Tonight I was featured in a segment on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight on privatizing city parking meter systems, convention centers, zoos and the like. I appreciate the opportunity to weigh in on the subject, and I’m also glad to see that they included some video of Mayor Daley taking responsibility for transition difficulties in the parking meter privatization.
One thing I noticed—now I could be wrong, but I believe that the first Chicagoan they interviewed in the segment may have been standing in front of one of the new parking meters that the concessionaire has installed as they begin to replace the entire 36,000-meter system. He was using a credit card, much more convenient than your typical coin-based meter. This system modernization is something that the city wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford if the private sector weren’t financing and building it as part of the lease. For more on Chicago’s parking meter privatization, see here, here, here and here.
Embedded video from CNN Video