Ald. Ervin proposes 'infrastructure trust' to weigh taking back parking meters
<p>Ignoring fears that Chicago was “buying high after selling low,” Mayor Brandon Johnson’s most powerful City Council ally on Wednesday forged ahead with his 11th-hour plan to create a public infrastructure trust to take back the <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2026/05/18/chicagos-parking-meters-could-be-sold-again-under-deal-requiring-city-council-approval" >city’s parking meters.</a></p><p> Budget Committee Chair Jason Ervin (28th) formally introduced his long-shot ordinance that would create a nine-member public trust to pool pension and city funds and match the $2.5 billion winning bid submitted by Stonepeak Partners, a New York investment firm, for the city's parking meters.</p><p>At the City Council meeting Wednesday, the ordinance was shunted off to the Rules Committee by Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), Ervin’s archrival, in an attempt to slow it down.
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<p>Ignoring fears that Chicago was “buying high after selling low,” Mayor Brandon Johnson’s most powerful City Council ally on Wednesday forged ahead with his 11th-hour plan to create a public infrastructure trust to take back the <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2026/05/18/chicagos-parking-meters-could-be-sold-again-under-deal-requiring-city-council-approval" >city’s parking meters.</a></p><p> Budget Committee Chair Jason Ervin (28th) formally introduced his long-shot ordinance that would create a nine-member public trust to pool pension and city funds and match the $2.5 billion winning bid submitted by Stonepeak Partners, a New York investment firm, for the city's parking meters.</p><p>At the City Council meeting Wednesday, the ordinance was shunted off to the Rules Committee by Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), Ervin’s archrival, in an attempt to slow it down. But Ervin is moving full-speed ahead anyway.</p><p>Ervin, whose wife, City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, sits on the boards of all four city employee pension funds, said financial and pension experts he refused to identify have volunteered to examine the feasibility of acquiring the 57 years that remain on the parking meter deal Chicagoans love to hate.</p><p>Now that a second extended deadline gives the City Council<a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2026/07/16/chicago-parking-meters-ownership-transfer-city-council-approval-deadline-extended" > until Sept. 30</a> to accept of reject Stonepeak’s offer, those unidentified advisers have the time Ervin believes they will need to decide whether it makes sense to take back the parking meters that former Mayor Richard M.
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- <p>Ignoring fears that Chicago was “buying high after selling low,” Mayor Brandon Johnson’s most powerful City Council ally on Wednesday forged ahead with his 11th-hour plan to create a public infrastructure trust to take back the <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2026/05/18/chicagos-parking-meters-could-be-sold-again-under-deal-requiring-city-council-approval" >city’s parking meters.</a></p><p> Budget Committee Chair Jason Ervin (28th) formally introduced his long-shot ordinance that would create a nine-member public trust to pool pension and city funds and match the $2.5 billion winning bid submitted by Stonepeak Partners, a New York investment firm, for the city's parking meters.</p><p>At the City Council meeting Wednesday, the ordinance was shunted off to the Rules Committee by Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), Ervin’s archrival, in an attempt to slow it down.
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Ald. Ervin proposes 'infrastructure trust' to weigh taking back parking meters
Sources1TypeCoverageChicago Sun-Times