What I don't understand: If the city really needed short-term money, why couldn't they take out a loan against the parking-meter-system? It's extremely low-risk and in the long run the city could have keept it. This has to be corruption, doesn't it?
Daley didn't raise their taxes. The meters didn't skyrocket in price under his tenure. People rarely look for causes to things. Ah, so he didn't fund pensions so now my taxes are going up? No, it's the newer mayors who are the ones raising my taxes!
Yes, if you look at the situation, he might have caused those problems, but during his tenure people probably felt better. They had more money in their pocket and weren't being told bad news.
Why can't things be like they used to be? Well, turns out it was never sustainable for things to be like that and when you mortgage your future the bill eventually comes due.
Nobody could honestly think a $1B windfall appearing from nowhere was worth signing without significant review. Every person involved understood the significance of the deal.
Chicago is pretty famous for corruption.
That might be an understatement of all time winner, I opine, as someone originally from there.