Lakefront Parking Won't Be Free Anymore

Free lakefront parking will be gone after the summer, if not a little before, Chicago Park District officials said Tuesday.

The private operator Standard Parking will take over the roughly 4,400 parking spots along the lakefront in four to six weeks, the Tribune reports. Park District Supt. Tim Mitchell said the privatization plan "was a done deal back in November," in response to City Council questioning.

The currently free spots will cost $1 an hour once the deal is complete. Park District officials estimate the deal will bring around $700,000 in its first year.

"[I]f you spend the whole day there, it's $8. You can't go see a movie for that," Mitchell said in defense of the plan back in May.

Comments

[moutonnoir]

This is heartbreaking.. If they want to charge for prime downtown lakefront parking, that is one thing, but WHY does it have to be a private company? Cant Chicagoans get anything for their assetts? We need the $, we cannot raise taxes any more!

[Myshkin57]

Stop complaining and take public transit. Or, you can bike. It's nice out and, despite what many seem to think, Chicago is extremely bike-friendly for a major U.S. city.

[moutonnoir]

You miss the point.. Why does a private company get to charge for the parking? The citizens have already paid for the infrastructure, why does a private company get to reap the benefits. This is very troublesome.

[Myshkin57]

I see the point, but the way to really stop them form doing this more and more is to not drive there in the first place, which is a good thing for many reasons.

Stop driving when you don't need to drive and they'll stop privatizing parking.

[Lakeview Greg]

ack......... should be privately owned meters........

[Lakeview Greg]

What about the Olympics? If those privately meters are put in, what is going to happen when the city starts tearing and building all along the lake for stadiums and stands and the like. A lot of the meters will be right in the area that they want to redo for the Olympics. Will the meter company stand for it? Will they want to redo their deal with the city? Sheesh, how does Richie manage it?

Oyyyyy.

[moutonnoir]

The contracts take care of that..If Chicago moves a meter, we pay for 75 years of theoretical income on that meter. Each meter move is something like $400,000 to Morgan Stanley. Nice eh?

[benji85]

I just moved here to Chicago, before that I lived in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and if you wanted to go to the beach you had to pay like $4 for the day, and there was plenty parking available. However there was not as many condos near the waterfront like there is along lakeshore...

[BushBites]

The problem is that the city isn't getting any of the money.

It's going to the private company that Daley outsourced parking meters to.

Estimates say he may have lost as much as a billion dollars for the city with that little scam.

[moutonnoir]

I think estimates, even conservative ones, put the loss at closer to 3 billion over the 75 years. And that is, IMO, highly speculative. If property values keep going up, who is to say we didnt loose more like 10-20 billion?

[spikeykitten]

All that is left to tax now is the air.

[Golden Ticket]

Cap and Trade will do just that. Obama will make sure of it!!!

[mjb5406]

Conservative Rethugtwit

[moutonnoir]

The sorts of companies that make bottled water such a commodity(taxed by daley) are also the ones that will make taxing air possible. You can blame the fire or you can blame the one who lit the fire...

[godlessliberal]

What's next are they going to charge admission to get into the parks and the lake? This makes me sick. I love Chicago, was born and raised here, but I am seriously considering moving. Daley and his cronies are single handly destroying the city. First they triple the cost of parking at meters, then they start giving out parking tickets left and right for the dumbest reasons, (I got a ticket for an improperly displayed city sticker apparently it was too high up). Meanwhile cops are so busy writing parking tickets while our crime rate keeps getting higher and higher. Something has to give!

[Golden Ticket]

You need to pay your fare share for entitlement programs.

[mjb5406]

Your name is wrong... GoldenA$$wipe is more like it.

[BushBites]

Would you shut up!

I pay more in tips than you pay in taxes, loser.

[moutonnoir]

Hah! Chicagoans, if anything, pay their share..We may not have the brightest or most attractive populace, but we sure know how to pay...

[joeythetrollslayer]

Get a clue. In NJ you pay $20 a day for a beach pass, meters not included. Nothing is free in this world. Once people start paying, they won't waste the resource. I strongly support high fees and fines for parking and driving and visiting parks, it reduces the incentive to drive everywhere and also makes the beaches less crowded. I think we need an auto tax say $2k/year like other countries have and a carbon tax on the amount of pollution that comes out of your tailpipe. Look at the congestion right now in 2009. Double it in 7 years. Do you see a problem? Daley is trying desperately to cut down on the amount of driving, and raise money for the city which is bankrupt. Heck, they should be narrowing the expressways to two lanes until people get the hint: you can't drive here.

[moutonnoir]

No.. he is selling assetts that were wholy created by public finding. He cannot give these things to private companies just because his newphew works for them.. Furthermore, it is disgusting tht the $ used to pay for this stuff was TARP money! America's tax $ is being funneled, through Daley, into Morgan Stanley.. Seem wrong? Just a little?

[ClareP]

Great - Time to fight to make all the streets near the lake resident-only parking-- I already can't park anywhere near my home on any nice evening or weekend, because of the crowds in the parks. Now that will get even worse, & I won't be able to use a lot in a pinch either.

So Daley- the parks are the great Daley legacy-- but what good are they if they are no no longer free to all? If they're just one more occasion to allow private companies to bilk residents for the use of public lands?

I hope the lawsuit against the parking deal wins.

[Dr Manhattan]

Oh well. I'm sorry if I don't shed a tear for all the Lincoln Park and other yuppies that regularly expressed their support for the mayor and his admin. Now it finally makes their life difficult the sky is falling. I'm not saying your one of those people, but there is a lot of them up there near the lake. BTW I personally think it stinks, but can't help but chuckle.

[Chicago jo]

Thanks Richie - you are doing a great job.

[moutonnoir]

Let's make this his final years in office. I would love to see him headed to prison.

[truthartbeauty]

some day nothing will be free and everything will be illegal. missing your freedoms much or do you just not notice as they are slowly taken away drop by drop?

[moutonnoir]

And we pay similar taxes to any other western country - the difference is that the citizens of those countries own their assets and get many more public services.. Include sales tax,and all the double taxation on things like gas and airfare, then add the subsidies for big business - like 50% of our income is taken from us...

[Furrypeanut]

Why were these areas part of "that deal" at all? So wrong.

[popkornn]

Why is Chicago 50% of the news on Huffpost??/ Can anyone answer me that? Every other news story is something going on in Chicago, what about other major cities in the U.S.? If parking wasn't free anymore in my city Huffpost wouldn't even care..............

[ClareP]

I had to click on the Chicago page to get here- where did you find the story?

[CherrySpring]

There's a "New York" tab next to the "Chicago" tab, stop whining.

[Golden Ticket]

Because our Saviour is from there.

[Myshkin57]

They opened an office there, and then one in New York.

[moutonnoir]

Any city that sells their public assets to private banks that used TARP $ to purchase them would become news.

[ejhickey]

When is the City of Chicago going to start charging people just for living in the City?

[Cyke101]

Indeed. 5 cents to walk, 10 cents to breath!

[nolakai]

We already do pay to live in the city -- $75 for a city sticker for the privilege of having a car. That's on top of all the other taxes, etc.

[Lakeview Greg]

Well, that'll make the fisticuffs over spaces at the lake more interesting.