So, Pittsburgh has already followed Chicago down the road of selling off future revenues from public street parking to the corporate sector, and
now it seems New York is seriously considering it. Given the criticisms that have emerged from many of Chicago's local politicians and the local press (and are fairly well documented), it's difficult to see how such a move represents any good faith, democratic intention on the part of the city's administrations.
We may have to produce a tour of privatization of parking infrastructure... In the meantime,
here's a graphic we produced for the recent AREA Chicago Number 10 issue on Institutions & Infrastructures (full PDF available). It looks at the history of parking in Chicago's Wrigleyville neighborhood, leading up to the impact of the privatization of the meter system.
