I foresee a lot of walking in Chicago's future....
The Chicago City Council seemingly and admittedly rushed to a passing vote to privatize the city's 36,000 parking meters. As a result of this decision, Chicago's parking meters will leased by a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley for the next 75 years.
This deal will infuse the city with over $1 Billion that Daley says will be used to balance Chicago's budget. This new parking meter deal will also drastically increase the cost for parking on the streets of Chicago over the next few years. Top meter rates are said to rise up to $6.50 per hour within 5 years. That's $2 more than the minimum hourly wage for waitstaff in Illinois! This will actually make it cheaper to park at some parking lots than at the meters in Chicago!
"Chicago Parking Meter LLC" (the fund that will now run city meters) will also do away with parking meter "holidays" and charge you to park at meters 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. (366 in 'leap-years')
This is going to radically affect the way of life in this city. For one, I'm sure it will be a lot easier to find parking spots on the streets of Chicago. That is, if you're willing to pay for them. But finding overnight parking will definitely become more difficult as meters will be running 24 hours a day.
I think a large percentage of drivers (myself included) will rather park a little further away and walk the extra distance instead of paying these ridiculous rates. This could be a good thing; giving people the opportunity to do more walking, take more public transportation, and plan their errands a little more efficiently. On the other hand, a lot of businesses are already concerned that potential customers will just keep driving past their shops instead of dropping 10 quarters to 'run in' for 20 minutes of shopping. (Who keeps that kind of change on them anyway?)
With the recently activated winter parking regulations; economic downturn; and existing frustration with Chicago's ticketing and towing policies, I believe this is bad timing for this kind of change. This could also prove to be a rather poor political decision for Chicago politicians looking to get re-elected.
- Plan your day better. Try to park centrally and walk to the businesses and shops you need to visit. You can always walk back to your car and put items in your trunk before moving on to the next stop.
- Stay local. Many neighborhoods in Chicago have their own, smaller, locally run stores and shops that can offer more convenience. And, quite often, these places may afford you unique products and personal service that you won't find elsewhere.
- Take public transportation. There are buses, trains, and taxis all over Chicago. (This option can also help the environment) There are websites and iPhone 'Apps'("CTA Tracker", "iTrans Chicago CTA", and "CTA Routes")that can help you with this if you're not familiar. They can plan your routes as well as give you exact times and prices of your entire trip.
Last, but not least....
- Take action, speak out!
- Write letters and call your representatives.
(Just remain calm and mature with your wording though)
- Find out who voted in favor of this deal don't re-elect them.
This city is getting a little out of control with taxes, fees, fines, and parking 'difficulties'. But we can, and must let them know that it's time slow down. They need to stop rushing into major decisions that affect Chicago citizens and visitors in such extensive and negative ways. They need to take time, think things through, and start working in OUR best interest.
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3 responses:
It's a lot of money, but measures that bring in city revenue and decrease the number of drivers in the city is a good thing in my mind. Better than a congestion charge, right?
Are you going to the photo show tonight?
hmmm. Yeah, I heard talk about that Congestion Charge here in Chicago...I'm a little conflicted on that issue. What really gets me is they complain and have problems balancing the budget when we have the highest property taxes, crazy taxes on everything really, and Daley just keeps loading up his TIF accounts with money. The "Loop TIF" alone would nearly match the $1.2 Billion gained from this deal. He has TIF 'districts' all over the city; billions of dollars just sitting there!
Found this little nugget on someone else's blog...
...Since the parking meter was first introduced 70 years ago, in Oklahoma City, the field has been dominated by two simple maxims: Cities can never have too much parking, and it can never be cheap enough.
Now a small but vocal band of economists, city planners and entrepreneurs is shaking that up, promoting ideas like free-market pricing at meters and letting developers, rather than the cities, dictate the supply of off-street parking. Seattle is doing away with free street parking in a neighborhood just north of downtown. London has meters that go as high as $10 an hour, while San Francisco has been trying out a system that monitors usage in real time, allowing the city to price spots to match demand. (A recent tally there showed that one meter near AT&T Park brings in around $4,500 a year, while another meter about a mile away takes in less than $10.) Gainesville, Fla., has capped the number of parking spots that can be added to new buildings; Cambridge, Mass., works with companies to reduce off-street parking.
Economists have long made the case that the solution to the parking crunch many cities face lies not in more free or cheap parking but in higher prices. The idea is that higher prices result in a greater churn -- and get more people on buses and subways -- which leads to more open spaces. But this notion has often run up against city planners and retailers arguing that cheap and plentiful parking results in more commerce and, thus, higher sales taxes and a vibrant economy.
...
One of the most influential of the parking gurus is Donald Shoup, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles who commutes on a bicycle. Since the publication in 2005 of Mr. Shoup's “The High Cost of Free Parking,” he has become something of a celebrity at academic gatherings and parking-industry meetings. Lines form at his book signings. “He's a parking rock star,” says Paul White, of Transportation Alternatives, a New York group that advocates for pedestrians and bicycles.
...
Mr. Shoup has popularized what might be called the “85% rule”: Cities, he says, should charge whatever rates lead to about 85% of the spots being filled up at any given time, moving rates up or down as demand fluctuates. The 85% target now serves as a policy guideline for cities including Portland, Ore., and Anchorage, Alaska.
In Portland, bus ridership to its Lloyd District, a shopping area and home to the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers, has increased to 33% of traffic, from 10% a decade ago. One reason: Parking prices have been raised to about 75 cents an hour from free, nudging store and office employees onto the bus.
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