Parking Meter Revolt: Frustration Over High Costs - cbs2chicago.com: "Enter a guy who calls himself 'Mike The Parking Ticket Geek.' He contacted us via Twitter and showed us his website, theexpiredmeter.com, which he used to give people advice on how to beat parking tickets. The site has become a lightning rod for peoples' complaints about the new rates and operators. Mike says the people who are writing to him have a sense of 'anger, frustration, rage in some cases.' To the point where some, it appears, are vandalizing the meters. Pictures on Mike's website show meters deliberately smashed, taken apart, spray-painted, or deliberately jammed. 'People suggest taking a quarter, putting some super glue on it, and putting it in the coin slot,' Mike said."
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Daley's privatization of the parking meters was followed immediately by $3.00 per hour parking meter rates in Chicago. Next was a huge decline in parking in Chicago, and then vandalism of the meters.
But Daley got a huge up-front payment from the company that bought the meter rights, and the city gets to keep all the fines, so...another successful experiment in municipal privatization.
2 comments:
A recent trip to Chicago made me wonder if there was mob ownership of parking garages. They all seem to be owned by the same company and they all charge the same astronomical rates.
The mob? In downtown Chicago? Surely you jest.
Actually, your idea makes perfect sense. Bob Cooley wrote a book called "When Corruption Was King" about his days as a Chicago mob lawyer. They practically owned downtown.
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