For our second action project in, Policy, we had to find a monopoly that affected us, write a brief paper about it and create an infogram. For my monopoly I chose Chicago privatizing parking throughout the metropolitan area. I think one of the most challenging things that I dealt with was getting accustom to the website that created the infograms. Also I had some trouble finding out how I was going to present my information in an ascetically pleasing manner. One thing that I learned through this project is that Chicago privatizing parking actually benefits our city more than I expected. Before this project I believed that Chicago’s decision to privatize was a poor one at best. Soon after I really started to dive deep into my research I found that it’s actually going to bring in billions of dollars of revenue for the windy city. Below is my paper and infogram. I hope you enjoy!
My personal interest was sparked for this study due to the fact that I am receiving my drivers license this summer. Hearing criticism from my parents and friends who drive, I thought it was only right to understand and dissect what was really going on. With this research I believe that I am relatively adept to Chicago’s parking fiasco.
Recently in 2009, Chicago privatized all parking in the downtown, residential and business districts. They did this due to disorganization on public parking in the city of Chicago. Many of meter prices were inconsistent throughout. Some areas only charged a mere quarter per hour for parking, while other parking lots in nearby areas were as high as 10 or 15 dollars per hour for parking.
Chicago made a 75 year, 1.15 billion dollar deal to hopefully revamp revenue in Chicago. In the beginning many of the meters were either broken or malfunctioning. Resulting in a lot of unhappy citizens. With broken parking meters came undeserving tickets to Chicagoans. By December 2009 though, privatized parking had improved with more than 31,000 meters being replaced.
Through my research of the past 4 years of privatized parking in Chicago, I have found that the data trends show the prices of all parking in Chicago steadily increasing over the next 75 years. The loop by 75 cents per year, 50 cents per year for business districts and 25 cents per year for residential and neighborhood districts. With this increase of price though, I have surprisingly found that most Chicagoans are still satisfied with parking here. I have not found any inconsistencies in the data. Due to the steady increases dependent to which area the parking meters have been placed I think there approach to parking was a success.
At first skeptical of a monopoly over our parking, I have come to realize that the benefits greatly outweigh any cons. This was actually such a success that many other cities have looked to use our model for parking as well. These cities include Pittsburg, Los Angeles and Indianapolis.
