While preparing to write this piece I spent a lot of time researching these options. That’s not to say there aren’t workarounds that could somewhat defang the contract. It would be cheaper and less painful to just break the deal. The city can neither maintain the status quo nor afford to jump through hoops for another six decades. The contract was designed to be a mechanism to funnel profits to private interests by exploiting a public resource. Having such a department is important no matter who controls the rights to the city’s metered parking, but any potential solution to the contract’s many restrictions will fall short as long as long as the city attempts to comply with the deal. Granted, an office of parking management is an imperfect solution. And this department would help the city overcome some of the more restrictive aspects of the deal. If this office existed, more of such opportunities would be identified. I argued these lots offer an opportunity to shift some metered parking off-street at key locations in order to make streets more pedestrian- and bike-friendly. This was prompted by reports that officials want to sell several city-owned parking lots on the North and Northwest sides. Recently I argued that Chicago needs to establish an office of parking management in order to better use and plan the city’s parking assets. But we shouldn’t give up hope on extricating ourselves from the deal, because there is one nuclear option left: We can just ignore it. The contract was also written to be particularly difficult to break. Major changes in the way people get around – ride-hail and bike-share, for example – have already occurred in the thirteen years since the deal passed. Those who agreed to its 75-year duration did not account for the fact that major unknown shifts in mobility would almost certainly occur during its tenure. The deal was not written in the city’s favor. If metered spaces are removed to make room for more productive uses of the right-of-way, Chicago is required to either create new metered spaces elsewhere or pay a fee to the concessionaire. This often complicates or blocks efforts to install robust bus or bike lanes, let alone pedestrianizing streets. In other words, Chicago has very limited control over significant portions of its streetscape, because it must maintain these metered parking spots, and all so that some investors can profit easily. One particularly confounding clause dictates that the number of metered spots remain fixed just above 30,000 citywide. The contract has been particularly frustrating for sustainable transportation advocates. Nowadays hating the deal is like eating hotdogs without ketchup: It’s part of the city’s cultural heritage. Everyone would have preferred the parking revenue stay with the city. The contract, which outsourced the operational responsibilities and revenue rights for Chicago’s metered parking to private investors represented by Morgan Stanley for a period of 75 years, has been detested ever since. Daley forced the passage of the contract that sold off Chicago’s parking meters near the end of his administration in 2008, he struck one of the worst deals for Chicago ever.
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