-By Warner Todd Huston
When Mayor Richard “King” Daley got himself a one billion dollar infusion of cash by selling the parking meters in the city (yes, I said one BILLION) everyone thought it was such a great deal. Gery Chico tells us that all this money is nearly gone and spent already. He wants city hall to be more transparent and if he becomes mayor that’s what he says he’ll do.
From the Chico Press release:
“Sunshine Chicago” would help create a new culture in City Hall by using the city’s existing data site as a foundation to establish a central clearinghouse that pulls data from all City of Chicago departments to make it easily accessible. Currently, the City’s existing site only provides data from FOIA requests and does not include responses.
“For far too long, government has not effectively kept people informed about how the city spends its money and the way we make important decisions,” Chico said. “Two years ago, our city leased our parking meters for more than $1 billion and today, we have only $76 million left. Many Chicagoans want to know – where did all that money go? With this initiative, citizens won’t have to ask.”
By opening up more data to the public, Chico’s initiative would make it easier for web developers, entrepreneurs and citizens to create innovative tools that improve transparency and access at no additional cost to the city. Using a data repository the City of Chicago already owns, Sunshine Chicago would engage citizens and make City Hall more transparent, accessible and accountable by:
- Improving access to an unprecedented amount of data;
- Empowering citizens to create innovative applications;
- Providing a responsive outlet for citizen ideas and feedback.
The plan is attached. For more information on Sunshine Chicago, please visit www.gerychico.com
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.