Put 20 quarters in Parking Meter (Chicago) and Dubai gets

your money! Yep 5 bucks for lhr.

This is serious Duers. When you hear Privatization, start
digging into it.

Goldman Sach's has underdtaken to buy up Amerrican Assets
and sell them to the Highest Bidder. Water, Highways, Parking
Meter Systems, Just about anything that can be sold.

The people in Chicago are up in Arms as they learn after the
fact their Parking Meter system was sold to Goldman-Sachs who
quickly found a buyer in Dubai. Instead of Money staying in
Chicago to circulate and promote growth there, no it is
helping Dubai and Chicagoans are left hi and dri with Parking
fees going up by the minute.

First those Wall-Streeters threw the country in a Crisis and
left us with intolerably high unemployment. Thus there is
a tax shortfall. Umemployed not paying taxes. Cities and States must balance budgets. In comes that "slick" Wall St. Crowd.
Goldman-Sachs to be specific. They say to Mayors Governors.
We have a deal you cannot refuse. Look we will pay you billion(s)
for assets. You get this cash, clear up your debt and we
get your parking meters. Deal struck. Under new magmt
they raise the fees. Businesses must make a profit. Yes
they are charging 5 buck an hour to park for an hour. They
will make 10 times what they paid Chicago and in years to
come Chicago will not have this income. In these tight
money times, it is just brilliant that we are supporting on
of the richest countries in the Middle east with out parking
fees.

Indiana has a horror story to tell about the Tollway. Does
a company in Spain own that????

Start an effort to push back on this. How much do you
think they will charge us for water once they own that?????
Constantly raising the price to meet quarterly demands of
Wall ST, Contact Congress.

But, it's end game. Stage IV, there is no hope just go with the inevitable.

the country crumble around you??

:beer:

:banghead:


:hi:


:hide:

I was "hopeful" for some "change" but that didn't quite pan out....

me at 62. Let the youngins stick their iPads,iPods, Xboxes and all that stuff where the sun don't shine.

It's one of those days where I say screw it and tomorrow I wake up with a fire in the belly - or it's justs acid indigetion. :rofl:

Thanks for making me laugh :hug:

And I am glad I could brighten your day

As you sit on your porch this weekend with your favorite beverage, if you notice uniformed people standing on every corner, you might want to sit up a little straighter





:hi:

Whatever the traffic will bear.

Thirsty people will pay a great deal to slake that thirst, everything they have if they are thirsty enough.

they will KILL anyone who stands between them and the water.

These people don't understand that they are treading on the edges of revolution, and not every revolution has a happy ending like our first one did - far more end like the French and Russian revolutions. (Not that ours was so pretty - we were a national basketcase for the nest 50 years, and unresolved issues resulted in the first modern war - the Civil War).

water treatment plants,lakefront rights,and access around the great lakes.

Fresh water supply control is my biggest fear in the push for privatization .

Greedy rat bastards.:wtf:

the city charges a fair price, plus the sewer tax. we have some of the best quality water in the country. we make money selling it to a lot of suburbs. i don't think the economy can get bad enough for us to sell it.

elsewhere, yes, it is a problem. if you buy it is little plastic bottles it about $12-15 per gallon. i hate them thangs.

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

:sarcasm:

Daley Joining Law Firm He Previously Hired For Meter Deal, Other Privatization Work

Chicago Reader:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2011/06/01/daley-joining-law-firm-he-previously-hired-for-citys-meter-deal-and-other-privatization-work
Katten Muchin Rosenman, a law firm that the city has paid more than $1.2 million for work on privatization deals and other matters since 2005, announced this morning that it's adding a new attorney: former Mayor Richard M. Daley.

The move, first reported by Crain's, was announced in a statement on the firm's website. "Mayor Daley, who joined Katten after 22 years as mayor and more than 40 years in government, will be Of Counsel to the firm and, in that role, will draw on his vast knowledge, experience and relationships globally to contribute to the continued growth of the firm," the statement says.

... is Daley's statement that Chicago couldn't raise fees to the same level due to voter's distaste for higher fees/taxes. So he sells our marker to the juice-loan guys who have no qualms about raping the fuck out of us. And the tea-baggers are silent because it's business doing the raping - no matter we are being raped 5 times harder than the city ever dreamed.

Some city parking garages were also sold.

:think:

Just another fine part of the deal ......... read that on DU awhile ago

... parking enforcement agents where ever they please to "scare up" business.

Wanna close a street for repairs? Fuck you, pay me. Wanna close a street for a festival? Fuck you, pay me.


Mat Taibbi highlighted Chicago in his Griftopia series.

of days that are allowed to begin with, but all that really happens is the the alderman puts in a request, and they get it. i have not heard of a single street fair going under, and have not seen any in my neighborhood.

the ones writing tickets.

Friendly advice: If you ever have to call The Chicago "Revenue" Department, don't use term "meter maid" - you will get an ear-full. Don't ask me how I know :)

my info comes from my alderman.

My alderman claims he cares about me. Should I feel better?

Post some links or keep the pro-privatization bullshit. edit: and August of 2010 isn't a year ago, just sayin'

edit edit: Is it YOUR contention that CPM has subsequently FIRED those 10 PRIVATE parking enforcement people they hired to scare up business? What does your alderman tell you about that?

Its the PAY BOX.
Here is a little info about it.
http://theexpiredmeter.com/2009/12/cpm-city-reveal-automatic-parking-ticket-dismissal-system/

Sell the parking meters, next it will be the streets and the Dubai will charge you to drive on them, over and above the gas taxes you currently pay.

You're just finding out about this now?

As a Chicago resident, I fully blame Mayor Daley and our rollover aldermen on the City Council (who voted 40-5 for this deal). It largely led to his "decision" not to run for another term. The citizenry was outraged. I personally wrestled down my alderman and told them if they tried to "privatize" anything else (Midway Airport), I'd actively work against him, even though I was there for him in his first election and did a lot of work for the campaign.

That said, almost everything in your post is wrong: there was no "sale": it was a 75-year lease. Two funds from Morgan Stanley make up 99% of the investment group, called Chicago Parking Meters LLC. Of that Abu Dhabi has a 25% share. That, my dear friends, was due to Mayor Daley's palling around with the emerate: he personally went there to get them to invest. I don't know where Goldman comes into this, if at all. But if you want to create a bogeyman, get your facts straight.

Here's a contemporary article from the time:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/us/06cncmeters.html

for Morgan Stanley at the time of the deal.

It stinks like a skunk, and some of the smell could ruing the chances of Democrats in 2012. I think it is a far worse scandal than sex.

The OP seemed, to me, to be a reminder. Thanks for the link - it paints a worse picture than the OP.

As for sale vs. lease. What's the difference? For every living adult in Chicago, 75 years is a life-time.

Not for nothing:

:shrug: :D :patriot:

They won't have much fight left when it gets there.

:shrug:

That same chief of staff is also the brother of the man who was mayor of Chicago when the deal regarding the parking revenue was made.

And guess what company brokered the deal? According to Matt Taibbi it was Morgan Stanley. Read Griftopia. Great book.

I nearly fell out of my chair when I read about the sale of future parking revenue by the City of Chicago.

meters. laz parking runs many parking lots in chicago, both public and private. we made a deal with them for upfront cash in return for giving us a parking system for the 22nd century. there are no meters anymore, no defined parking places with lines on the street.
they have been replaced with a kiosk that will take credit or debit cards, and let you park wherever there is room on the streets.

the old system had reached it's limit because you can only cram so many quarters in a downtown parking meter. (controlling downtown traffic is the real reason for parking meters in chicago anyway.) overnight parking at a lower rate was also impossible. the new system allows you to use your parking receipt anywhere within a particular district.
they replaced ancient meters with technology that was badly needed, especially the ability to pay WITHOUT 20 quarters (which the old meters really couldn't do.). they did it on every arterial street in chicago, every parking place in the whole downtown. they had it done in about a year.
let me repeat something-they did it on every arterial street. there is no flipping way, in this economy, for the city of chicago to do it themselves. they sure weren't going to pay themselves $1B for the privilege. and the new system brings in way more money.
could we have gotten a better deal? i have no idea who. laz is the leader in the country for these kinds of systems. although the inspector general reported that we could have gotten a better deal, he had little more than that to say. then he quit his job and ran for the senate. he lost because all he thought all he had to say was parking meter,parking meter, parking meter, parking meter, parking meter.
and morgan stanley does not own laz. they have a piece of laz, but laz was fine without them.

Abu Dhabi Shares Profits From Parking Meters
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/us/06cncmeters.html
Published: December 5, 2009 in the NYT
By DAN MIHALOPOULOS

When Mayor Richard M. Daley traveled to Abu Dhabi in February, his office announced that the trip was intended to sell Chicago as a place to do business. Left unsaid was that that Persian Gulf emirate was about to become one of the biggest investors in a deal to lease Chicago’s parking meters for 75 years.

The city signed the now-controversial, $1.15 billion lease with a new company called Chicago Parking Meters LLC in February, and city officials said two funds of the Morgan Stanley investment fund made up 99 percent of the new company, with “several other entities” sharing the remaining 1 percent.

In fact, a Chicago News Cooperative investigation has found that investment arms of the oil-rich Abu Dhabi government hold more than a 25 percent stake in the company that privatized the city’s 36,000 parking meters. German financial company Allianz also has a large minority interest, and the remaining 50.1 percent is held by partnerships assembled by Morgan Stanley.

The participation of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds and other international investors exposes the level of sophistication of the money behind the city’s parking meter deal.

Read more at link.

And in more recent news.

Daley Lands Job With Parking Meter Lawyers

Former Mayor Richard Daley has landed a job with the firm that helped negotiate Chicago's parking meter deal.

Daley will be "of counsel" to Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, the law firm announced Wednesday morning. The former mayor "will draw on his vast knowledge, experience and relationships globally to contribute to the continued growth of the firm."

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Daley-Lands-Job-With-Parking-Meter-Lawyers-122931698.html

I knew it was an inevitability he would get some financial gain from the deal. Frankly, I expected him to just jump on a plane to Abu Dubai to collect his millions - while flipping us off on the tarmac.

This kick-back is a little more nuanced. Getting the kick-back from the atty provides a little buffer.

Like Cheech said of the Corleone Family, "heh, heh, the Daleys got a lot of buffers"

Don't tell me poor old Chicago, "in this economy", couldn't modernize its own parking meters. What a crock of shit. And any thinking person know Chicago could have floated bonds to upgrade revenue collection.

And yes, they are convenient because one doesn't have to carry a car full of quarters every he goes. But that's the point, is it? Of course a business will always make it "easy" for you to fork over money. I, and everyone I talk to, find themselves paying for much more time we don't use due to the way the system is set up. If you don't know exactly how long you will be in an appointment or, say a doctor's visit, you have to over pay because there is no way to do out and "pop another quarter(s) in" based on your actual wait time so you end up "maxing out". Not to mention all the time that's waisted when you drive off with a tag on your dashboard with an hour still left on the tag. No more recapturing the time by the next person - nope. Fuck you Chicago resident, pay me.


"and the new system brings in way more money" :rofl: Not for us it doesn't. And that money we received upfront will be gone in a few years.

:-(