-By Warner Todd Huston
Tuesday, Mayor “King” Daley apologized for the mess he and his buddies made of the sale of Chicago’s parking meters to a private company.
As the Chicago Sun-Times reports:
“I’ll be the first to admit that we totally screwed up the way it was implemented. I want us to do better — and we will,” Daley plans to tell the crowd at the South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. Shore Dr., according to a copy of his speech obtained by the Sun-Times.
No issue in recent memory — not even the Hired Truck scandal or Daley’s notorious midnight destruction of Meigs Field — has resonated more with voters than the 75-year, $1.15 billion parking meter lease tied to a steep schedule of rate hikes.
An apology is pretty meaningless when Daley is already walking around with the cash merrily jingling in his pocket and no real changes are being offered. After all, even as he was to “apologize” Daley planned to go on to say that the whole episode was still the best of ideas.
So, it’s really just more empty words from Mayor Daley.
For those of you interested in the anti-citizen mess that is Chicago’s parking laws, a visit to theexpiredmeter.com is always a great idea. The “Parking Meter Geek” on theexpiredmeter.com has all sorts of great hints and scary horror stories about the infuriating experience that is parking in Chicago.
Here allow me to pass on a story that I heard on the radio not long ago just to show what sort of racket parking in Chicago really is.
A radio host recounted the story of one of his friends that owned a van that needed a repair. It was a small repair for a vehicle that was otherwise completely serviceable. Well, because the van sat in the same place without moving for a few days the city decided it had the right to tow the vehicle from a legal parking space.
When the owner went to the impound lot to retrieve the vehicle it was discovered totally trashed. Windows broken, tires flattened, a complete mess. Naturally the towing company and impound lot claimed they had no liability.
So, not only did the city make hundreds of dollars on the illicit towing, but the owner had to pay another $160 to have it towed out of the impound lot and had to pay thousands to rebuild the thing.
Now that is what citizens of Chicago face on a daily basis. This city is not a city that cares for its citizens.
(Cross posted at RedCounty.com.)
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as NewsBusters.org, RightWingNews.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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