Chicago’s $10 Billion Street Parking Mistake

Get a free bag of fresh coffee with any Trade subscription at drinktrade.com/hai
Get a Half as Interesting t-shirt: standard.tv/collections/half-...
Suggest a video: halfasinteresting.com/suggest
Follow Sam from Half as Interesting on Instagram: / sam.from.wendover
Follow Half as Interesting on Twitter: / halfinteresting
Discuss this video on Reddit: / halfasinteresting
Video written by Amy Muller
Check out our other channels: / wendoverproductions
/ jetlagthegame

[@absentmindedjwc]

"mistake" It wasn't a mistake, it was political corruption. Daley got a massive payout for the deal.

[@pocklecod]

Are there any details on this available? I would assume he got a big cut but is that something we can confirm? Genuinely curious not saying you're wrong (I'm sure you're right).

[@imightbebiased9311]

The "mistake" was people finding out about it.

[@JoshTurner-os9ti]

Not just Daley, the whole Illinois Democrat system is part of it. The Blago trial exposed a lot, there was just one name the judge ruled nobody was allowed to mention

[@Sinaeb]

Meanwhile just a couple of kms away in a foreign country *cough*

[@Treblaine]

What was a better way to raise $1.2 billion dollars in cash while also cutting spending? Raise property taxes at a time when the housing market crashes is WAY worse and the whole cause of the crisis was the lack of good credit, there's no way they could easily get a loan. Dismissing "only $1.2 billion" is really not fair as it was money NOW. It took the CPM 10 years to make $1 billion and it's not clear if that's $1 billion in profit or just $1 billion in revenue. You have to balance the books TODAY, Chicago did not and does not have a magic money machine, when it's out of cash then public employees just start having their paychecks bouncing. They took a hard look at parking attendants and teachers and chose teachers.

[@thomasdelege2382]

This wasn't stupidity, this was corruption lol

[@TheRavenLord1]

Welcome too America

[@uzbekistanplaystaion4BIOScrek]

has to be, right?

[@lakrids-pibe]

I mean, corruption is also stupid. It's selfish, short sighted greed. Small brain energy.

[@Spektakulus]

It’s not corruption if you call it lobbying

[@chintanshah8178]

​@@lakrids-pibecould be all three, greedy, corrupt, and also stupid

[@davidportella8578]

As a Chicago resident I protest this by not paying for parking

[@route2070]

Something the video missed, the city can still get parking mobey, just from the tickets.

[@jpanda79]

Based

[@imightbebiased9311]

You can also express your civic disgust ON the meters.

[@OriginalPiMan]

Does the city still control parking fines? If they set the fines low enough, they could possibly effectively turn the deal on its head. No one pays the machines for a year, the city gets its revenue back, and the calculation for how much it costs to remove meters craters. Remove all the meters, pay the company the 60 years worth of fees at tiny values because each machine is clearly earning very little. Then if the city cares to, put in new machines not controlled by the company.

[@arcodax3302]

You don't want the Saudi prince to be more filthy rich ;/

[@joshuatatro4503]

The sad thing is so many people who live here now have no idea how/why this happened much less the impediment it creates for anything involving city streets into the foreseeable future. I've explained this "deal" so many times now, and the response is always, "wait, what? And the city council let Daley do it?!" Nay, children; they helped him -- and then took their share of the kickbacks.

couldn't a group of citizens sue him/them for mismanagement of public funds?

[@Apollo-gp5vm]

@ the judges are in on it too

[@BattleHerb]

@@Apollo-gp5vm I feel like we need to specify which judges, that is the city judges/state judges the supreme court has it on the docket for inspection but have yet to reach it through the backlog of other problems

[@joshuatatro4503]

@ Sue a Daley in Chicago (or really even in Illinois)? Good luck with that... The Cook County judges are elected as part of the Democratic ticket. It would probably be a lost cause even today, and certainly when he was in (or even recently out of) the mayor's office. Likewise, the Dems control the state legislature, so they have the relevant governing bodies and judiciary locked down. It's not to say that some faction or progressives wouldn't be/wasn't interested, but let's just say the overall political will was and is very low. Remember, this is the same guy who literally closed a private air strip on the lakefront by extra-legally (read: illegally) having a giant Xs bulldozed through the runway in the dead of night; nothing happened to him. Also, Daley definitely doesn't have $1.16 billion plus interest to recoup, so kind of a moot point.

[@mytimetravellingdog]

Surely they cant the government just legislate to change the terms of the deal?

[@darthpi1337]

I feel like you could make an entire channel just on the exploits of the two mayors from the Daley family.

[@arcam8880]

You could probably make enough content to fill the catalogs of Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime, ABC, CNBC, all the books that have ever been in the NYC public library and in the libraries of Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Stanford and could probably make the same length of podcasts equal to the entire catalogue of Spotifys in length both songs and podcasts just from one average high ranking Turkish politicians record of corruption.

[@gladitsnotme]

​@@arcam8880same for Kenya 😭

[@stupititykills]

RIP Meigs Field, gone too soon o7

[@route2070]

We are up to 2 videos including the Megs Field video.

[@CortexNewsService]

Seriously

[@tomb5372]

Voters should have the ability to cancel such lengthy contracts that hurt the public at large, breaking a contract without the ability to sue. Especially when corrupt politicians put them in place.

[@bwofficial1776]

Our government was intended to exist only with the consent of the governed. We the people have the right to revoke that consent at any time. Elected officials work for the people and serve at our pleasure, meaning we can fire them at any time. Of course, the government has taken steps to make all of this nearly impossible. The swamp protects itself.

[@planescaped]

I am amazed there is no veto option for things like this.

[@MadLadCustoms]

It's because the common man is busy checking what is a woman 🤡

[@dr.johnnysins]

@@MadLadCustoms yeah, republicans waste fffaaarrrr too much time trying to restrict the rights and freedoms of trans people like me when they could instead actually, you know, do something to help people. I hope that enough americans see through their buffoonery and they get crushed in the '24 election

[@XLR8bg]

The only thing that would achieve is discourage anyone from making any deals with the cities, especially if the deal requires upfront investment/payment that is to be recouped over time. Tackling complex issues with oversimplified and extreme solutions is a recipe for a never-ending series of disasters.

[@djpinger]

I'm sorry, but the parking meters to parking feet genuinely made me laugh out loud. Well done. Otherwise, it would just be crying and anger.

[@GoddessOfTheWinds]

I didn't catch the joke, until your comment. I wasn't paying too much attention as I was doing other things at the same time. I now realize the joke and it's hilariously funny. (Note: I'm not American)

[@Zyghqwyv]

@@GoddessOfTheWinds I think its hillarious and I am murican! USA! USA! USA! 🦅🔫🍔

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

​@@ZyghqwyvWhy do you have a hamburger shooting a water gun at a bald eagle?..

[@roxy5048]

yeah this one was top tier

[@Zyghqwyv]

@@TS_Mind_Swept BECAUSE ITS A FREE COUNTRY! AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT SAYS I CAN!

[@45545videos]

It's not stupidity, it's corruption

[@ghost307]

You missed an important detail. In 2007 Chicago was itching to get the 2016 Olympic Games. In order to get them, Mayor Richard M. Daley pursued the avenue that Chicago has always preferred and for that the needed money (in the form of small, unmarked bills, if you know what I mean). Despite decades of trading money for favors, Chicago managed to screw it up and was eliminated in October of 2009. One of the biggest problems with the method that Chicago had employed to attempt to get the games (besides being higher illegal) is that after they were eliminated, they didn't get the money back. Everybody knew that the parking meter deal was a horrible deal, but Daley was insistent on getting the Olympics for the prestige and (of course) the money that the games would bring to Chicago (despite the historical fact that every venue that has ever hosted the Olympic Games has lost a ton of money instead). The very morning after Chicago's bid for the games was rejected a panicked meeting was held in the mayor's office to discuss how to deal with the fact that their terrible idea had resulted in a 75 year drain on the city's funds of truly epic proportions. The word on the street after that meeting was that Daley would do everything in his power to defer the pain from the parking meter deal until he was out of office, at which point he would no longer care.

[@imightbebiased9311]

That's actually not true about the Olympics, and specifically the US ones. I don't know if any accounting jiujitsu or outright lies have been applied here, but Wikipedia has sourced figures showing that since 1984, every Olympics hosted in the US has turned a profit (LA '84, Atlanta '96, Salt Lake City '02) also Barcelona, Beijing, Vancouver, Sochi, and Pyeongchang's events were reported to be profitable and London's games supposedly broke even. This doesn't actually affect much of your story, except that maybe Daley was a liiiiittle bit more reasonable for thinking he could bring a profitable Olympics to Chicago.

[@ghost307]

@@imightbebiased9311 Assuming that the games could have made a profit, rest assured that Chicago would have found a way to redirect all that money into certain pockets.

[@imightbebiased9311]

@@ghost307 Yeah, no doubt. Daley would have probably found a way to establish the Chicago Trust for Best Living Mayors of Chicago and then just paid himself the profits.

[@treway9517]

Learn something new everyday , love it. 😊

[@fredinit]

You forget the fact that the, at the time, corrupt IOC wanted a 'southern hemisphere' Olympics to bolster revenues with countries that were more corrupt than Chicago. Ergo, Rio got the nod.. and screwed it up worse than CPM, Skyway, and NASCAR deals- combined. Remember the 'river' swimmers were supposed to swim in that was more polluted than the Cuyahoga in the 1950's?

[@timmk94]

This is very similar to the NHS hospital parking lots in the UK. NHS owns the land but private companies "run" the parking, the NHS can't even put signs up in their carparks without the parking companies say so.

[@EJames359]

Only in England. Hospital parking is free in Scotland and Wales.

[@BattleHerb]

@@EJames359 Yes but that isn't a innate thing I believe, local governments lobbied for exclusion from the UK law after the fact

[@ricequackers]

Not at all, the NHS trusts just contract a company to run the operations. The parking operator takes their cut, and the rest of the revenue goes to the NHS trust to invest in their medical facilities, and since they're a contractor they can be dismissed and replaced if necessary. That's why I don't mind too much paying for parking at a hospital since the revenue helps fund the hospital. It would only be analogous if the trusts had completely sold off their parking to a company who got to operate it for 70 years and also got to pocket all the revenue.

[@perman17]

Just because it’s free doesn’t mean the private companies aren’t still there. We have a private company that continues to enforce parking restrictions. They don’t get revenue from the machines any more of course, since the machines have all been turned off, so they make money by issuing fines, which is topped up by big cash sums from the trust/government.

[@theinternetbutler]

@@ricequackers "That's why I don't mind too much paying for parking at a hospital since the revenue helps fund the hospital." me after my lobotomy

[@annbacerra]

Daley got kickbacks for this one, it was corruption through and through. Skybridge is a little more nuanced. The price was too low, but we never wanted the skybridge to begin with...

[@Nazuiko]

So many people saying this, not a single number, source, statistic, or proof presented

[@bwofficial1776]

@@Nazuiko You're expected to research things that interest you, not expect to be spoon-fed information. Look it up if you care. If many people are saying it, odds are it's true.

[@Jehty21]

@@bwofficial1776 if many people are saying it, odds are that they are all just repeating the wrong information. Never ever trust anything just because many people are repeating it.

[@andersjjensen]

@@bwofficial1776 Many people are saying that if you think you're a toaster then you're obviously a toaster and anyone who doesn't treat you as a toaster is a monster.... Things that fit into currently popular narratives (and corporate and political corruption are popular narratives these days) should be treated differently than "lots of people say that lead is bad for you".

[@BattleHerb]

He said odds, not a certainty. And popular narratives exist for a reason, yes they are always influenced by entities that hold power in some fashion but that doesn't make them untrue.

[@legends86yt]

As someone who can't drive, I relate to parking problems very deeply

[@toolbaggers]

Then you'd be even more mad if you paid taxes that went into something that you don't use.

[@lakrids-pibe]

As someone who can drive but prefer to bicycle everywhere, the blocking of new bicycle lanes is frustrating. You can't even avoid the parking meters by taking your bike, because the bike infrastructure doesn't get build.

[@Ok-lu8gx]

ok

[@CharlieOsmar]

@@toolbaggers they’re obviously a kid they don’t pay taxes

[@thatpersonsmusic]

As someone who doesn’t drive, this forces so many wasteful street parking spots to remain even if they are not necessary, and prevents the creation of bike lanes or better streets

[@Petteri82]

That parking feet joke is so stupid it's actually brilliant.

[@mimusic1853]

Just goes to show how the English language is like a mutt. When you can use the same word for various uses. In the USA we have just as much LOVE for our mother, pet, pizza and Pilsner.

[@mobilizedpanda3795]

For once I wish I Chicago's mayor. I would do so much trolling. Heres a few ideas: -90%+ city tax on parking meter revenues. -Ban on new parking meters. -Legal requirement that all parking meters be certified by city workers for an outrageous fee. -Instructing the parking authorities to not ticket anyone for not paying. As well as banning installation of surveilance. -Arguing all these dont count as decreasing revenues. Only a decrease in profits. -Rezoning the land the parking meters are on to non commercial use. -Reassessing the property taxes of the land to outrageous levels. -In the case of those solar powered parking meters you install umbrellas over them so they have no power. Worst case scenario city is ordered to pay lost money. In which case you have the city legislature refuse to add that money to the budget. Would probably take them until 2083 to finish fighting all this in court.

[@tropinnka]

Then you stop getting any companies from wanting to work with your city, you need a road repaved? Good luck getting any bidders, will cost you much more since you’ve explicitly stated that you won’t honor contracts. Over time, the parking meter investment will seem like nothing compared to how much you would cost the city. A solid knowledge of actions and their possible consequences is necessary in order to be able to make decisions that will actually lead you to your goal. Like China exterminating sparrows lead to a famine since the sparrows ate the insects that plagued crops, if you don’t explore and consider the unintended consequences of your actions, you’re bound to make the problem worse by trying to fix it. Problems aren’t ever as simple as they might seem from a cursory analysis.

[@solandri69]

That's all well and good. But would you (as mayor) still implement any that if you were receiving (say) 10% of their profits as a kickback? Because that's probably what's going on. The U.S. was incredibly fortunate to have George Washington as its first President. He didn't want to be President, didn't want to run for re-election. He only agreed because his friends begged him to do it. That's what term limits are about - keeping out people who are in politics for the power. The premise that the worst people to give power to are those who desire it. And the best people to give power to, are those who will only accept it reluctantly, and are glad to be rid of it when their term is done.

[@stormrider8576]

You probably could have ended the video at "Mayor Richard M. Daley" but that would have only been a quarter as interesting.

[@johnbaker8512]

Corruption ... That's the Chicago Way!

[@toahero5925]

Illinois Largest State Issue: Political Gridlock: Several honest assemblymen are obstructing the normal corruption process.

[@BattleHerb]

@@toahero5925 THOSES FIENDS

[@LimitedWard]

How do you even go about fixing a mess like this? Seems like the federal government needs to step in somehow to overrule the contract, but that would be almost unprecedented.

[@dragonmyballs]

Pass laws to tax the parking meter company to recoup some money

[@Seth9809]

They should written that if the PM people get 8 times their investment, the deal is renegotiated

[@derpmansderpyskin]

There is no way to fix it. The city just has to deal with the lost revenue and extra fees until ~2080. Realistically, though, even the ~$80m in fees they've paid so far are a relatively small portion of the budget, so it's not exactly some huge catastrophe for the city. Even the estimated ~$10bn in profits CPM expects to make (and remember, that's only an estimate) is not as big of a deal when you spread it out over 75 years. Still a significant burden on the city, though.

[@mattbosley3531]

Illinois voters should throw out their whole government, city and state, but that won't happen. Corruption is rife.

[@legitimatebusinessman5537]

@@mattbosley3531We’ve changed mayors three times since this deal was signed; and while this deal had nothing to do with state government (which, frankly, has been running fine the past couple of years), we’ve also changed governors at least twice.

[@irok1]

"it's somehow even worse" is Chicago's slogan

[@ghost307]

I always though the city's motto was "Where's mine?"

[@scottrick7321]

Man, I have got to get me involved in politics. Imagine the bribes involved in this nonsese.

[@Merennulli]

You or I could never participate in corruption because we'd expect too much for our part in it. If I was giving away a $1bn contract, I'd expect a $1m kickback, but this was probably something like a job someone else was going to be paid to do anyway. I'm saying "probably" here because I don't actually know, but other comments have explicitly stated that's what he got out of it.

[@19MAD95]

So what your saying is that tampering with the meters in a way to make them not serviceable is a public service and that the people of Chicago should disable the meters.

[@DavidLarson15]

And the cops shouldn't enforce them.

[@diametheuslambda]

And then they get to pay a ginormous true-up for their troubles.

[@j100j]

​@@diametheuslambdaIt's not the city's fault that the residents destroy property so probably no.

[@diametheuslambda]

@@j100j I'm pretty sure arbitration will ding the city for lax security, which the city is reasonably expected to provide. It's just that lopsided of a deal. The best way out is either a buyback encouraged by the feds incidentally swinging a bat their way, or state legislation. The latter's going to courts, which will hopefully trap deal enforcement in amber for a decade or so until CPM settles.

[@ghost307]

I like how you think.

[@jonathanmatthew1263]

Fuck, and I can't stress this enough, the entire Daley family.

[@DavidLarson15]

Along with every Chicago politician for as long as I've been alive.

[@toahero5925]

​@@DavidLarson15Never a good sign when 4 of the last 10 state governors went to prison. As an Iowan, folks regularily talk about how glad they are to be living west of the missippi.

[@WackoMcGoose]

Man... and I thought parking in Seattle was shitty now that most street parking and half the parking garages have removed physical meters and gone to a "install our company-specific app and give it Root-level access permissions to the financial information on your phone or you can't park in the city" model.

[@BatCaveOz]

Seattle has been shitty for about the last 30 years.

[@doubleclick21]

Except you don't actually have to install an app. Read the instructions more better, my dude.

[@HeisenbergFam]

4:05 "whole point of investing is the risk you can lose everything on clowns" is such a profound majestic explanation of investing

[@jangschoen1019]

Gah, I wondered why Richard M. Daley sounded so familiar. Turns out, he also destroyed the Meigs airport.

[@derpmansderpyskin]

Ok but doing that was actually awesome.

[@jangschoen1019]

@@derpmansderpyskin I disagree with your definition of awesome.

[@derpmansderpyskin]

​@@jangschoen1019 You're right, who would want a 91-acre park in their city when they could instead have a loud, polluting airport for businessmen.

[@jangschoen1019]

@@derpmansderpyskin Was bulldozing X's into the runway overnight the best way of closing the airport?

[@derpmansderpyskin]

@@jangschoen1019 Yeah, because the alternative was dealing with the noise & pollution for another ten years while a bunch of bureaucrats push pencils around. Did you know that aviation is one of the only industries in the country to still use leaded fuel? Nobody should have to live near an airport, let alone hundreds of thousands of people in the densest (and most beautiful!) part of Chicago.

[@williamweigt7632]

About Aldermen not reading the contract carefully: have YOU ever tried to read a contract with a paper bag full of $, just sitting on it?

[@sevenisus5378]

Informative and comedic, another great video Half as Interesting.

[@anotherhackneyedusername]

Hi HalfasInteresting! Just wanted to say I saw the easter egg in your '128 Airlines' Video, and then found this one! 😉 That is some excellent advice and I thank you! 😌

[@TheNighthawke502]

"Traded his family's only cow for a magic bean"...that one made me laugh at how stupid/corrupt that mayor and those politicians truly were! LOL.

[@Formalec]

An unbelivable oppertunity to make that reference. They actually have a shiny bean😂

[@Daniel-cw8lg]

I live in a suburb that borders Chicago and I have very mixed feelings about the city. On one hand, parts of the city, like the downtown area are really nice, and I think in general, it’s a much better city than most of the major cities in the US. But there is also the corruption that ruins a lot of stuff and in general, much of the city is super stressful to be in.

[@DavidLarson15]

The city is a very pretty cesspool that I travel into to see a show and get out as quickly as possible.

[@ghost307]

You need to go downtown and look again. State Street looks more decrepit and abandoned than the pictures we see of Detroit.

[@DavidLarson15]

@@ghost307 I'd rather not go more than one block in any direction from Reggie's or the Bottom Lounge.

[@ghost307]

@@DavidLarson15 Very wise.

[@J-wm4ss]

@@ghost307 what? i go there many days and it has tons of students and tourists

[@route2070]

It is probably also worth mentioning how the meters are very different based on where the meters are. A lot of the city has meters for about $2 an hour, and i have seen as hugh as $7 an hour, and i have heard as high as $9 an hour.

[@albear972]

Gawd! Even when I first heard about this deal back in 2008, I thought it was awful! I don't live in Chicago but that is a terrible deal for people who live there and the city.

[@mrvini1998]

And that's why politicians LOVE to privitize things. It's not stupidity, it's a method that earns them a friendly dealto be so kind to the private companies.

[@ChrisHockman]

There’s another street parking issue that I uncovered in Honolulu. A lot of those individual street meters are/were powered by Verizon which shuttered its service that they were connected to, leading to billions of lost revenue for the cities that used it. May be worth a look

[@XeroKelvin]

Can't people just destroy the meters? Is there a clause that the city needs to repair them?

[@BatCaveOz]

That sound like a completely rational and well thought out position.

[@michellebwilson2610]

Thanks for shedding a light on this.

[@jim22512251]

Magic bean, deep dish etc . Some very subtle Chicago jokes and references in one of your best ever scripts

[@Merennulli]

The contract is online and has a very clear process for the city of Chicago to terminate it. Elect people who will terminate it if you want it terminated. Chicago got paid $1bn for the contract, and Chicago will have to pay a large amount of money to terminate it, and that's why the politicians aren't terminating the contract. They don't want to be the ones to have to tell the voters they have to raise taxes to pay for terminating the contract. The lawsuit quoted in the video was by DRIVERS in Chicago, not the city. They were trying to force the contract to be terminated on antitrust grounds that weren't strong claims and they lost. Being a bad deal doesn't matter AT ALL under the law unless the signatory party (the representatives of city in this case, not the population of the city) can show they were deceived in some way, which the representatives of the city at the time didn't pursue in court. You can certainly argue this was PROBABLY due to corruption, but unless you can prove that to the satisfaction of a court, yelling "corruption" doesn't do much. Neither the courts, the city/state/federal government, the tooth fairy, nor any of the other bodies people have suggested step in and make this all go away have any legal power to do so, and you don't WANT them to have those powers because those powers would be used against you. Exclusively. Because you don't have the money to pay millions for lobbyists to push for them not to be used against you like these sorts of companies do. Bottom line is Chicago got money for the deal and Chicago has to pay money to get out of it or wait decades. If the city suddenly became smart, it would create an allocated fund and raise taxes a little to pay into it until the termination costs can be paid out of the fund and the contract can be done away with. But Chicago got into this mess in the first place by electing who it elected. I'm not holding my breath.

[@mytimetravellingdog]

you know governments already have the capacity to enact legislation that overwrites contract agreements right? #

[@Merennulli]

@@mytimetravellingdog That fact is covered 4 times in what I wrote.

[@hogie13765]

Finding out Sam calls it a 'PIN Number' was more crushing than I expected.

[@bigb00m]

You mean that thing I type into the ATM machine?

[@soundscape26]

@@bigb00m Yes... and on phones too.

[@216cle]

Personal identification number number

[@Treblaine]

$1/hour which is absurdly cheap compared to the UK. London charges an amount in pound sterling what is typically the equivalent of $10/hour for parking. Getting "only" $1.2 billion for land that will generate $10 billion over 75 years a better deal than most land deals. And it's not just a massive cash injection right when they needed it, it is also cutting all the costs of maintaining the parking enforcement infrastructure which for a city like that cost millions every year. A loan would have cost them FAR more than the net profits of keeping the roadside parking. PS: the federal government made a net-profit from the bailout of the banks as the bailout consisted of buying assets that were dirt cheap and held them until they increased in value.

[@emperoroftheuniverse5950]

1:38 gotta love the into the woods reference, funny that my school is doing that and chicago back to back

[@nobleshirley2775]

That’s a slap in the face to the Chicago tax payer. You think that at least your tax money goes to the city? Nope! It also goes to CPM because of the “apology” clause

[@CarolineBearoline]

While I support this sponsorship idea for this video, I find that to get myself closer to Starbucks I need only add a can of whipped cream, a bottle of chocolate syrup, and some sweet creamer

[@wyw876]

Just treat Fivebucks' products as coffee-inspired milkshakes, and move on with your lives.

[@CarolineBearoline]

@@wyw876 are people still out there pretending that 95% of the drinks served at Starbucks aren't coffee milkshakes? A delicious, caffeinated milkshake 🧋

[@ian3580]

If that's what you like, then you don't actually like coffee....you like the other stuff and coffee is just a bit of flavoring. So, in that case, you don't need 'good' coffee to make that happen

[@snowwonder9814]

Yes, exactly. As someone who doesn’t have a giant sweet tooth I don’t actually like Starbucks that much. Starbucks’ regular espresso and coffee drinks just aren’t that great. I can and usually do make better with little delonghi or my french press. Starbucks is for when I’m on the go or too lazy to make coffee. I’m probably going to have it after work tomorrow because it’s the end of the week and I’m too tired to grind more beans right now.

[@hdfwk4wjj69wjvi8]

​@@ian3580honestly, I don't drink anything from Starbucks except their fraps which I definitely consider as a super heavy dessert

[@bretharrell9795]

Sam - your videos are the best!

[@MichaelToub]

Great Video!!

[@justins8802]

This seems like a solvable problem if the citizens were properly motivated

[@rubenvandenbroek9689]

How? it's a legally binding contract. There probably is a 'break contract' fee, but that is likely waaay higher than what they would pay to keep the contract going.

[@HeavyRayne]

Lol? Please explain how citizens can break a city contract that has been upheld by courts twice

[@justins8802]

@@HeavyRayne This company surely has a physical headquarters, and has owners and executives with physical addresses. Protests have an effect. Also, I didn’t hear any penalties in the contract for if people boycotted the meters altogether. Seems like people could make it seem preferable to take a reasonable buyout and move on than deal with picketers and no revenue. But like I said, the people would have to be properly motivated to accept hardship in the short term to get out from the better part of a century of future abuse.

[@FacterinoCommenterino]

Today's Fact: In 1975, the front pages of newspapers in different parts of the world carried news of two separate plane crashes, both involving planes with flight numbers 123 and both crashing at the same time.

[@meximelon5074]

That’s awesome 😺

[@rm_steele]

​@@meximelon5074don't know if that's quite the word i'd choose to describe plane crashes

[@meximelon5074]

@@rm_steele but it’s an awesome daily fact

[@gladitsnotme]

​​@@meximelon5074why did you take this as fact? It's just some dumb comment on KZbin. Did you research it?

[@joebidenofficialpotus]

Wasn't it 1985

[@NoobToobJamarMemes]

I recently used a parking meter in Chattanooga. I paid .75 to park for 2 hours. My friend parked in the aquarium lot and had to fish out--pun fully intended--like $9 for the same amount of time LOL.

[@scaper12123]

Honestly at that point, I would just start gathering the boys and smashing parking meters. This is blatantly unfair and possibly corrupt, from the sounds of things.

[@BattleHerb]

always check for police patrols and CCTV coverage, *gestures in the direction of Chicago *

[@BattleHerb]

Also would this fall under the reimbursement policy? The city might end up having to pay more

[@kingbiio2871]

Just what I wanted to watch at 8.17pm lmao love the videos

[@Sophiebryson510]

Fellow Brit?

[@bulbman2564]

Last time I caught HAI this early he was talking about planes on this channel

[@AeroGuy07]

When Mark Mallory was mayor of Cincinnati he wanted to sell the city owned parking. He wasn't successful. I tweeted at him "that one time windfall is great, but what are you going to sell next year?" He blocked me.

[@Kelly_C]

genuinely never expected to see a malort joke in a semi-educational youtube video

[@stevenneiman1554]

Since, as everyone is saying, this was done corruptly, it kinda seems like something where a lawsuit for something like unjust enrichment could be feasible. On the other hand, a typical Illinois judge probably costs a lot less than ten billion dollars, so that might be why it hasn't been overturned yet.

[@demonvictim]

The easy way to solve it is to just make parking tickets a flat 20 dollars and just not enforce the parking meters as much. The 20 goes to the city and it's so low no one will care if they parked over 20 hours for free.

[@stevenneiman1554]

@@demonvictim Pretty sure that would run into the clause that punishes anything devaluing the meters. That contract was built to stand up to anything except overturning.

[@GasMasquerade]

It's almost like privatization is bad...

[@toolbaggers]

You have to be retarded to privatize ANYTHING. Never forget, a corporation's only purpose is to make PROFIT!! Any politician that says otherwise is CORRUPT/INCOMPETENT and needs to be put in prison.

[@tanmaydadhania1596]

Might be the stupid statement I have read today

[@jerry3790]

It depends on the industry

[@TheWolfXCIX]

This isn't even privatisation, it's just a loan with terrible terms. The company aren't actually providing any kind of service.

[@sabikikasuko6636]

Privatization tends to be bad, but this one was bad for completely different reasons. Namely, that the terms of the privatization were so in favor of the private company that it basically gets to strangle Chicago dry.

[@quillmaurer6563]

Colorado did a similar thing with allowing a private (foreign if I remember right) company to build toll express lanes along all the freeways and collect toll fees for decades. As well as being binding for such a long time, the state would owe them for anything that reduces their revenue - not just things that directly interfere with the toll lanes, but anything that would make less demand for them like expanding free lanes or improved public transit. Decisions like that are so short-sighted, as not only is it a long term loss for short term gain, it also is extremely limiting of what might be done in the future that might not be foreseeable.

[@jarlaxle3588]

I always thought parking meters were just a thing in the movies until a couple years ago when I moved from my hometown to the big city (not Chicago....the big city in my state) and seem them in real life. Thankfully (at least in the city I moved to) they aren't very common, but they do exist here and there

[@Jigamanx2]

Somehow, seeing Chicagostan’s track record of who they elect I am completely unsurprised….

[@dwarftoad]

Hey Chicago, build a couple of peripheral parking garages next to transit stops and raise those meter prices to $20/hr or whatever.

[@patrickmccormack3209]

Nothing Chicago does can escape the debt or deal. If they city does things to lower the value of the contract, they pay the lost amount. If inflation causes costs to go up, the city must match or exceed the value of inflation. It is, without a doubt, one of the stupidest and most devious contracts I've ever seen. And considering the delinquent and corrupt circumstances the contract was made in, it should honestly be voided.

[@jordan_gold]

Seriously, this would be a perfect solution. We can still remove parking from the street while pacifying this stupid deal. It's not the end of the world.

[@demonvictim]

​@@jordan_goldor just not enforce parking meters instead just make fines for a parking ticket 20 dollars and don't go crazy.

[@Teampegleg]

@@demonvictim They would argue for true up payments in that case. Building a garage would kill the parking monopoly while still allowing the street parking contract to continue.

[@lsdzheeusi]

Come on, HAI, state the obvious: the only way this deal passed was corruption. Contracts made under duress or corruption are invalid, tear it up.

[@amosbackstrom5366]

Chicago clearly in need of the Trailer Park Boys to put an end to this racket

[@eggsngritstn]

What a surprise Richard Daley would have given a sweetheart deal to a big company. /sarcasm

[@f_pie]

Imagine working issuing parking tickets in Chicago lol

[@shahab_78]

That meter to feet conversion was a funny dad joke type. 😁

[@philrabe910]

I left Chi-town the summer after the coldest then on record, Winter. One of those "they lit the tracks on fire so the switches would work" cold winters. Parking SUCKED even then in 1986.

[@walterbzy]

Why not break the contract with CPM. A contract is meant to be broken.

[@qlum]

Probably already covered in the deal but wouldn't it be possible to create a parking meter tax to compensate / put the screws on this practice?

[@ghost307]

I'd be willing to bet that under the contract the city would have to reimburse the parking meter company for whatever taxes get levied.

[@winnengel6774]

that would just make the meters more expensive

[@qlum]

not when the price of parking is fixed and just indexed with inflation.

[@winnengel6774]

@@qlumthe price isnt fixed though, did you watch the video?

[@raney150]

What might be interesting is talking about the Lyft bikeshare deals. Chicago was actually smarter on this one in that Divvy is owned by the city and operated by lyft on a 9 year plan. Lyft owns citibike in NYC though.

[@fashionfruit99]

similar to ontario canada 407 deal.....sold 50% of the toll highway to a company from spain

[@IamBojan]

Really glad elected officials take their job seriously and don't read a single thing put on their desk!

[@williamweigt7632]

About Aldermen not reading the contract: It IS very hard to read a contract when a paper bag of $ is just sitting on it.

[@jameslacey7374]

Go Ben and Adam!

[@turtlesarecool]

#Teamben

[@nouon4220]

Berlin did something somewhat similar, they gave one company the right to place ads all over the city and in exchange the company had to provide public toilets . . .

[@moshdee456]

I love the urbanist nod in the first 6 seconds 😊

[@shuriken2505]

Goddamn CPM has a chokehole on chicago

[@ghost307]

And Chicago brought the rope and put it around their own neck.

[@catatonicbug7522]

I think HAI owes my dog apology money because you said the word "treat" in this video, causing him to bolt upright while chewing on his toy under the coffee table, forcing him to hit his head.

[@zionnekingo2503]

Love you man

[@ZOOTSUITBEATNICK1]

imo It wasn't a mistake. It was a con job benefitting the already-rich at the expense of everybody else. imo

[@turtlesarecool]

I know this man did not suggest Chicago was part of the midwest😂😂😂

[@toolbaggers]

It is

[@TonyYarusso]

That’s well-established…where do you think Chicago is?

[@BatCaveOz]

You may have slept though geography classes in elementary school.

[@turtlesarecool]

Y'all don't understand. It's in the Midwest area, but no one considers it part of the midwest. Like how Atlanta is in the border of Georgia, but it isn't Georgia.

[@TonyYarusso]

We understand that you’re spouting nonsense…

[@greensteve9307]

Clearest case of "Laughing all the way to the bank" that I've ever seen.

[@adipy8912]

You and RealLifeLore are my favorite channels about politic

[@CaptainMarvelsSon]

I've been over Chicago once in a flight. The next flight I took flew _around_ it, purposely avoiding it 🤣 (It was a weather issue of some sort, but still...)

[@gladitsnotme]

Funny where

[@SleepyGary69]

Lol Chicago can’t stop crapping the bed

[@boarbot7829]

The price of coffee in your sponsorship segments is going up and up!!

[@NN-lx4mb]

Never underestimate the stupidity and level of corruption with politicians.

[@meximelon5074]

You forgot another mistake they made, they charged me $60 for parking 3 hours

[@fastfiddler1625]

I work out of Chicago, and I thank all that is sacred that I do not live in Chicago or Illinois. I once worked with a guy who was telling me about how they can randomly do facade inspections without any minimum interval and YOU have to pay for them. And even outside of downtown, in neighborhoods, you can't park on streets without a permit that you can't get if you don't live there. The whole place is a corrupt cesspool.

[@beejls]

I'm 65. Lived and worked in Chicago my entire life. The point with the neighborhood permits is to allow the people who live in the neighborhood to be able to find parking in congested neighborhoods. In other words, it's not in neighborhoods that aren't congested and/or tourist spots. Take a lift or the bus.

[@TakeWalker]

never thought I'd see a Malort reference on this channel :D

[@SetsuneW]

Good dishwashing tip.

[@huskiefan06]

Here’s an idea: don’t have a car in Chicago. You won’t need one since you have the CTA (trains and busses), ride share, and Divvy and Lime bike rentals.

[@BatCaveOz]

If you don't like private ownership, you should consider moving to a Socialist country. Hint - You won't because they are all places that you wouldn't want to live.

[@Jehty21]

But the video stated that this "deal" negatively impacts everyone. Even if you don't own a car. So your idea doesn't help.

[@zacharyabelson8196]

For more info on this and other dramatic parking sagas read Paved Paradise: How Parking Shapes our World by Henry Grabar. Sounds boring actually isn't

[@multoc]

Can always tell when Sam is phoning in an episode when he’s recording his narration from the middle of his apartment

[@mon6745]

Tired: food from a brick and mortar grocery store Wired: food shipped to Sam from a warehouse

[@tunedskillsz]

So, the city already paid them back almost 10% for "construction closure", and they still have like 60 years to go? Meaning the city will eventually pay them back their original investment just in road closures. Its a democrat city right?...

[@j100j]

Corruption does not see party lines.

[@EdBball99]

Wow, government (in particular corrupt Chicago politicians) is terrible at making business deals.. who would've thought!

[@Pantsinabucket]

Terrible at making business deals, or really good at getting kickbacks and bribes from deals that are intentionally amazing for private investors?

[@ArrivalStudios]

Thank you for covering this classic Chicago blunder 🙃

[@donm5354]

0:49 - 2083?? DamnIt!!! Now I HAVE TO CHANGE MY ATM PIN NUMBER !!!

[@British_Rogue]

It's stuff like this that makes me wonder why Americans still so fervently believe in Capitalism.

[@jasonz8635]

Every system has it weaknesses. Capitalism is no exception nor is any other system. In fact we have moved away from capitalism to more moderate economic system. Only (at least most of them) people who are pushing for more capitalism (ie more free market) are basically corporate shills who sold their soul for money...

[@kmcc488]

Propaganda!

[@qwertyca]

This is not capitalism though. This is government being dumb and possibly corrupt.

[@BatCaveOz]

The fact that every single Socialist country in history became a shithole makes me wonder why people still think Socialism is a good idea.

[@Jehty21]

Because communism bad!!1!1!!! And as we all know there is only capitalism and communism.

[@iSluff]

Why would you put mistake in the title when it wasn't a mistake but blatant extreme corruption. Not gonna watch this one if you're gonna be that misleading.

[@swag9085]

ok

[@TheRmbomo]

Maybe you could say all corruption stems from someone's mistake of letting it in. It's indirect.

[@AS-oz6ep]

Where does parking ticket revenue go? Is there anything that would prevent the city from either not issuing parking tickets for failing to pay the meter, or not collecting the fines from the tickets they do issue for this purpose?

[@Smauritsius]

Lol I love how many "filler" blocks sponsorblock skips

[@route2070]

Probably also worth mentioning, same mayor who closed Meigs Field (from another video).