Tribune Editorial Board Still Hate Parking Meter Lease Deal
At least they are consistent.
The Chicago Tribune editorial board told City Council members to vote against the original and now infamous, Chicago parking meter lease deal back in 2008 under Mayor Daley.
Fast forward to the present, and the Trib editorial board is imploring current Mayor Rahm Emanuel to figure out a way to renegotiate the ultra-craptacular one sided deal that may cost Chicago more than the $1.16 billion it got as payment for the 75 year lease of the city’s metered parking concession.
The Tribune people don’t actually have any concrete ideas for Emanuel but say the arbitration the Mayor is forcing is good and then implore him get “creative.”
While the Tribune’s position is skull crushing in its naivety as the odds against renegotiating that contract are probably worse than winning the lottery, at least they possess some optimism.
However, if ne wants to see irrational, unrealistic optimism, we would advise purchasing a six week old puppy.
Here’s the Tribune’s editorial, “A new parking meter deal?“
Due to the language of the Lease, CPM isn’t required to agree to a renegotiation.
If Rahm want’s out…they have to find a loophole.
The only way currently to get out of the lease without being required to pay back the funds that Chicago has already received from CPM et al is to get CPM to willingly end the lease.
Like say…Stop having CPD and PEA’s write Expired Meter tickets and Force CPM to hire so many LAZ employees that it no longer becomes cost effective to patrol the meters from 8am/9am to 6pm/9pm.
The city also needs to figure out a way to invalidate or renegotiate the Parking Lot leases and the Skyway leases.
“Skull Crushing” well put Geek. Thanks Mayor Daley for the quasi-legal FRAUD! May this sham be your epitaph.
My favorite I to impose a requirement that any company that operates more than 2000 parking spaces must provide a live person (not on phone) within .5 miles of every parking spaces or pay a fee of $10 per space per day to the city so that the city can provide such support through the police.
DOR -
If they stop writing tickets, that’s a lot of revenue that will stop coming in. So I doubt very much that is going to happen.
Greg….I like DoR’s Idea.
LAZ and CPM ticket writers are out every day. The Fines go to the City…the Paybox Revenue goes to CPM.
Make CPM patrol the meters. 1 CPM ticket writer per block of meters. For Every Block. From Start time to End time.
No other ticket writing authorization than Expired Meter.
City Clerk doesn’t need Ser Co out there when they are hardly doing anything in the first place unless it is the Northside Wards (pathetic people are scared of the South and West Sides where they all live.)
I know I’ll get flack for this but parking ticket enforcement is reverse racist. They write tickets in predomantly white areas and downtown. They aren’t roaming heavily populated black areas like that for parking tickets. I don’t want to hear liberal bs arguments that it’s harder for them. If they can afford a car, keep everything up to date, and park it legally.
@ Mike
Not true. City PEA’s work everywhere…not just the affluent areas of Chicago.
A gangbanger with a gangbanger-looking car could park it all day at an Englewood bus stop without any chance of a ticket or tow. No ticket writer would risk an assbeating or worse to ticket that car. Contrast that to Lincoln Park where you cannot so much as run into Starbucks for 5 minutes while parked in a loading zone (isn’t it for loading?) with flashers on without getting a ticket every time. This policy is certainly not good for commerce in this city, but I guess the Chicago economy is so good that nobody has to care.
DOR, they may be assigned there but I don’t see them writing tickets. I agree with Pete. Park illegally in Lincoln Park and there’s a ticket waiting for you. Park illegally in Englewood, Garfield Park, or somewhere else and it’s way less likely to happen. I’ve driven down Madison St and particularly from Hamlin/Independence to Keeler where there’s a lot of businesses and pay boxes, I’ve never seen them write tickets and I’ve seen cars parked illegally all over the place (hydrants, bus stops, double parked, tow zones, etc).
Why can’t the city pay back the lease using bonds backed by the higher parking meter fees? LAZ is taking in $100+ million a year compared to $25 million before the deal. and the rates still have another round of increases to go. I really don’t see what the problem is. Unless of course City Hall is content with Morgan Stanley and their Arab buddies getting rich…………..