In 2008 the City of Chicago signed a 75 year lease with private parking meter companies to extort a lifetime of revenue from drivers. The public has been paying dearly ever since.

In a boondoggle of a deal marked by utter corruption, the city undersold the public streets of Chicago by what was then estimated to be almost 1 billion dollars. It has since been shown that the losses are much larger. The miserly $1.2 billion dollars the city received for the deal has since generated $11 billion dollars in profits for companies like Morgan Stanley. In the first decade of operation these companies made back 10 times the initial investment and there is still over 60 years left of extortion to go.

In the meantime city residents have lost their public parking spaces, thousands of free spots have turned into paid spots, and fees for parking have spiked to the highest rates in the nation.

The worst part of the deal is that every time the City of Chicago has to close down a city street for cleaning, construction, or parades, the city is obligated to reimburse the parking meter companies for lost revenue. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent by taxpayers just for making common use of the city streets for public purposes.

Bad Deal

~ 2 Investigators- More Evidence Of A Bad Parking Meter Deal – YouTube



75 Year Lease


Sold for Less


Corruption

Fines


Lost Free Parking Spaces

~ New Parking Meters Frustrate In Wicker Park – YouTube


~ New Parking Rules, Additional Meters Coming to Chicago’s West Loop in 2020 – NBC Chicago – VIDEO



Lost Revenue Subsidized


Rate Hikes

~ $3 Parking Meter in Chicago – YouTube



Rate Hikes – Most Expensive

~ Chicago’s parking meters the most expensive in America – YouTube


~ Chicago parking most expensive in U.S. – ABC7 Chicago – VIDEO



Revenue

~ Company’s 2012 Parking Revenue Still Unknown – NBC Chicago – VIDEO


~ Morgan Stanley Makes 10X What Taxpayers Got For Meters! – YouTube



Overcharged


Free Parking for Elite

~ Chicago OIG- CPD Officers Abuse Parking Privileges – YouTube


~ I-Team finds vested interest in free parking on Chicago streets – YouTube



New “Deal”

~ Aldermen in the Dark on Parking Meter Details? – Chicago News – WTTW – VIDEO



Lawsuit


Protest

~ Chicago Parking Meter Protest. City Hall. July 29, 2009 – YouTube


~ Chicago Parking Meter Protest – ARX TV Independent News – YouTube



Rebellion


“Privatization” is “Crony Socialism”

Reports