The latest website in the City's Chicagoshovels.org program launched this afternoon. more ›

We don't envy CTA President Forrest Claypool, who is going to have to make some tough decisions when he presents his first draft for next year's budget. more ›

Mayor Daley's whirling dervish-like rush to tie up loose ends before Mayor-elect Emanuel takes office continues. Various media outlets are reporting that the city has signed a 10-year contract with Waste Management to privatize the city's ... well, let's be generous and say "dormant" instead of "practically nonexistent," recycling program. Which means that we will finally see a curbside recycling program in Chicago. And given Daley's history of forcing through privatizing plans like the Skyway and the parking meters, it's going to eventually cost us. more ›

City officials, after repeated affirmations that they wish for annual festivals such as Taste of Chicago, Blues Fest and Jazz Fest, now seem to be warming to the idea of selling naming rights to those and other festivals and, in some cases, even charging admission to the festivals. Losing $7 million on the festivals in a three-year span has a way of making the city revisit its stance. more ›

Flush with pride from the beautiful renovation of the North/Clybourn Red Line Station, thanks in part to a $3.9 million deal with Apple that includes future naming rights, CTA President Richard Rodriguez announced yesterday that the Authority will soon look for other sponsors to buy naming rights for anything CTA owns that has some value and can provide exposure to a sponsor. more ›

Must read of the day: the Sun-Times' three-part series on the tumbleweed that is the city's water meter billing system. Part one, which ran in Friday's edition, focused on the seemingly arbitrary nature of how different sized homes are billed; highlighted the wards with the most and fewest water meters in the city; the clout-heavy politics behind awarding water meter installation contracts;and why many homeowners haven't taken advantage of the city's free offer to install water meters in their homes. Yesterday, reporters Tim Novak and Chris Fusco wrote about how Fred Bruno Barbara, friend of Mayor Daley and relative of the late Alderman/noted Chicago Outfit member Fred Roti, was being underbilled for his water usage in a Chinatown warehouse he owns and how he's now contesting a $31,079 bill the city slapped him with once the Sun-Times started snooping around. Today's conclusion looks at how even aldermen aren't immune to this and how the city's water commissioner, Thomas H. Powers, doesn't even have a water meter for his home. more ›

After Mayor Daley's budget presentation last week, speculation swirled over what city services would be next to get the privatizing treatment. CBS 2 reported over the weekend that lucky city asset to be the city's water system. The station cited an unnamed trade publication as a source but the rumor was confirmed by Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) who told CBS 2, "We've already heard inklings that they're thinking about it...They've had discussions. Why is the public not at the table?" more ›

Chicago's Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold is predicting that the city's budget hole will be worse next year. This is after the city burns through a new $320 million "rainy day fund" created from the parking meter lease. Saffold predicted a deficit of upwards of half a billion dollars next year, citing declining tax revenue and increased wages, compared against a projected budget of $6 billion. (Is this the first time the city has engaged in long-range financial planning? Publicly, at least?) While raising taxes is a last resort, according to Saffold, "nothing is ruled out at this point," Saffold told the Tribune. "The mayor has instructed us not to look at property taxes as we move forward in 2010." more ›

In spite of a possible $300 million budget shortfall, Mayor Daley took a break from practicing Act Two, Scene Two of Julius Caesar to assure Chicagoans that he really, really, really doesn't want to lay off 1,600 city workers. After all, his love of our great city's fine civil servants is well documented. more ›

The Art Institute is learning a hard lesson: you don't screw around with Ald. Ed Burke (14th). Responding to the AIC's recent decision to raise admission prices by 50 percent, Burke, along with Ald. Virginia Rugai (19th), has introduced a measure to the City Council that, according to the Tribune, "would block city fee waivers to any not-for-profit Chicago Museum that charges more than $10 for general admission," including cutting off free water. Said Burke, "They are making it almost impossible for the average Chicago citizen to take his or her family to view these Chicago treasures...At the same time they are paying to subsidize the institution, they are going to be required to pay $18 to go into the institution? That doesn't seem fair." more ›