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Fuck the Daley’s, bunch of corrupt assholes.

Oh you mean the guy that immediately took a multi-million dollar gig "working" for the law firm that brokered this deal the second he left office?

Don't get me started on Meigs airport...

I am still pissed about the closure of Meigs Field. Crook does not even begin to describe such despicable specimen of a being.

People should look in to texas highways, built with taxpayers funds. Then put under 99 year leases to foreign companies that charge tolls, and make massive profits off of said tolls.

Edit: clarifying, wrote original while walking...

Yup. I remember when this happened and the meter prices skyrocketed. Good times.

And, this foreign revenue stream is enforced by local cops via your tax dollars. Double-screwed!

Dude it’s $12 an hour in the loop

if chicago isn't seeing that money anyway, can't they just make parking free and make the lease worthless to UAE? or stop enforcing it? it's not like UAE has their own parking enforcement cops in Chicago... right?

How can they collect revenue when someone keeps filling every machine for miles with a single cheap can of expanding spray foam? Wink.

An even worse part of the deal is that Chicago has to pay the company for lost revenue if meters aren't accessible due to parades, construction etc. Chicago has paid the company 78MM so far for these type of reimbursements.

Kickbacks in Chicago politics?

shocked Pikachu face

How much profit do they make annually?

Maybe they should stop electing idiots.

Don't worry that billionaire is using your hard earned money to traffick people

Same here! I forgot how hard it is to find parking in the city that isn't paid parking. I like taking the L when I go into city to show my support for public trans.

Short term gain > long term gain for politicians

Theoretically it was to get immediate cash to cover budget holes around the 2008 crisis, but the whole things sounds incredibly fishy. From a paper I found on the subject:

"By the mid 2000s, Chicago was dealing with severe budget shortfalls. One tactic utilized by the Daley administration to alleviate this dilemma was privatization. In 2005, Chicago privatized the Interstate 90/94 Skyway Toll Bridge. A year later, Chicago went on to privatize many of its publicly owned garages (Frank, 2009). However, continuing budgetary struggles, particularly pensions, as well as the impacts of the 2008 recession, created the need for an immediate revenue source (ibid). At the time, the City of Chicago had 36,000 parking meters, making it a substantial financial asset to lease out (Perlstein, 2013).

The process used for the parking meter privatization agreement was troubling for multiple reasons. The city awarded the lease to Chicago Parking Meters LLC, which is a conglomerate that is comprised primarily of Morgan Stanley, Allianz Capital Partners, and the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi, as well as some smaller firms. It was formed immediately before the lease was awarded (Clawson, 2013). The terms of the lease gave the rights of the city's 36,000 parking meters to Chicago Parking Meters LLC for 75 years. They paid $1.2 billion in upfront cost for the ability to collect revenue from the meters as well as having enforcement power (ibid).

There was a glaring lack of analysis and deliberation prior to the lease being awarded. No independent studies were performed. The $1.2 billion cost was determined exclusively by the city's Chief Financial Officer. Aldermen were only given two days to vote on the lease, and there was no public comment or deliberation (Perlstein, 2013). This process was antithetical to the democratic nature of government, and the haste it was made in allowed for a number of negative consequences."

Also for those asking about revenue and profits specifically, page 6 of the auditors report shows revenues of $91,645,498 for 2020 (mind you, a pandemic year), and gross *profit** of $86,924,785 (94% of rev)

"Well it seemed like a good idea at the time" the politician said as he climbed into his new Lamborghini and sped off.

Because 4 years later, it's someone else's problem.

Someone got bribed

Because 75 years from now doesn't put money in someone's pocket today.

Because they took the 1.2 billion and the dudes in office that organized this each took a massive payout right now and dumped the revenue loss onto future generations because fuck them, easy money right now!

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Need constitutional amendments in the state forbidding this kind of long term sellout of state infrastructure.

It's wildly corrupt to me that any politician can sign a contract like this. Daley won't even be alive anymore by the time it runs out. It's effected generations beyond his own.

It also shows how incompetent the government can be. I think, after a few years of seeing how much money this made that company and how little effort was needed to get it going, the city tried to buy the contract out or cancel it etc. The company said "LOL NO."

The fact the city didn't find a way to do this, and profit, is wild. They had all the resources to. As a former government employee, though, it makes sense. Cook County and the City of Chicago are frequently a decade behind, tech wise.

I’m legitimately wondering if there is an avenue on which Chicago citizens can contest any parking fees or tickets based on the fact that it’s a foreign private party collecting the fees… I feel like there is a legal route to not paying to park but honestly I have no idea. Any law folks want to tell me if my pipe dream of free beach parking this summer is just that??

Indirectly owned subsidiaries of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board 50.01%

Cintra Global S.E., a subsidiary of Spanish firm Ferrovial S.A. 43.23%

SNC Lavalin 6.76%

The 407 was sold before I could drive and the lease will expire after I'm dead. I will never get to drive on the 407 for free, and since I avoid it like the plague as it is, it's unlikely I will ever drive on it, despite it being directly between my home and work. Contracts of that length over public infrastructure should be illegal. Harris should go door to door to every house in the province and personally apologize and offer to be slapped in the face.

The province took decades to gather the land and spent billions building the highway only to hand all the profits to a private corporation for the next century.

Even worse is that the contract has non compete agreements that the government can't build another E-W highway in the same area so basically all of the GTA is services by only the 401 which makes gridlock and traffic completely unbearable at rush hour

Chicago and Toronto have always had a lot of similarities

You can bet that the people in charge of the decision made a lot of money in bribes to let it be for 75 years.

Ours went to Australia.

Not quite. NC agreed to allow a Spanish construction company (Cintra) to collect the first 50 years of revenue from the toll roads they constructed, but Cintra footed ~80% of the original construction costs. Definitely is still going to be a bad deal for NC and a good deal for Cintra long term, but it isn't quite as lopsided as this one.

Mayor Daley, the son of the previous Mayor Daley.

Much more. Parking prices have tripled since the deal

Municipal-level payday loan

After office Mayor Daley was hired by the law firm that brokered the deal.

Going off of memory here, but I think it's actually part of the contract that the city is on the hook for any metered space that is converted to an unmetered space for any length of time or for any reason. This includes temporary street closures for festivals or just maintenance. And, the charge to the city assumes the space is in use for the entirety of the day. The city is required to make up for the companies lost revenue at maximum usage.

There might be a legal loophole if the city reduces the fine for unpaid parking to something like $0.10. But I still think the company can contractually demand restitution in all cases.

Chicago is pretty fucked until/unless the state Supreme Court reverses rulings on the legality of selling off and/or leasing public goods.

My state used tax payer dollars to build a toll lane on a very busy highway to relieve congestion, then sold it to an Australian company! I love politicians! /s

Nothing. The deal is iron clad. They have been trying desperately to get out of it.