Lightfoot fantasizes about dumping city parking meter deals – but can she?

It’s not unheard of (in fact, it’s all too common) for government officials to “talk tough” about things they’d like to be able to do – but truthfully would have to admit they don’t have a shot in Hades of making reality.

Haven't parked here in years, even though I used to work right next door

So it’s with that attitude in mind that I regard Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot’s talk on Wednesday that she wants to undo the parking meter deal.

YOU KNOW, THE one where the city (back in the final days of Mayor Daley, the younger) sold the rights to operate parking meters on city streets to a private entity.

City government managed to blow through the payment that Chicago Parking Meters LLC pretty quickly, but that firm still has 65 years to go on the 75-year lease they signed with Chicago.

Meaning there are still decades for them to make big bucks off their one-time investment. Which also means many more lifetimes for Chicago residents to pay ridiculous rates if they wish to park their cars within the city limits – without running the risk of having their cars towed away with even-more ridiculously-absurd fines implemented for one to reclaim their car, if they so wish.

So Lightfoot, who officially becomes mayor on Monday, would certainly be speaking to the choir of Chicago residents who’d love it if somebody could undo the parking meter deal.

LIGHTFOOT TOLD THE Chicago Sun-Times, “the fact that they’ve already made their money 10 or 15 years into (the deal) underscores that it was not a good deal for the taxpayers.”

Which has the mayor saying she wants to study the issue further. “I feel an obligation to take a look at that and see if we can craft a better strategy for taxpayers,” she says.

It would be nice if she could accomplish something along those lines.

But the reality is that the business entity has an agreement with the city – one that has managed to stand up to scrutiny in the courts, with the support of soon-to-be former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

IT COULD TURN out that for Chicago to get out of the parking meter deal it has now, they’d have to be prepared to give up something of even more value to the company that’s getting rich off our parking meter fees.

Can we afford to buy our way out of one stupid deal by making an even more atrocious one?

Seriously, for all we complain about the need for more revenue to maintain city government services, it is galling to think that in 2018 alone, the parking meter system in Chicago generated some $132.7 million.

That’s real money that could have been put to use by the city. Instead of letting it slip away to a private interest.

SO LET’S HEAR it for Lightfoot, if she can actually achieve something along these lines. Not that I’m getting my hopes up. I’m not counting on any significant change any time in my lifetime (which already has lasted just over a half-century).

LIGHTFOOT: A parking hero? Or cheap talk?

Personally, I use public transportation whenever traveling anywhere within Chicago – particularly if it involves going anywhere in the downtown business district that entails the Loop.

I used to have parking garages where I’d like to leave a car on the occasions I had to go there, and I used to consider them a pricey luxury. I remember one time I had to park my car in a garage for one week every weekday. I was outraged by the $55 the experience cost me.

But then I think of the last time I drove downtown – and parking my car cost me $34 for making the mistake of not getting back to my car within one hour. An experience that turned me into a pedestrian, and I’m not convinced that Lightfoot will be able to do much of anything to change that during my lifetime.

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