Mayor Daley Not So Sure About Privatizing Midway After All

By Kevin Robinson in News on Jan 7, 2010 4:40PM

Just a day after John Schmidt, the city's outside attorney that handles privatization matters indicated that Mayor Daley was anxious to get on with the 99 year lease of Midway Airport, the mayor is indicating that he's not actually in that big of a hurry after all. "It's a long way off. … You have to make sure the market is there," Daley told CBS2 Chicago. The mayor seems to be gun shy of the deal now, after a similar deal in England netted less than was expected. "Gatwick Airport, a small airport in London — instead of going for $1.5 billion, it went for $1.1 billion or $1.2 [billion]. It was down in value. So, that was not a good sign at all. That was just in the last six months."

Daley's feigned reticence doesn't mean that the deal is off the table, though. "Cities have done this all over the world. This is a very progressive legislation. You have to understand that. It's very progressive," he told ABC7. Because calling the lease of a city asset to a bank and life insurance company "progressive" makes it a good idea.