Saturday, July 07, 2012
Taxpayer-Funded Parking Garage Will Not Eliminate Parking Problem In Broad Ripple
First the Ballard administration told us it was necessary to spend $6.5 million on a privately-constructed parking garage in Broad Ripple to ease a shortage of parking in the Village. Then we learned that the private developer was adding commercial/retail space to the garage's first level that would consume nearly one-third of the 300 parking spaces to be created by the new structure. Now we're told that as soon as the parking garage is completed a residential parking permit district will be created in the neighborhood south of the Village, effectively eliminating all of the new parking spaces added by the new parking garage. After all, Mayor Ballard wants to make sure that his biggest campaign contributor's parking garage is full all the time to maximize the profits he realizes from his publicly-funded project. Now you know that this project was never about easing parking problems in Broad Ripple Village. It was all about giving multi-million dollar kickbacks to the Mayor's largest campaign contributor. If Ersal Ozdemir doesn't give Mayor Ballard a six-figure job when he leaves office like he's already given to his former chief of staff, then he just doesn't appreciate the tens of millions of dollars of public funds Ballard has forked over to him during his tenure as mayor. Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich went to prison and lost office for his corrupt relationship with Tony Rezko. Barack Obama was rewarded with the presidency after Rezko helped him finance the purchase of his mansion on Chicago's southside and delivered cash to him. What will Mayor Ballard's reward or punishment be for his cozy relationship with Ozdemir?
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8 comments:
This was part of the parking meter contract. If the city build a parking garage in Broad Ripple, it is required to implement a residents-only parking policy on streets surrounding Broad Ripple.
A parking meter lease that transferred control, along with the lion's share of revenues, to another politically-connected company, which has funneled large campaign contributions to the politicians. It will cost taxpayers dearly for the next 50 years. We gave up one-third of the upfront payment from the parking meter lease deal to build this useless parking garage for the sole benefit of Ersal Ozdemir, who is not required to share one dime of the money he makes off of it with taxpayers. It is a theft of public assets, nothing more and nothing less. The people responsible for it belong in a federal prison.
I should add that the residential parking permit program in Lockerbie does not prevent people from parking in the neighborhood. The residents obtain visitor parking placards for their friends to use when they want to park in the area, and many others park illegally. You can probably get by parking illegally about 90% of the time. When it gets real bad, someone calls the police and the ticket patrol arrives to ticket every one without a permit or a visitor's placard. People have still not figured out that you have to pay to park downtown at night and on Saturdays under the new parking meter deal. I watched a "parking ambassador" ticket four cars in a row on Mass Avenue last Saturday. It just all means more money for the company that now controls the parking meter assets.
The dumb Ballard and his corrupt staff need to spend many years as Terre Haute neighbors to their purer Chicago counterparts.
This deal is so filthy that the mob could never have conjured it.
Gary, I agree...the people responsible for the Broad Ripple Parking Garage belong in federal prison. It is the worst and most blatant theft of public assets I've ever seen.
The construction of the culteral trail along Washington Street in front of the Capitol and Government Center has taken numerous parking spots out of commission. Was the removal of these parking spots taken into account as part of the parking meter contract with ACS or are the taxpayers paying the contractor even though the spaces no longer exist?
Maine, good point. I think if someone had time to investigate the matter, we'd all be shocked how much money we are paying ACS for idled spots.
The lease protects ACS from revenue losses attributable to parking meters put out of commission during construction but not the affected business owners. Several went out of business near Fountain Square while work slowly progressed on the Cultural Trail.
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