Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Chicagoland / Politics / Clout City Not Getting It
Posted by Whet Moser on 07.20.10 at 11:45 AM
The Tribune editorial page weighs in—ever so lightly— on the decreasing popularity of Mayor Daley (which, as Steve Rhodes sagely points out, doesn't remotely mean he'll lose):
But there are other drags on the mayor's performance for which he can blame only himself. One is a sagging reputation for efficiency. The city's parking meter privatization deal led to soaring rates and malfunctioning machines that infuriated motorists.
Sigh. The rates were inevitably going to rise, and should have. Part of the reason for the deal, I continue to believe, was the city's unwillingness to sensibly raise the rates their own selves; the meters weren't just privatized, so was the political will to raise the rates. The "sagging reputation for efficiency" has a lot more to do with big picture issues than rates and malfunctioning meters implies.
Comments (7)
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...and unfortunately, this is why Chicagoans need to look in the mirror. The source of that political will is ultimately the voters.
Daley keeps promising us something for nothing (ie, TIFs making money out of thin air), and people buy it, until it's too late and the true cost is revealed, and isn't negotiable.
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"Sigh. The rates were inevitably going to rise, and should have."
Not from $0.25 to $1.25/hr for the outlying areas seven days a week along with holidays, however, along with putting in new meters on a lot of strips that used to be free. The city even sold part of LaSalle south of Polk that used to be permit parking to a private firm. My opinion is that the city got a good deal when they sold the Skyway (which was always a monetary fiasco), did a few marginal deals like the parking garages in Grant Park, thought they were financial geniuses, and wound up selling a large part of our municipal birthright for a mess of pottage.
I agree, "Al." The fact is that due to the isane cost of city stickers, parking meters, parking garages, parking permits, parking tickets, not to mention gas and insurance, Daley has made this a city where no one making under $60,000 a year can afford to own a car. As someone with severe arthritis (I already have one artificial hip) who is limited to living within walking/limping distance of work (1/2 mile) because I also can't afford the cost of a CTA monthly pass, it's no surprise to me that the Loop is dying (where were the dowtown merchants when this parking meter deal was struck??), neighborhoods are becoming more insulated, and more violent, because people have no way to get out of them, and the city's poor, lower- and middle class are suffering. A 400% increase to rent a parking space for an hour is just not acceptable!
I rarely drive downtown, but twice this weekend I had to do an errand in the loop. Both times I was able to find a spot immediately -- both within a few dozen meters of my destination -- and I was more than happy to spring the $1.25 to do so. If parking were still a below-market 25 cents, I would have had to either a) circled around for half an hour; b) sprung $10 for a space in a garage. Hooray for meters!
Neighborhoods are becoming more violent because people can't afford to leave them? That's a new one.
Private, the meter rate in the Loop is $4.25/hr and was never $0.25 that I can remember. The higher rates do make it more convenient for people who make multiple short stops.
the only upside to the meter deal is the glut of parking - this is a completely unplanned development best I can tell, and has to do with the fact that the old metered spaces were far larger than they needed to be for today's more prevalent smaller/fuel-efficient vehicles.
I use my credit card to pay and get reimbursed by my boss when I run his errands in the loop. Since I usually have to make two or three stops I love the fact that I can buy two hours at the first meter and drive to my other stops without having to repay and walk back and forth to my car. The deal may have sucked but the new meters rock!
