“The New York Times’ DealBook blog published an opinion piece this week praising Chicago’s parking meter system without noting that the author of the piece was involved in the actual deal,” Crain’s Chicago Business blog reports:
The New York Times’ DealBook blog published an opinion piece this week praising Chicago’s parking meter system without noting that the author of the piece was involved in the actual deal.
In the piece, Kent Rowey, a lawyer in the energy and infrastructure practice at New York law firm Allen & Overy, writes that “public-private partnerships are the ideal solution for the fiscal problems plaguing many American cities.”
The article, which many Chicago readers will find amusing, enraging, or both, praises Chicago’s much-despised deal privatizing the city’s 36,000 parking meters.
“Chicago entered into a concession for 36,000 parking meters a few years ago through a 75-year contract valued at more than $1 billion. Besides streamlining the costs of running the citywide program, the new concession exposed abuses of handicapped parking permits and led to the passage of a law preventing abuses. Today, the Chicago Metered Parking System is considered one of the world’s best,” Mr. Rowey writes.
Reuters’ Cate Long points out that DealBook does not mention Mr. Rowey’s involvement in the deals he is praising.
“They sure have ethics at the New York Times,” Steve Bartin of the Newsalert blog writes. Or as Mark Tapscott of the Washington Examiner asked, in a headline that inspired a running theme at Instapundit, “What if the Left is just one Potemkin Village after another?”
The Times’ former Enron advisor could not be reached for comment.
Related: “The Times Falsely Claims That Obamacare Cuts N.Y. Health Premiums By 50 Percent.” Don’t stop believin’!
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