IGNORING CHICAGO, TORONTO HAS A BIG, STUPID IDEA
IGNORING CHICAGO, TORONTO HAS A BIG, STUPID IDEA By Joyce Nelson, counterpunch.org, March 8, 2017 Last weekend, the good folks of Toronto, Ontario learned that their elected officials at City Hall are considering selling off the Toronto Parking Authority – which operates dozens of municipal parking lots as well as on-street parking.1 It’s a big, stupid idea that indicates our “city fathers” apparently don’t read, but also that they can’t see through the latest scam being sold by some corporate lobbyist. It’s as though the Innocents in Toronto City Hall have never heard of the parking meter scandal that ate Chicago and has become an unmitigated disaster – even though more press has likely been given to that fiasco than to any other public-private partnership (P3) undertaken in recent US history. To recap: in 2008, Chicago’s then-Mayor Richard Daley convinced city aldermen to approve a 75-year lease by which the … Continue reading →