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Paved Paradise with Henry Grabar

The War on Cars

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The Cost of Privatizing Chicago's Parking Meters

In 2008, the recession is bearing down and Mayor Richard Daly in Chicago has been interested in privatizing city assets. So he goes and solicit offers to privatize Chicago's 36,000 parking meters. And for reasons that remain a little opaque, they decide that the term of the lease should be 75 years. Morgan Stanley wins the bidding with a bit of 1.156 billion dollars. The inspector general analyzes the deal and his report comes out the next year. He learns that Chicago leased its parking meters for 75 years for a price that was at least a billion dollars short of their true value.

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