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Chicago motorists will now have to fork over more money at parking meters thanks to a plan that privatizes the city’s 35,000 meters. Mayor Daley unveiled a $1.15-billion bid today that would lease the city’s meters to Chicago Parking Meters LLC, which is made up of Morgan Stanley infrastructure funds. If the 75-year deal is approved by the City Council on Thursday, parking meter fees will jump to at least $1 per hour. That means the days of spending only a quarter for an hour are over. Parking spots that already charge $1 per hour are now bumped to $2 and meters costing $3 per hour will now be $3.50. But aldermen must approve any further rate increases after the first five years. The deal also includes more pay-and-display boxes and pay-by-phone options, which eliminates old-fashioned “pay-by-cash” meters. So the days of driving up to a meter and finding it’s already paid could be over as well.
The city plans on dividing the money from the bid into four funds, which includes a $400-million long-term reserve fund, $325 million to fill city budget gaps through 2012 and $100 million that will go to programs aimed at low-income people. City officials also plan to create a $324-million fund that “may be used to help bridge the period until the nation’s economy grows again.”
The city’s parking meters could join the Chicago Skyway, downtown parking garages and Midway Airport as city assets that have succumb to Mayor Daley’s privatization fever.
Image via wendtwork.
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Chicago is the city that keeps on kicking its citizens in the balls. Between this, property tax hikes, $60 million in police SUVs, no new officers, lay offs, hefty county taxes, no snow removal on side streets, shitty schools and a growing gang problem ... I could see how this city should get the 2016 Olympics.
Thank goodness for Obama right?! I mean he put the "good Chicago" on the map!
/wondering why I live here again ...
too bad the mayor didn't have the balls to increase rates himself so that our children and their children would have continued revenue for the next 100 years. instead he gets to plug some short-term budget holes.
what's the "reserve fund" anyway?
so instead of me paying $2 a day for parking at work. (8 hours x $.25) I'll have to pay $8 a day. Over a year, (261 days minus weekends) thats a difference of over $1500.
No that seems fair.
awesome.
thats more then my car insurance annually.
We deserve what we get for continuing to vote these officials into office.
Actually, I'm all for higher parking costs. Parking is artificially low as it is. Parking is a privilege, not a right.
P.S. See this book: http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking/dp/1884829988
all the more reason for me to NOT buy a car...
And I think it's funny how commenters are questioning why they still live here today! Yeah, it sucks but if it were the middle of summer we were getting this news, we wouldnt be half as upset as we are the day after the first snow storm of the season :)
so instead of me paying $2 a day for parking at work. (8 hours x $.25) I'll have to pay $8 a day. Over a year, (261 days minus weekends) thats a difference of over $1500.
This city has plenty of alternatives to driving. Perhaps you should learn about them.
some people have real jobs that require cars as a stipulation of employment. alternatives may not be an option.
All the more reason to ride your bike and lock it to the privatized meter.
regardless, i think a quadruple in rates is ridiculous. CALL your alderman/woman. please. i just called gene schulter. do it!
and the way the city seems to jack up the prices of those other options every other week, those options are dwindling quickly.
Pretty sure MORE lived here in the 70s
@ mich:
this really doesn't affect me because i don't have a car, but all the same it sucks because the city suffers as a result of all this shit. granted there are a slew of people out there saying they're going to stick to Da Mayor and not come downtown - but in the end, he knows they will and he will get their money.
Moustache two flaws to your posts. Number one insinuating that people who don't have jobs that require cars don't have real jobs. That's just ridiculous.
Number two: Meters are for creating turnover, not for parking all day. A two hour limit is not supposed to be extended for all day. In many cities the ticket writers chalk tire locations and would give you a ticket for parking for more than two hours. A policy Chicago should definitely look into.
Rob Christopher is correct in that parking rates are artificially low, and should be greatly increased in order to discourage congestion, traffic, etc...
BTW if you have a "REAL" job moustache my guess is you can afford the increase.
@Kicker:
What do you think pays for the streets and sanitation thereof? Those high bike taxes? Cars are a necessary means of transport for many people, a working vehicle for many, many more. Not everyone can bike or take the train and the snotty little one liners are about as useful as bubblegum for an algebra problem.
The problem here isn't the car as much as it is the administration being unwilling, and unable to manage it's finances in any reasonable fashion.
People will be nickeled and dimed rather than say, raise property taxes (incrementally) or *GASP* reduce salaries on some bureaucratic positions. Not to mention the fact that the pension system is about to explode as boomers head into retirement.
Jack up sales taxes and meters and fees and fines, make the department of Theft...erm...Revenue all important and just watch as business investment dwindles. Making the cost of living this high via backdoor taxes is a messy solution.
some people have real jobs that require cars as a stipulation of employment. alternatives may not be an option.
I suppose if you have a "real" job you should be able to afford it. Rates for parking meters are artificially low, especially when compared to parking lots.
@Kicker:
Repeating that "rates are artificially low" doesn't bolster your argument.
That meters cost more is just one aspect of the problem. The city is using parking offenses as a means of closing a budget gap based on waste, ineffciency and graft. The millions spent on lawyers and pay outs on lawsuits is being nickel and dimed out of working Chicagoans.
In Evanston, where parking is at a premium, more so than many of the neighborhoods in Chicago where meters are rampant, the violation is 10 dollar fine. In Chicago it's 50. This is about generating revenue for the city using punishment. That's no way to run a government.
Didn't mean to imply that people who don't need cars for their jobs don't have real jobs.
For those who unfortunately do need a car for their job this puts a big strain on our finances.
Most meters I park at for work are 6 hour parking. But those hours are spent making visits to clients. Its unavoidable to park anywhere else but metered spots.
I also don't agree that every time the city can't figure out how to balance a checkbook or how to live with in their means it falls on us. We already have the highest sales tax in the country. Figure it out Daley.
Where are these 6 hour meters? I thought all meters in the city were 2 hour limit.
Clearly there needs to be more government cutting of redundancies, jobs, salaries etc... But I do think an increase in certain revenues is necessary. We are heavily taxed, but I think usage taxes/fees are fairly reasonable.
The bigger issue is that the city is selling off these revenue generators for what seems to be unreasonable lengths of time. Obviously its to get a large cash influx now, but it seems to me that the length of these contracts could be shortened.
Typical Daley bullshit. What as asshole, as usual. He's making it so nobody can afford to live in Chicago except the rich.,
If hundreds of millions of dollars of tax dollars weren't disappearing into TIF funds, we might actually have decent city services and schools AND lower taxes and fees. That's right, the property taxes that we struggle to pay, that the county will take your house over if you can't pay, are going straight into the pockets of private developers and companies for dumbass projects like the renovation of Soldier Field and Block 37 that will provide no benefit to most Chicagoans. Everyone, homeowner and non-homeowner alike, gets the honor of making up that lost revenue with higher sales taxes, fees and fines.
But hey, those corporations and developers need our tax dollars more than we do anyway, right?
What do you think pays for the streets and sanitation thereof? Those high bike taxes? Cars are a necessary means of transport for many people, a working vehicle for many, many more. Not everyone can bike or take the train and the snotty little one liners are about as useful as bubblegum for an algebra problem.
The problem here isn't the car as much as it is the administration being unwilling, and unable to manage it's finances in any reasonable fashion.
People will be nickeled and dimed rather than say, raise property taxes (incrementally) or *GASP* reduce salaries on some bureaucratic positions. Not to mention the fact that the pension system is about to explode as boomers head into retirement.
Jack up sales taxes and meters and fees and fines, make the department of Theft...erm...Revenue all important and just watch as business investment dwindles. Making the cost of living this high via backdoor taxes is a messy solution.
It's a consumption tax. The people gaining the benefit are paying for it. There are alternatives. Increasing the rates from 25 cents to $1 isn't going to break anyone's bank. The argument is ridiculous. In some cases, rates haven't changed in 20+ years. Parking on the street is 25 cents an hour in Lincoln Park, and $16 for a parking lot. The economies of scale are completely skewed.
I've got no problem with cleaning house with the entire city. I fucking hate Daley and Stroger more than you could fathom. But that doesn't change the fact that rates on parking needed to be increased.
And if you don't like my one-liners, go fuck yourself......sweety.
hat meters cost more is just one aspect of the problem. The city is using parking offenses as a means of closing a budget gap based on waste, ineffciency and graft. The millions spent on lawyers and pay outs on lawsuits is being nickel and dimed out of working Chicagoans.
In Evanston, where parking is at a premium, more so than many of the neighborhoods in Chicago where meters are rampant, the violation is 10 dollar fine. In Chicago it's 50. This is about generating revenue for the city using punishment. That's no way to run a government.
In Charleston, SC, the meter maids just put cute notes on your car and ask you not to let the meter expire again.
This isn't Evanston, and none of what you posted has a FUCKING THING to do with parking meter rates.
Sales taxes, property taxes, etc are a different ball of wax. They affect more people, more tourism revenue, and quality of life. Parking meters may affect a few, but not the majority of us.
Skaterina, I don't disagree with you. The TIF funds given to block 37 are a slap in the face. But they really don't have anything to do with parking meters.
There is a parking meter map you can check out. Also there are 2 hour, 6 hour and even 10 hour meters all over the city. I have 10 hour meters right outside my office, it's $1.00 per hour...so I'm guessing that will go up to $4.00 per hour. Even now no one uses them.
We pay a high price for density.
Even with public trans, we're looking at $3.25 minimum per day, that's using a fare card and getting on a bus each way. $4.00 if you use the train, and $4.50 if you need a transfer.
In a month, that all goes up too. From the Sun-Times...
Rail and cash bus fares will increase to $2.25 from $2. For customers using a transit or Chicago Card, bus fares will rise to $2 from $1.75.
The discount from using the Chicago Card will disappear -- Chicago Card rail fares will rise to $2.25 from $1.75. The 10 percent Chicago Card bonus also will be gone.
Where is this map? I can't find it when I google for it.
so now after this has been in the news for two days, they're quietly sneaking in more details.
You may wonder how a private company can find this contract to be worth more than the city could make themselves in revenue? well, the answer is in... ding ding!!
Under this new plan, all overnight parking at meters will no longer be free. meters will not just "end" at 6 or 9pm as they do now, they'll always be in effect. meters will not be free on Sundays.
this plan is getting stupider and stupider sounding by the minute. consider the consequences this will have the parking availability in certain areas... can you imagine if the 1000s of cars parked in lakeview overnight were not able to park there and had to squeeze in to the side streets??? everyone might as well kiss their parking spots goodbye, and if you have a garage spot, the demand for it just went up so the price will go up too.
further more, this lease will be a 75 year contract. the city themselves could implement these silly rules and instantly get tons more revenue... but instead they're contracting it and losing control... so when it seems like a stupid idea for reasons that go beyond revenue generation capabilities, but rather a parking availability issue, the city will have lost control....
(call your alderman *this morning* if you care!! i don't really, i'm moving)
Can’t we do anything about this?
With this new parking fee and the additional taxes he has been laying on us lately I have to pay roughly $3,000 extra a year.
When is Daley up for re-election?
He cares about the city but why doesn’t he care about Chicago people?
Does he want everybody out so he can rent our homes to Olympic athletes? Us bidding for the Olympics might be the worst thing that could have happened to the Chicago people