Mayor Daley Defends Parking Meter Sale, Fails Basic Math

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Dec 5, 2008 8:20PM

Oh, Mayor Daley, when will you cease to provide us with so much entertainment? If only it didn't enrage us so much. A day after the City Council passed Mayor Daley's proposed sale of parking meters to a private company, the Mayor defended the decision, claiming there are "very few (meters) in the neighborhoods. It's about 80 percent downtown-80, 85 percent downtown in 2 or 3 wards. It's not in the communities." Uh, we don't think that's right. And the Trib confirms our suspicion: "In fact, of the city's 34,264 metered spots, about 8,100 are in the 42nd and 2nd Wards that cover downtown. That's only about one-fourth of them, not the four-fifths Daley claimed." Fail. Still, parking rates will skyrocket whether or not the Mayor can count.