Get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
-- Bob Dylan

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Rahm selling off everything that's not nailed down

I don't think so. 
Following the direction set by his predecessor, Mayor Emanuel has put the whole city up for sale. Next up on the auction block, the airports, hospitals, and port. 

Writes Mick Dumke in the Reader:
"We are taking what was an underutilized, run-down port and turning it into an engine of opportunity," Emanuel promised.
These are the times we live in: the city has to sell off pieces of public property so it can invest in them. At least that's the narrative that Emanuel is advancing out of City Hall, like Mayor Daley before him. When they say it over and over it almost makes sense, like it's not paradoxical after all. It certainly sounds a lot better than coming out and saying that the city is for sale.
There's one problem, and it's not so little: Most of the city's long-term privatization deals are put together behind closed doors, with such complicated terms that no one can tell if the public gained or got gamed until long after they're on the books. 

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