too if the work isn’t done within 14 days of notice.
• Nuisance (§ 10-76-140): abandoned or inoperable vehicles in public view, on public or private property.
• On the street (§ 10-76-160): police can sticker the car and tow it after 72 hours.
• On private property (§ 10-76-170): notice, then a tow after 7 calendar days.
• One per home, indoors (§ 10-76-200): no more than one inoperable or unregistered vehicle in a residential district, kept in a garage or enclosure.
• No yard parking (§ 10-76-190): no vehicles on front, side or rear yards.

Exemptions (§ 10-76-210) cover vehicles inside buildings, operable historic vehicles over 25 years old and vehicles at a wrecking or junking business.

Winter matters here too. Once snow on the street passes an inch, Harvey’s § 10-60-080 limits parking across the city until 8 hours after it stops and plowing is done. A dead car on the street during a snowfall is a likely tow. Our guide to inoperable car notices in the south suburbs compares Harvey’s rules with its neighbors.

City vehicle license

Harvey requires a city vehicle license (§ 5-04-020) for any motor vehicle a resident uses on city streets, running January 1 to December 31. Once the car is sold, take it off your list for next year, and file the state’s Seller’s Report of Sale.

Pickups around Harvey

We also pick up in Posen to the north, Markham to the west and Hazel Crest to the southwest. For a crash-damaged car see wrecked cars, or read how free junk car removal works.