The Real Chicago Way

Source: Thomas Frank, Wall Street Journal, DECEMBER 9, 2009

..... Consider one of the actual news stories to emerge from Chicago of late: The city's decision to privatize its parking meters. Thanks to a deal finalized in 2008, Chicago's parking meters will be operated for the next 75 years by a group of investors put together by Morgan Stanley, including the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi.

..... The details of the parking meter deal, for example, were negotiated by the Daley administration with almost no public scrutiny. When it came time to approve the billion-dollar arrangement, the city council got exactly two days. It was a farce. According to a report issued by Chicago's inspector general, "No financial analysis was provided of the value of the parking-meter system to the City if it retained the system, since no such analysis had been done. . . . There was no public comment; no testimony from critics or experts; no presentation of recent studies" on privatization elsewhere.