Infrastructure for Sale: How Privatization Turns Parking, Water, and Power into Profit Streams
Part II of a continuing look at what we lose when the commons are sold for profit
What “the Commons” Means
The term commons goes back centuries. Originally, it referred to shared village land — meadows, forests, or grazing areas that everyone could use and care for together. Over time, the idea grew broader.
Today, the commons means everything we hold in common:
Natural commons: air, water, land, climate, wildlife.
Social commons: schools, parks, libraries, roads, public transit, healthcare, and public broadcasting.
Cultural and digital commons: language, knowledge, art, scientific research, and even the internet when it’s open and accessible.
When something from the commons is privatized — a toll road, a water system, or a public school — it’s no longer managed primarily for public benefit. It becomes a commodity. And each time that happens, the space for collective life gets a little smaller.
This series looks at what happens when the commons are sold — piece by piece — and what it costs us to buy them back.
The Promise and the Price
Across the country, cities and states have been told that privatization is a smart fix: sell or lease your infrastructure, close your budget gap, and let private investors handle the maintenance. The promise is always the same — efficiency, modernization, relief. But over time, those promises collapse into higher fees, less transparency, and a quiet loss of public control.
The roads, water systems, and parking meters we built together are becoming profit streams for investors, many of whom live far from the communities affected. The result isn’t innovation — it’s dependency.
Chicago: The $1 Billion Mistake That Lasts 75 Years
In 2008, Chicago signed a 75-year lease with a private consortium for its parking meters, receiving about $1.15 billion upfront. The city used the money to plug short-term budget holes, but the cost of that decision will stretch for generations.
The new owners immediately raised rates, extended meter hours, and began charging the city every time a meter was removed for a parade, street fair, or repair. Chicago lost control of one of its most visible public assets, and residents pay the price every day.
The city essentially sold 75 years of public revenue for a quick infusion of cash — a deal the Chicago Tribune later called “one of the worst privatization deals in U.S. history.”
Ann Arbor: When Downtown Stops Belonging to the Locals
Ann Arbor’s parking system followed a quieter but equally revealing path. Management of downtown parking was gradually handed to private companies and, later, to the city’s Downtown Development Authority. Parking became a revenue source instead of a public convenience, and over time, rates climbed while accessibility declined.
But the parking shift was just the beginning. As costs rose, so did commercial rents. Out-of-town developers bought up downtown buildings, driving out the bookstores, local shops, and family-run businesses that once defined the city’s character. Restaurants and bars filled the void, and what had been a lively, walkable hub for residents turned into an entertainment district catering to visitors.
Privatization didn’t just change the cost of parking — it changed the meaning of “downtown.” What used to feel like a shared space now feels transactional, a place you go to spend, not to belong.
Flint: When Cost-Cutting Became Catastrophic
In 2014, state-appointed emergency managers switched Flint’s water supply from Detroit’s treated Lake Huron system to the polluted Flint River to save money. The decision was made without consulting residents or properly treating the new water source.
Within months, families noticed the brown water and metallic taste. The corrosive water leached lead from aging pipes, poisoning thousands of residents — especially children. Officials ignored warnings, manipulated data, and dismissed residents’ fears.
Flint’s crisis was not simply a failure of management; it was the logical end of an ideology that treats public services as line items instead of lifelines. When cost control replaces accountability, disaster becomes inevitable.
Benton Harbor: The Cost of Neglect
Just a few hours from Flint, Benton Harbor faced its own water emergency. Lead levels in some homes were hundreds of times higher than the federal limit, the result of decades of disinvestment and deferred maintenance. Although the system wasn’t privatized outright, the mindset was similar — treating public infrastructure as a budget problem instead of a public trust.
Emergency managers and cost-cutting measures replaced local oversight, leaving residents without a voice as their pipes corroded and their confidence in government eroded. The city has since replaced all its lead service lines and restored safe water, but only after years of fear and hardship.
Benton Harbor shows that neglect can be just as destructive as privatization — both grow from the same belief that the commons can be managed for profit rather than for people.
Selling the Sky — Air Rights as the New Commons
Even the air above our heads can be bought and sold.
Air rights are the legal authority to use or control the space above a piece of land or a building — and in many cities they’re treated like real estate. Developers buy the air rights over low-rise buildings to construct taller towers; transit agencies lease the air above rail lines for office complexes; airports sell air-space restrictions to manage flight paths.
On paper, these deals look efficient. In practice, they show how far privatization can reach: the invisible space once shared by everyone can become another market, another ledger line. The sky itself becomes part of the balance sheet.
The Pattern — What Communities Lose
Whether it’s a highway, a parking meter, or a water system, the pattern is the same:
Short-term gain, long-term loss. The money arrives quickly, but the control — and accountability — vanish.
Rising costs for residents. What used to be a public service becomes a bill.
Erosion of trust. When local voices are excluded, people lose faith not just in government, but in one another.
Privatization promises relief, but it leaves communities paying more for less — while outsiders profit from assets built by generations of taxpayers.
What You Can Do
Demand transparency. Privatization contracts should be public and debated before approval.
Protect essential services. Support local ordinances that keep water, transit, and power under public control.
Ask the long-term question. What happens in 10, 20, or 50 years — and who benefits then?
Support reinvestment. Advocate for public funding that repairs and modernizes instead of sells off.
Closing Reflection
Infrastructure is more than concrete and pipes — it’s a physical expression of trust. It’s what holds a community together, from the roads we share to the water we drink. Selling those systems may solve a temporary budget crisis, but it unravels something far deeper: the shared responsibility that defines a functioning democracy.
The next time a city or state is offered a quick payout to “unlock value” from public assets, the question shouldn’t be how much money will we make? It should be what will we lose?
References
In the Public Interest (Apr 2019) — “The Perils of Parking Privatization.”
Chicago Tribune (2025)— “City’s $1.15 Billion Parking Meter Lease Still Haunts Chicago.” Paywall
Metropolitan Planning Council (Chicago) — “Innovative Infrastructure Delivery: Chicago Parking Meter Analysis.”
Ann Arbor Chronicle (Nov 2010) — “Impact of DDA–City Parking Deal.”
FiveThirtyEight.com (2016) — “What Went Wrong in Flint.”
Michigan Advance (Oct 2021) — “In Benton Harbor’s Water Crisis, a Long History of Systemic Racism and a Chance for Justice.”
The American Prospect (2021) — “Benton Harbor Is Not Flint — It’s Worse.”
Michigan.gov — “Benton Harbor Community Response: MI Lead Safe Initiative.”
About This Post
Infrastructure for Sale is Part II in an ongoing series exploring what happens when essential public goods are handed to private interests.
Part I examined how privatization has drained public education — from outsourcing to vouchers— from outsourcing to vouchers.
This second installment looks at the infrastructure that holds communities together: parking, water, and the physical commons.
Coming next: “Built to Last — or to Lease? Roads, Bridges, and the Price of Progress.”