On the heels of Inspector General David Hoffman's report criticizing the City of Chicago's low-ball valuation in leasing its parking meter system, it's important to remember what we gave up in the deal: not just a billion additional dollars, but also one of the city's "most powerful transportation planning tools," as David Hoyt wrote on Huffington Post Chicago back in January:

San Francisco is pioneering a high-tech pilot program that will let parking meters charge a true market rate, based on hourly variations in demand (from $0.25 to $6) at individual meters in a given neighborhood.

If a parking system actually did that -- letting the true market cost of public curbside parking vary with demand -- then, as parking researcher and guru Donald Shoup [PDF] argues, you would considerably reduce congestion, as well as the frustration of circling for a parking spot at ungodly hours in ungodly conditions. You could then channel the revenue, through neighborhood parking benefit districts, to projects in the district area, or to related public goods such as a modernized transportation system in Chicago.

The latter prospect, however, is entirely lost in the Morgan Stanley privatization deal. What could be a long-term revenue generator for a city in budgetary crisis and with an enormous backlog of deferred public transportation maintenance has been traded for a one-time fix in operating revenue.

And it leaves one of the most powerful of transportation planning tools -- parking policy -- in the hands of a privately held company that specializes in parking garages.

The San Franscisco experiment further undermines the city's argument that it was politically "impossible" for the government itself to raise parking meter rates.  Also, if you're interested in learning more about parking policy, be sure to check out the Shoup report linked to above. Fascinating stuff.