Donald Shoup to ouline how Chicago and its suburbs can put parking revenues to better use
(Chicago) … UCLA professor and parking expert Donald
Shoup, author of The High Cost of Free Parking
, will present his radical views on what’s wrong with widespread parking subsidies
to
a Chicago audience on Wednesday, Nov. 2,
noon to 1:30 p.m, at the University Club
of
Chicago, 76 E.
Monroe St., in
downtown
Chicago.
In The High Cost of Free Parking
, Shoup
maintains that “wrong-headed” parking policies are “devastating
U.S.
cities,” while generating possibly the “most costly subsidy American cities
provide to their citizens.” For instance, in 2002, the subsidy for off-street
parking was between $127 and $374 billion – an amount comparable to what the
U.S.
spent on Medicare or national
defense that same year.
Shoup’s ideas clearly
conflict with
Chicago
’s new zoning code. For instance, Shoup
says parking minimums – such as one parking space per 100 ft in a funeral home,
2,500 gallons of water in a public pool, or 10 nuns in a nunnery – continue to
drain resources and drive up housing and business costs instead of improving
streets. He will outline how Chicago-area communities can avoid parking
headaches and reap “terrific benefits,” including billions in revenues, by
eliminating subsidized street parking and allowing the market to play a
role.
What:
Presentation by UCLA professor and a nationwide
authority on parking, Donald Shoup, author of The High Cost of Free
Parking
When:
Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2005
noon
to 1:30 p.m.
Where:
University Club of Chicago
Cathedral Room, 9th Floor
76 E. Monroe St., Chicago, Ill.
All
media are welcome to attend. Please register in advance so we can plan for
lunch. Also, the University Club of Chicago dress code requires business casual
attire. Contact Mandy Burrell at 312-863-6018 or mburrell@metroplanning.org.