In a vote of 40-5, Chicago aldermen have approved a plan by Major Daley to raise $1.2 billion for the City of Chicago in a parking meter lease scheme!
Under the 75 year lease, a private company will raise meter rates everywhere in the city from downtown to local areas! Rates in the loop will increase from $3.00 an hour to $6.50 an hour by 2013, and from $1.00 an hour to $3.50 an hour for neighborhood meters.
With the economy in the dumps, unemployment at record highs, consumer spending also at historic lows, and many home owners still unsure how they will pay their mortgages, it is simply the wrong time to raise parking meter rates!
Yes the city will generate $1.2 billion from the lease, but, the more money you throw at the city the more the city needs to continue, and before we know it, the $1.2 Billion dollars will have been spent and we will be facing yet another budget crisis! So, the $1.2 Billion ends up being a mere band-aid!
Another side affect of raising meter prices is that daily and hourly parking lots will also raise their fees! And don't be surprised when hourly parking meters start sprouting up in the most unusual places, as the city and private company start reaping the additional profits that come from the increase in the meter rates and tickets generated when the meters are faulty or we don't have enough quarters!
Like red light cameras, parking meters will pop up everywhere! The hike in the meter fees will be phased in gradually to lessen the shock of the whole thing! One way to possibly defeat the parking meter increase is for consumers to collectively boycott the meters.
If we take a bus or train, or park as close as possible to our destination and then take a bus or train, and if done for several months, the private company would be forced to eat a $1.2 billion dollar loss and sell the lease back to the City.
Privatization is such a republican strategy that I'm surprised the mayor continues to embrace it, especially given the fact that we are in the economic turmoil that we are in, partly, because of mass and unregulated privatization of infrastructures and systems that should be under the control of the local and national government.
Then the city could keep the meters and the $1.2 billion dollars. LOL But, then again, maybe the mayor would try to re lease them again?
The five aldermen who voted no to the deal are Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th), Ald. Billy Ocasio(26th), Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd), and Ald. Rey Colon (35th).
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2008/12/aldermen-deba-1.html
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2008/12/aldermen-debate.html
