[HN Gopher] Chicago sold rights to 36k parking meters for $1.2B ...
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Chicago sold rights to 36k parking meters for $1.2B that generate
$200M per year
Author : Zaheer
Score : 45 points
Date : 2023-03-01 22:03 UTC (57 minutes ago)
(HTM) web link (chicago.suntimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (chicago.suntimes.com)
| time4tea wrote:
| So much to unpack. City selling things cheaply to sovereign
| funds. Price hikes when bought by VC for no reason (other than
| profit) Capture of car-centric infrastructure, which makes it
| less likely to turn towards zero-carbon or multi-modal space -
| you can park 20 bikes in 1 car space. and more....
| krashidov wrote:
| Very well said. What a shit show. I wonder if there was
| corruption involved. "Sell this thing for me on the cheap and
| we'll hire you in 5 years."
| boomskats wrote:
| That's not corruption. That's 'lobbying'.
| evol262 wrote:
| Count backwards. Sixty-one years left on a 75 year lease. It
| was in the middle of the 2008-2010 crash, and the city was
| facing massive budget shortfalls. They also leased Midway:
| https://www.reuters.com/article/chicago-
| parkingmeters/chicag...
|
| This is around the same time that PA tried to lease their
| turnpike, and cities all over the US were facing a post-boom
| hangover when projected revenues from permits and property
| taxes didn't align with budget realities.
|
| I'm not defending the decision, but it was far more
| shortsightedness than corruption.
| V__ wrote:
| What I don't understand: If the city really needed short-term
| money, why couldn't they take out a loan against the parking-
| meter-system? It's extremely low-risk and in the long run the
| city could have keept it. This has to be corruption, doesn't it?
| electric_mayhem wrote:
| Why take out a loan against it when you can sell it to your
| buddies, or at least get some nice kickbacks?
|
| Chicago is pretty famous for corruption.
| kodt wrote:
| Mayor Daley was on his way out and only cared about the short
| term boost. This was his MO for years though, he took several
| pension holidays which the subsequent mayors have been trying
| to grapple with, and yet people remember the Daley years fondly
| because of it.
| jsnell wrote:
| The HN title says $200M, the article $136M. Where is the
| discrepancy from?
| TaylorGood wrote:
| "With 61 years left on the 75-year lease, Chicago Parking Meters
| LLC now has recouped its entire $1.16 billion investment and
| $502.5 million more."
|
| Ridiculously advantageous to the partners of the LLC, and good on
| them for securing this. Easily one of the best rev deals in
| history..
|
| Can't knock it
| nickdothutton wrote:
| I was going to say, absolutely tremendous yield. Can't cost
| them much to operate.
| tiffanyh wrote:
| States do the same with toll roads.
|
| It's weird to think that the state Highway you drive on is owned
| by some private equity company.
|
| https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=569539...
| diordiderot wrote:
| This seems like one of those clear cut everyone involved should
| be in jail situations.
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