How to Lessen the Pain of Chicago's Parking Meter Deal: A Proposal by iMove Chicago

Okay....we all hate to pay those darn parking boxes and it seem that no one was happy with the City of Chicago's deal to lease out parking in the city for the next 75 years! Complaints to our politicians are answered with "Well, it's a done deal, whatcha gonna do?" Really?  Try thinking outside of the bx and let's come up with some solutions.

Here at iMove, we put our heads together and came up with an idea. Now, mind you, it doesn't solve the problem completely, but it's a start. Here's our idea - the City can issue prepaid cards that Merchants can sell at a discount in exchange for advertising. Imagine if you will, a prepaid card with a $20 value issued for say $15 or $12 by Ford, Chase Bank, BP, Dominick's etc. Participants buy the cards only at sponsoring merchants.  That drives customers in the door and allows the merchants to brand the card with their advertising. In exchange, we all get a break on the cost of parking.  An added plus of any such card is that we would be fishing around for a lot less quarters to feed those boxes!

If you like this idea, pass it on.  If you have an idea of you own, let us know and we will do the same.