Big Apple Moves Forward With Parking Meter Privatization
Despite Chicago’s historically epic failure in privatizing its parking meter system in 2008, New York City has opted to move ahead with doing a similar thing there.
In fact, NYC is citing Chicago by name, as the model for what not to do to successfully pull off a meter privatization deal according to the Wall Street Journal.
The WSJ is reporting New York City issued a request for qualification (RFQ) for potential vendors to manage the city’s 80,000+ metered parking spaces on Monday. This is the first step towards requesting bids for the contract and eventually awarding a vendor with a deal to manage the nation’s biggest parking meter system grossing $150 million a year, while netting $93 million a year for the city.
At least one group in New York plans to fight the city’s privatization move.
That’s the aptly named, Traffic Device Maintainers and Parking Meter Service Workers of Local 1455 who have pointed to Chicago’s big parking meter flop in a story on the union’s website.
“Local 1455 and DC37 are fighting all attempts to privatize New York City parking meters for fast cash to help plug the city’s budget gap,” said Local President Mike DeMarco. “This misguided venture will rob our city when it desperately needs proven and reliable revenue streams.” New York City parking meters bring in more than $150 million a year.
While a few American cities have been flirting with the idea, the only other major city to embrace meter privatization has been Indianapolis which privatized it’s parking meter system in 2010
New York’s plunge into meter privatization could be interesting.
Here’s the Journal’s full story, “City Seeks Company to Manage Parking Meters.”
The smart thing for NYC would be to find a company willing to manage the meters for $30M a year or something. If it’s costing them $57M a year in management, there’s probably a ton of the usual waste in there that a private company would be able to trim out.
stupid.
cheaper in the long run to do it yourself at the municipal level and just incrementally increase meter rates.
gig is likely correct that a private company could manage the process for about half the current costs, without yielding ownership of the system. Will NYC be bright enough to take this approach? Don’t hold your breath.
that is an incredibly expensive operation – if it is all on-street meters shouldn’t cost them more that about $20,000,000 per year – anyone have a profit and loss statement
OK
I got the RFQ from NYC and it clears up the mystery regarding their system.
They have 80,800 on street spaces which generated $139,000,000 in 2011 with an average rate of somewhere around $1.25 per hour
this equates to about 1400 hours per space per year. So all the idiots who were spitting about my 1700 rule of thumb can do a Freidman (you know “suck on this”).