No one in Chicago has been happy about the recent hike in parking meter rates, but by last week the frustration had become outrage, and the outrage had become a political problem. Since the city’s speedy decision in December to lease the meters for 75 years in return for about $1.2 billion in quick cash, what you get for your quarter has declined precipitously. Worse, residents are fed up with the tickets they’re receiving thanks to broken meters and outdated labeling. Some are boycotting meters by parking on side streets or not driving at all; others have tagged or vandalized them.
We can help with that. First off, a private company gives the city—i.e., the mayor—a big pile of cash that conveniently isn’t subject to the same oversight as the rest of the budget. Eventually the private company will make a fortune off the deal—but by then everyone now running the city will be gone. In the meantime, fees are raised and management is moved out of the reach of voters.
February 8, 2008 The city issues a request for qualifications (RFQ) inviting firms to present credentials for leasing the rights to the city’s 36,000 parking meters. Collecting parking fees and fines is one thing the city seems to be pretty good at—with operating expenses of $4 million it hauled in almost $23 million in 2007. But chief financial officer Paul Volpe says a private company would do a better job managing the meters. The RFQ asks bidders to demonstrate their “financial capability” as well as outline plans to manage the system and provide service to meter users. Responses are due in March.
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September 22, 2008 A week after Lehman Brothers is liquidated amid the biggest Wall Street crisis since the Great Depression, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the largest remaining investment banks in the United States, announce they will become bank holding companies, which are subject to stricter regulation. The firms “requested the change themselves,” according to the New York Times, “a blunt acknowledgment that their model of finance and investing had become too risky….” The Times calls this “a turning point for the high-rolling culture of Wall Street, with its seven-figure bonuses and lavish perks for even midlevel executives.”
October 8, 2008 The full City Council approves the Midway lease deal by a vote of 49-0. One alderman who’s been critical of the deal speaks frankly to us on the condition that we not identify him: he says he didn’t really think the mayor would withhold services from his ward in retaliation for a nay vote but he voted yes anyway, figuring, “Why take a chance?”
December 1, 2008 Final bids on the parking meter lease are due. “We open the envelopes and the winning bidder is the highest bidder,” Lisa Schrader, a spokesperson for the budget department, tells us later that day. In the last week Morgan Stanley has upped its bid to $1,156,500,000. The Macquarie group’s final bid comes in at $1,019,022,803.
