Another Revenue Shortfall
Just last year, the Park District touted the opening of the 31st Street Harbor:
- Chicago’s newest harbor officially opens Thursday [08 June 2012] at 31st Street and the lakefront — weeks after boats started docking there and kids and parents began enjoying a sparkling new playground that’s part of the $100 million project.
The new harbor has 1,000 slips to dock boats, and a new single-story building houses a 222-space covered parking garage. Boaters get first dibs on those spots, as well as spots at an adjacent lot on the harbor, with the cost covered in the slip fee.
This year? Well we just heard WBBM Newsradio 780 report that 25% of the boat slips in Chicago Park District harbors remain unsold at this time. The linked report isn't up yet.
Crain's Chicago Business recognized the coming glut of harbor space almost two years ago and called out city officials on it:
Crain's Chicago Business recognized the coming glut of harbor space almost two years ago and called out city officials on it:
- For the first time in recent memory, the long waiting list for a coveted boat slip in a Chicago harbor has all but evaporated—good news for boaters who usually wait years for a prime slip, but bad news for the Chicago Park District, which is counting on a flotilla of pleasure craft to help fill its 10th marina, a $110-million harbor under construction at 31st Street.
The recession, combined with new slots at other marinas, helped drain the wait list. The sluggish economy is exacting an especially heavy toll on Chicago boating, with the city now scuttling plans to open an 11th harbor after the new, 1,005-slip 31st Street Marina opens next season. The additional capacity coming online when demand has sharply fallen raises questions about whether the cash-strapped city overextended itself in planning new slips.
But don't worry. The Park District will jack up the fees on existing boaters, more boats will flee to cheaper suburban harbors and the circle will continue until Chicago taxpayers will get stuck with the bill once again.
Labels: money questions
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
32 Comments:
so bad! cause if it was cheaper i'd have a boat out there . but it costs $100 per foot , plus additional fees, storage etc brings an average guy to $6,000 per season. which is a 3 month usable deal, and 3 so-so months. that's $1,000 a month, it should be half that price or less...
The 2 best days of a boaters life:
The day you buy it,and the day you sell it.
The Marina was built with the Olympics in mind. Parking is not designated specifically for the paid Boaters..rather, its on a first-come, first-serve basis which means Non-Boaters can drive up, park and pay the fee each time. Boater Fees are costly, more so at 31st than at some of the other Chicago Harbors. Go figure.
As someone once said:
"Boating as a hobby is like throwing money down the drain." -- "But on the other hand, Sail Boating is like taking a cold shower while throwing $100 Dollars Bills down the drain."
the criminals who run, and have run this city into the ground, can always find money for their little pet projects...but can't pay their bills or fund the policemen's pension...the plans for this harbormay have been done before the economic downturn, but the constructin and cost could've been stopped as those happened after...is anyone really surprised?
I smell a 75 year lease coming. ......
Launch at 115th and Cicero in Worth. Take your boat to either the Cal Sag or Chicago River, both lead to Lake Michigan. $7.00 launch and parking fee (all day). F*ck the City before they F*ck you!
If it flies, floats or female, its cheaper to rent.
They will never get it.
If your dumb enough to own a boat in this city for 3 months of use a year, you deserve to pay,pay,pay. Just like the parking meters.
Maybe the Governor can bail out the boaters too.
He pledged 300K to Roseland Hospital to keep the "FREE" hospital open to "da' peoples."
Check out this site: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=9128779
An 'average' gunshot victim is around 500K.
300K would only treat one case of da' beatis (diabetes) and have a few bucks left over for an acute case of da' vapors (?)within the first hour of operation.
We all know who pays for the rest of the day and the rest of da' peoples.
WBBM may be reporting a 25% vacancy rate, but I think that is system-wide. Unfortunately, I think 31st Street is about 70% vacant, which is too bad because it is a very nice harbor. However, it is new and I do think things will improve over time.
The decision to build it at the time was fairly well based. Chgo had a waiting list and a new 31st Street harbor would have a big competitive advantage over lets say Hammond or Waukegan.
But the decision was ill-fated, much like real estate developers who started a high-rise at the peak of the boom only to see the market in the tank 2 years later when the building was completed.
LIke I said, I think things will get better over time. They are currently even waiving the non-resident surcharge if you don't live in the city.
Not a LEO, just a lawyer. And a Diversey boater as well :)
Sailing is like sitting in front of a fan in the rain tearing up $100 bills.
They can always sink more money into that harbor and call it the Maggie Daley Memorial Harbor. That ought to attract the customers, another multi million dollar horseshit park in memory of some insignificant dead Daley.
"more boats will flee to cheaper suburban harbors"
Unfortunately for the boats, there is no such thing. There are few harbors in the suburbs and they're not cheap.
Going north, Wilmette has a very small one at the north end of the north shore channel, then there's nothing until Waukegan (though some homeowners have docks)
Going south, there's one in Hammond by the casino and then not another one until Michigan City.
Michigan City harbor kicks ASS!
"so bad! cause if it was cheaper i'd have a boat out there . but it costs $100 per foot , plus additional fees, storage etc brings an average guy to $6,000 per season. which is a 3 month usable deal, and 3 so-so months. that's $1,000 a month, it should be half that price or less..."
Hey, this is the free market at work that your kind always says they want. So now you're crying that you have to pay what the market demands? Pathetic.
Like taxes, if you lower them, people(investment)will come. Instead, the new American way is to raise taxes, add regulation, and force investment off shore. Is any of this starting to click for all of you central planning morons?!?
That goes for repubs as well as dummies, they're both the same.
The marinas are privately-managed.
Who owns this company & did they get the contract "The Chicago Way"?
http://www.westrec.com/illinois.html
Who would want to leave their money pit, uh, I mean boat, unattended at 31st street?!?! Drive through the lot after 3pm and tell me you'd leave ANYTHING unattended anywhere near there!
And that sparkling new playground, like the ones all around the west side sure are nice. A lot nicer than the outdated, broken play pieces around the 016th.
I work in 002 on the bike, lake front detail. About 25% of the slips are in fact being used as of yesterday.
I hear Obama is going to start giving out boats and the slip fees will be subsidized by the government, so it will all work out.
as we all know a boat is a"hole in the water you throw money into"
at diversey for me and a 25 being a "non-resident" i would pay upwards of 3370 to keep one there, this includes the nasty non-resident fee of 600.00 plus taxes and we still haven't included chicago fuel prices. waukegan would be about 2000 at the north pier and 535 at the south pier
all jacking prices will do is drive owners to the north or to the south to dock and when they leave they take the all the little "incidental spending " with them
aybe Richy Daley's law firm can lease all the harbors to the government of Tonga in the Pacific for 500 years and then they can tell us what a great deal it is.
Chicago -- The New Potemkin village.
via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village
The phrase Potemkin villages (an alternative spelling is Potyomkin villages, derived from the Russian: Потёмкинские деревни, Potyomkinskiye derevni) was originally used to describe a fake village, built only to impress. The phrase is now used, typically in politics and economics, to describe any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that some situation is better than it really is. It is unclear whether the origin of the phrase is factual, an exaggeration, or a myth.
According to the story, Russian minister Grigory Potemkin who led the Crimean military campaign erected fake settlements along the banks of the Dnieper River in order to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787.
=====================================
Meanwhile...
Chuck Goudie
[...]..The Speaker of the Illinois House can be removed from the milk cartons. Michael Madigan has been found, and not in Wisconsin or La Jolla, California or Palm Springs as some had speculated.
Speaker Madigan- considered the lynchpin of the general assembly- was found right on the Southwest Side where he lives, despite his best efforts to avoid the ABC7 I-Team.
American flags, bright flowers and perfectly manicured greenery surround the Madigan home here on the Southwest Side.
This afternoon, speaker Madigan and his wife drove up in separate cars- the speaker surfacing for the first time since last weekend when the general assembly recessed for summer vacation without solving the state's financial crisis.
When he pulled up in front of his house to pick up his wife, ABC7's Chuck Goudie wanted to ask Mr. Madigan about the Illinois pension debacle and other unfinished legislative business. Mr. Madigan declined and left briskly, even leaving his wife behind in the garage...
* ** **
[...]...Governor Quinn knows this feeling. He invited Madigan to a pension brainstorm session on Tuesday but Madigan never showed.
"I left a message with his staff, top assistant. I left a message on his wife's cell phone. I'm going to be talking, hopefully very soon, to Mike Madigan, but he's not the only leader," said Gov. Pat Quinn.
Speaker Madigan retreated a few blocks to his precinct office. When we arrived here, staffers refused to answer the door, even though they could be seen scurrying behind glass and heard on the phone asking for direction.
During the two hours we were in the hallway, constituents showed looking for help and they got the same treatment. No one let them in. A pregnant woman and her son rang the bell for a half hour and the youngster banged on the glass. But they were all ignored by Mr. Madigan and his staff who were inside.
One staffer left with his head covered, another was deployed to the parking lot and could be heard signaling that "the coast is clear."
Speaker of the House Michael Madigan came down the rear stairs to a waiting car that kicked up a little gravel and he left.
Mr. Madigan left his car in the parking lot; he was driven away by a staff member who was actually seen with a cell phone.
Madigan does not carry a cell phone according to his spokesman, but has been known to borrow one....
Hey, maybe they should get some of those #NOTALKING tee shirts from Englewood, yeah?
read the whole thing >> http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=9130032
I have not been to the area around 31st and the Lake for years. But, as I remember it, it was not always a safe place to be .
within the first hour of operation.
We all know who pays for the rest of the day and the rest of da' peoples.
6/06/2013 08:29:00 AM
Actually you have false information. The vast majority of people being treated at Roseland ( 136 beds), are people on medicare or Medicaid. Of course, tax money pays for Medicaid ( women with children).
The Launch ramp is at 115th and Harlem, not Cicero, very nice ramp indeed, and no one breaks into your car while your gone.
There is a new ramp going in on Rockwell across from the Devry Campus, however at the rate construction is going, it may never be completed.
A classic city run project.
the city of chicago came after me this winter and made me remove my boat from my yard and said I cant keep a boat in the city THIS IS CRAZY i LIVE ON THE BIGEST LAKE IN THE USA AND I CAN NOT OWN A BOAT IN CHICAGO THIS CITY IS ANTI BOAT AND FISHERMAN !!!!!!!!!!!!
moved it to waukegan
<'))))))))><
chicago zoneing inspecter made me remove fishing boat from yard so in his name I will be filling zoning complaints against anyone with a boat camper or vintage car in there yard in one hour in 16th i found 20 violations of the same law and law has to be enforced fairly or discrimination lawsuit,zoning inspecter is corrupt just like Kurt Burger a fellon and former building inspecter
Sailing is like sitting in front of a fan in the rain tearing up $100 bills
Very funny comment. I literally just got done wiping off the coffee I just spit all over the keyboard and monitor.
On owning a boat: Better to know a guy who has one than to own one yourself.
On being a boss: Better to know the boss than to be the boss.
Anonymous said...
The marinas are privately-managed.
Who owns this company & did they get the contract "The Chicago Way"?
http://www.westrec.com/illinois.html
6/06/2013 10:42:00 AM
It was fair competitive bid, what do you think? It is a subsidiary of the Vanecko, Daley and Conroy City of Chicago Resource Management, Scam and Shylock Corporation.
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