Daley Still Looking for Private Company to Run Taste

By Chuck Sudo in News on Feb 8, 2011 7:20PM

Even though the bid to privatize Taste of Chicago and other city festivals by Celebrate Chicago LLC went out with a whimper thanks to the proposal to charge an admission to Chicago's largest display of gluttony, Mayor Daley isn't done looking for a private bidder to run the festival. With a little more than four months before Taste is scheduled to open, that's really cutting things close.

Daley said that the city still wants to outsource the festival's production because it's simply become too expensive to operate it in house:

"The cost of government goes up, you know that," Daley said at the opening of a senior housing development in the Pilsen neighborhood. "Not-for-profits, other institutions, can manage it much better."

Daley still thinks that Taste can be accessible without the Celebrate Chicago plan to charge admission to the festival itself, and a separate admission to a concert area featuring big name acts. Of course, former Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lois Weisberg said that a Taste run by a private company offering a free admission is impossible.

And the saga continues.