Parking Privatization

Later today, behind closed doors, the Los Angeles City Council will meet to debate and discuss whether to put out to bid a plan to lease all of the city controlled parking lots throughout the city for fifty years.  The debate over whether the city should proceed has been almost completely centered around whether or not the cost to residents and businesses of increasing parking costs will be worth the fiduciary benefit to city coffers.

Hat tip to reader Ryan Lehman

It's been six months, to the day, since we last checked in on the Mayor's desire to privatize the city's parking meters and publicly owned parking garages.  Under the Mayor's draft plan, the city would get an as of yet undisclosed amount of money to turn over the money generated by its parking assets.

It appears Chicago politicians who privatized city parking meter operations traded short-term political gain for long-term fiscal pain.

This weekend, the Times looked into some of the pitfalls the city should strive to avoid if and when it privatizes its metered and public garage owned-parking.  The Times correctly warns that while the scheme may close a budget hole temporarily, it opens new ones in the long-term. However, anyone expecting an essay on how losing control of its parking imperils a city's ability to kick its car addiction is going to be disappointed, the article focuses almost exclusively on the cost to drivers.

Thank goodness for KNBC or maybe the City Council's decision to spend half a million dollars to study parking privatization may have passed without any news outlet covering the story.  Did I miss something, is parking and parking rates not a major issue in Los Angeles anymore?

For the politicians looking to close a loophole in the city’s budget through privatizing street parking, the biggest question is going to be “how much money can the city get” for leasing enforcement and collection of paid street parking. Reporting from this week’s City Council hearing, Joe Linton writes, “The city is facing a $35M deficit in the current fiscal year. The deficit projected for next fiscal year was projected at $433M (out of a $7B budget), but that forecast is being revised to about $530M.” If Chicago got $1.16 billion for leasing control of its 36,000 meters, Los Angeles should be able to get at least that much for it’s 43,000 metered spaces, right?

Thus far, the discussion on how to, and whether to move forward with a plan to privatize the city’s metered street parking has focused on what impact a similar plan has had in Chicago.  The final deal between the Windy City and Morgan Stanley netted Chicago $1.16 billion up front, for turning over parking revenue, enforcement, collection and maintenance for the next 75 years.

Privatizing street parking.