Dan Mihalopoulos and Mick Dumke's latest parking meter story for the Chicago News Cooperative shouldn't surprise anyone that's been following the saga over the city's privatization scheme for the past 18 months. While drivers are angry that Chicago Parking Meters LLC has raised rates 218 percent since the deal went through, financial documents show that the revenues the company is taking in from the higher rates "more than offset the slight decline in meter use."

This reinforces the argument made last year by privatization opponent Ald. Rey Colon (35th Ward), who said the city council should have "just bit the bullet" and raised the low meter rates on its own. Instead, the Daley administration sold them off at an intense discount to a politically-connected firm, forfeiting future revenue and the opportunity to use the meters as a transit tool. Oh, and all the money the city took in from the deal? Almost 90 percent of it is gone.