Chicago approves privatization of city parking meters

[Robbien]

Source: Chicago SunTimes

Mayor Daley’s $1.15 billion plan to privatize Chicago’s 36,000 parking meters — and sharply increase the rates motorists pay to feed them — got lightning-fast approval from a City Council committee Wednesday despite a barrage of aldermanic criticism.

During a 3 1/2-hour hearing, Finance Committee members complained about everything from rates that sock it to motorists and a requirement that meters be fed seven days a week, including holidays, to allowing the private operator to write parking tickets as frequently as every two hours at two-hour meters.

“This ordinance is fundamentally changing not just the price, but the enforcement…That’s really scary,” said Ald. Tom Tunney (44th).

. . .

Motorists will pay $6.50-an-hour by 2013 to feed downtown parking meters — more than double the current rate — and neighborhood parkers will see an eight-fold increase, under the mayor’s plan.

. . .

Under questioning from Finance Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th), top mayoral aides acknowledged that the partnership that includes Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and LAZ Parking recently formed a limited liability corporation in Delaware, but never bothered to register in Illinois.

Pointing to the tangled web of corporate ownership, Burke said, “Does the Law Department want us to do business with entities that, No. 1 we can’t figure out and No. 2 don’t bother to register in Illinois?”

He added, “The reason people don’t trust Wall Street is exactly what we’re seeing here. This is why investment bankers have brought this nation’s economy to the brink of disaster. Some people don’t think we should do business with people like this.”



Read more: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1312003,chicago-parking-meter-privatize-approve-120308.article

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Part of the reason Chicago is bust today is that it sold off the Chicago Skyway several years ago. Now we are selling our parking meters, one of the last few revenue producing enterprises the City has. A bit of money today in return for a loss of all that parking revenue each year from here on out.

Plus the people will have to pay eight times the amount they currently pay, AND pay it to the crooks at Morgan Stanley.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. OMIGAWD!! That is horrible! I hope Bloomberg doesn't get any ideas from this.

[pinniped]

15. Dunno about that, but the idiots running San Francisco sure will.

.

[drdtroit]

2. Where's "Cool Hand Luke" when you need him? n/t

[Muttocracy]

3. from toll plazas to parking meters I guess. nt

[BlooInBloo]

4. Wow. I can't foresee ANYTHING that could possibly go wrong with this....

Man - my OLD idea was to own BOTH a downtown parking lot AND a towing company... I think meter-running would beat that. The whole damn city would be my parking lot.

[PSPS]

5. I'm sure what merchants are left will just love this idea. Park free at the mall.

[NBachers]

6. Well- back to work on those exploding quarters . . .

[ksimons]

7. someone is going to superglue all those meters and that will be the end of it

people will only take so much, and then they'll just figure out a way to stop the madness. besides, when folks figure out that a private entity is ripping them off, they'll be a lot less likely to even care if they see someone else damaging a meter.

'not my problem' you'll probably hear from people's mouths.

[Billy Burnett]

12. Wanna bet the the deal includes taxpayers will pay for the maintenance of the meters.

That's how privatization work in Florida.

:argh:

[Waiting For Everyman]

8. This kind of thing should be made illegal, and fast.

There's nothing in the public interest about selling off public assets. This is definitely small, private favoritism. The basics of life have to get cheap or free again, or our economy will never recover.

It's a damn stupid concept to begin with, and shouldn't be allowed anywhere. Neither should outsourcing federal, state, and local government jobs... which is being done btw. Same for "public utilities". (I just found out today that customer service for my local gas company is being shut down and moved to Manila in August.) We could pass a few sane Federal laws FOR FREE and stop a lot of this economic problem.

This reminds me of the push now to sell off public water systems, both in South America and here now too. THAT is frightening and just plain wrong!

(* If I were Obama I'd take all this sold-off public stuff back by eminent domain, and make it illegal to ever do it again.)

[Robbien]

11. Chicago is taking the lead in privatization. It was the first to sell a road

Then it was the first to sell an airport
Now we are the first to sell those stupid parking meters

Chicagoans need to hide our water, sewer and sanitation system before Daley sells it out from under us.

[stillcool]

9. that's effed up!..

[Doremus]

10. This selling off of public infrastructure bites in every way.

It's short-sighted, foolhardy and effing STUPID.

Plus it enriches the oligarchs who are crushing us under their thumbs as we speak.

God we are so stupid. STUPID STUPID STUPID

[lib2DaBone]

13. Dutch Schultz, Al Capone ,Big Jim Colosimo and Johnny Torrio....

.. wish to thank the voters of Chicago for their "wise" decision regarding the parking meters.

All men involved promised to split the take.. er I mean... reduce expenses.. and give this parking meter program the utmost attention it deserves.

[machI]

17. It has got organized crime written all over it

Check out the selling points:

1. All cash business
2. Untraceable coins to be skimmed
3. Large volume of flow good for laundering illegally obtained cash
4. Legally sanction vehicles with armed guards carrying money all over the city (ice cream trucks)

What a deal.

[pinniped]

14. Some idiots in San Francisco want variable parking meter rates.

The rates could be as high as $18.00 an hour. Fuck that. At that ridiculous rate, I'd park in a public garage, where you don't have to worry about parking tickets from the fleet of asshole meter maids.

San Francisco also wants to shake down commuters for driving downtown. Sure, they say downtown now, but when the moolah rolls in, it will expand to other areas.

Is this fucking dailey guy mayor for life or something?

[dipsydoodle]

16. So now you'll find that the privately employed wardens

are on commission to issue as many tickets as are humanly possible. That's exactly what happened in London and elsewhere in the UK.

[mopinko]

18. the skyway was losing money, iirc

but the rate that the private guys jacked it up to, it would have made money for us.

the neighborhood rates will cause problems. having to park to shop on what remains of neighborhood retail is already a pain in the ass. many of the areas near these retail strips are no parking for non- residents. people looking for free parking are gonna jack that up. then we will get more meters, then....

[LiberalFighter]

19. What can we do to bankrupt Morgan Stanley?

[Critters2]

20. Oh, yeah. No possibility of corruption here.

Is it something in the water up there?