Readers of my last book, Griftopia, might recall a chapter about the city of Chicago leasing 75 years of its parking meter revenue to a coterie of private investors, some of them from the Middle East. The end result was and is a political obscenity: Native Chicagoans are now completely at the mercy of private interests when it comes to parking rates, collections, even holidays. When elected officials in Illinois can’t shut off the parking meters on Abe Lincoln’s birthday because a bunch of sheiks in Dubai don’t want the revenue stream turned off even for a day, you know something has gone seriously sideways in the national body politic.
Well, Chicago isn’t alone anymore. Hizzoner Michael Bloomberg in New York has decided to do his own version of the Chicago infrastructure bake sale; the city announced that it is putting up nearly 90,000 parking meters for lease. They’re expecting to get over $11 billion in upfront money from the deal, which is great news if you’re Mike Bloomberg, who gets to use that money to patch current budget holes instead of making tough cuts or raising taxes. The news is less awesome for the next half-dozen New York City mayors, or for the citizens of New York, who now will get to spend most of the 21st century grappling with its increasingly monstrous deficits with a major tributary from the city’s revenue stream shut off.
A New York parking meter deal, like the Chicago deal, would be a perfect example of the deeply cynical short-term thinking of many American politicians these days. These deals involve a sitting executive selling off a valuable piece of city property at a steep discount to private financial interests (often, to friends or campaign contributors), in order to solve a current cash flow problem that, surprise, surprise, will still be there the year after you finish spending the proceeds of your sale.
The fiscal genius that is Mike Bloomberg - selling New York City out to his Wall Street cronies.
I'm sure it's just coincidence that the sell off happens to plug up a budget hole in his last year in office.
I would be in prison if I wrote what I was thinking about this creep.
ReplyDeleteMe too.
ReplyDeleteHe's a corrupt little tyrant and is as crooked as they come. He's a fascist creep with evil motives. Parking meters are not the only way this little bastard is plugging up budget holes: there's those exorbitant water bills, fines on middle class homeowners for putting garbage out on the street "too early", and of course the tax debacle in northeast Queens where coop owners were charged abusive tax rates, then told it was an "error". They have not been refunded any money, however.
ReplyDeleteDitto, my peeps. . . .
ReplyDeleteHi I just came across your nice and interesting blog. Hope more people reaching your blog. We are provide a NYC parking.
ReplyDelete