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Daley Wed Aug 19 2009

Countdown to 2011...

Mayor Daley's house of cards continues to collapse. Leadership with a little vision could accelerate that decline by mounting serious opposition now.

This is a bigger deal than just popcorn headlines. This is keeping something in the news and in people's minds, and assaulting the Mayor's reputation as the "CEO Mayor" who "gets things done".

CHICAGO - The Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization and board member Aviva Patt filed suit in Cook County Court Wednesday in an attempt to overturn the city's privatization of parking meters.

The suit, docket # 09CH28993, asks the court to declare the contract between the city and Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, illegal and void. The deal between the city and CPM violates state law because: the city did not have authority to lease city streets; the city cannot delegate police functions (parking enforcement) to a private company; the city cannot, through the 75-year lease, deprive future City Councils from the chance to exercise control over city streets; and the city cannot ask the Illinois Secretary of State to suspend driving privileges for violations at privately-held meters.

Good Luck / August 20, 2009 8:58 AM

Give 'em hell Aviva.

It'd be nice to see a return to the rule of law rather than the rule of men.

R.A. Stewart / August 24, 2009 1:06 PM

The problem is, there is no credible opposition in sight. One of the things that the Mayor has undeniably done brilliantly well is suppress the development of political leadership in Chicago. As far as I can see, Da Maemperore hasn't even cultivated a loyal successor. The racial and class divisions of the city also work in his favor; I can think of people in the city who might muster support for a challenge among white North Siders, for example, or African-Americans on the South and West Sides, but nobody who seems capable of mobilizing the kind of citywide groundswell that Harold Washington was able to command, back in the halcyon days before the Restoration.

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