Parking Meter Deal Lost City AT LEAST $974 Million
The City of Chicago’s Inspector General, David Hoffman, today released a critical review of the parking meter deal and concluded that the deal was under-valued by at least $974 million!
The report finds that if the City were to keep control of the parking-meter system and operate it under the same terms as the private company, the system would be worth approximately $2.13 billion to the City over 75 years. In other words, by giving up control of the parking-meter system for 75 years, the City relinquished future parking-meter revenue that has a present value of approximately $2.13 billion. This means that the City received about $974 million less for the parking-meter system than it was worth to the City – or alternatively, that the City leased the system for a price that was 46% lower than its value to the City.
Why such a bad deal for the citizens? Could it be the lack of transparency, the lack of oversight, the lack of accountability, the lack of Alderman who day “NO!” to the Mayor??
Chicago, for the love of pete, help us to stop the 2016 Olympic bid. The people who are forcing the Olympics on us are the same people who gave away the store to LAZ, Inc. Don’t let them give away the city to the International Olympic Committee and bankrupt the city in the process through massive construction overruns. PLEASE GO TO OUR ‘TAKE ACTION” PAGE AND TAKE SOME ACTION.
For a running commentary on all things parking meter, see the Huffington Post’s Parking Ticket Geek.
Since everyone is so outraged over the parking meter fiasco,perhaps a protest along the lines of the tax day tea parties would be in order. Tentatively titled “Take Your Grandma To Work Day”,commuters would do everything legally possible to make sure the meters didn’t make any money.People would take public transportation,carpool,walk,bike,roller blade ,take taxis,limos,unicycles,rickshaws,ponies or even piggyback rides[some of the latter done for street theater value rather than practicality]. he only vehicles that would park at meters would be those that were exempt from paying,such as police cars or cars with handicapped plates or placards[hence the Grandma reference]. People that are good at organizing things should get right on this.
Seriously, if there ever was a time for e revolution now is the time. DO NOT PAY WHATEVER THE THE EMERGENCY!