The evidence is purely anecdotal, but it seems that some unrest might be brewing in the City of Chicago. Now that the Mayor has leased the city’s parking meters to a company that jacked up the rates, people might be staying home rather than feed the meters — which now take as many as 28 quarters for 2 hours.
All over the city, formerly busy parking meters are empty, while residential streets are clogged with people looking for free parking.
From the Sun-Times:
Only five Chicago aldermen bucked the mayor on the privatization of parking meters, and one was Scott Waguespack of the 32nd Ward, which includes Wicker Park and Bucktown. It wasn’t that Waguespack opposed raising rates, something that hadn’t been done in years, but he believed an increase should be “incremental, not drastic” and that the city could have done it on its own.
Now, he says, people in his ward are suddenly seeing not only empty meters but more cars clogging residential neighborhoods in search of free spaces, a problem for people who live there.
The whole purpose of parking meters was as an urban planning tool, used to generate turnover so businesses could see a steady stream of customers who park for a short time, shop and leave, opening spaces for more shoppers.
Now, Waguespack argues, spaces have become solely “a revenue anchor” and the rates have shot “too high, too quickly.”
Are we seeing a boycott?
“I’m not so sure yet,” said the alderman, “but it’s definitely a refusal.”
Boycott, boycott, boycott…
Parking meter rate hike sparks a rebellion [Sun-Times via Fark]
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
I live in Chicago. Some areas are $.25 for 7 minutes. The meters are getting too full too fast and when it fails, it means FREE PARKING. The meters also need to be fed on Sundays now. This means that they will need to hire MORE people to empty them which will cost money. I do not think the parking management company, LAZ Parking, will be making much.
Wouldn’t this constitute a monopoly on the parking?
Dismal:
Boo! You ruin it by actually conveying an idea instead of unfocused bitterness.
@JosephFinn:
You definitely hold minority views of the CTA. Regarding your response to my comments:
1. The Blue and the Red Line trains run notoriously behind schedule. Try waiting for an O’Hare bound train during off-peak hours or on the weekends. Most of the delays are caused by impromptu track maintainence, reduced speed zones, or by malfunctioning trains. CTA track infrastructure is dangerously outdated because the CTA is seriously underfunded.
2. Most people can’t run 3/4 of a mile in 5 minutes, no less walk it that quickly. Throw icey and/or unplowed sidewalks into the mix and your walk time doubles.
3. The buses run on schedule or even close to schedule!? That’s just foolish. Catching a bus is random luck. You can walk to where you’re going before a bus comes by. Try taking the 35X from Sox/35th to Halsted. I’ve walked to Halsted from the station (and vice versa) more times than I can remember before a bus has been in sight. It’s not a short walk.
4. Wait 20 minutes to transfer trains with freezing wind chill temps negating the effects of the underwhelming heat lamps. You can wear five layers and it still doesn’t keep you warm enough. All the $ spent on renovations and still no shelter for inclimate weather.
5. If you’ve only encountered pan handlers once, then you’re using the brown line more often then not. I’ve lived in Chicago for five years now and run into them on the trains on an almost daily basis… must be a red and blue line thing.
6. Transit options in Cleveland are far more restricting than they are in Chicago.
I usually ride the trains to work, but if parking costs weren’t a huge issue, I would be able to drive to work in a fraction of the time it takes me to get there via the trains.
The contract is for 75 years.
Darn good reason to take a train in—oh wait, we don’t HAVE that service from Rockford! No wonder we’re all broke, between gas money, tolls, and parking.
Its really easy to beat the parking meters – I never pay fines anymore. I guess I am lucky working in an environment where I know about instrument calibration. Parking meters are instruments of measurement for the purpose of income generation. Usually measurement instruments are required by state law to be regularly calibrated to ensure accuracy, and to be maintained in accordance with manufacturers specifications. You can usually find this information on the manufacturers website (Duncan Meters have very good information) Private meter operators don’t like spending money on expensive calibration tests, so they don’t do it until forced. If you receive a ticket against an expired meter, take it to court, ask the company to to produce their current calibration certificate for the meter under question. Even if they produce one, then ask the company to produce their last maintenance record for the meter. Watch the ticket evaporate in front of your eyes when the company is unable to produce either one. There are tens of thousands of meters in major cities. Companies just wont spend the money to either calibrate or maintain those meters. It is cheaper for them to waive the fine.
An actual rebellion would involve removing the meters.
It now costs $5/hour in Calgary – using ‘Park Plus’, aka. a computerized system that uses cameras to determine if you’ve paid or not, which also means no more using someone else’s paid spot if they leave early.
And then they wonder why downtown is a dead-zone.
They tried the whole speeding camera thing where I live and once the city counsel discovered that they were only going to about 5 cents on the dollar, they put the whole project on hold.
All this proves that privatizing a public service is the last thing you want to do. This will go a long way to distroy much of Chicago’s small stores. Daily has been great at saving money by dumping his problems on the private sector. He, at first looks good, but the stink will catch up to him.
They just need to overhaul the meters so there’s a kiosk that accepts credit and debit cards.
Also, start saying “7,000 pennies” if you’re trying to make it sound like a lot of money.
Sorry, “700 pennies”.
Chicago is the only city I’ve gotten a parking ticket in (so far, knock on wood). I parked in front of a permit-only area (yes, I’m an idiot, but the show was about to start), and got hit with a $50 ticket. Looking back, I parked there for about 6 hours, so, under the new system, I’m actually still $34 up.
Don’t drive, take CTA.
Everyone has been giving different suggestions on how to solve this problem; break the meters, glue the slots shut, etc. All illegal. However, I’m surprised no one thought to suggest a legal avenue; stuff the meters full of quarters until they break. Repeat for all meters in the city. The cost to fix them will outweigh what they’ll even collect. And what’s a cop going to do? Take you in for paying the parking meter?
Definite rebellion. Yesterday, Ohio St. from Franklin to Wells had only ONE car. It is usually packed. I love this new system….I can actually find a space when I need it. Formerly, people would keep their cars in a space all day and come out every two hours and pop a couple quarters in the meter. These are the people who are complaining. It will settle down I’m sure and I think the company that bought the meters is eventually going to swap them out for newer meters that accept cards.
There should be some embargo on using the term “privatization” to describe some politically connected bunch of crooks being given a government mandated monopoly on some service.
How about “Chicago announces new plan to fascitize their parking meters?”
Our tax dollars paid to build the streets, the sidewalks and the curbs we park at, how did we end up having to pay to use what we already paid to have in the first place?