Good for you

Heard this 848 interview of Chicago Reader reporter Mick Dumke who’s story about the leasing of Chicago’s parking meters (cowritten with Ben Joravsky) ran in last week’s Reader.

In the story, Dumke and Jarovsky explore the lack of transparency running up to a deal in which the city signed a 75 year and $1.2 billion lease of its parking meters.

Through the Freedom of Information Act, Dumke and Jarovsky were able to get their hands of documents that shed new light on the negotiations surrounding the parking meter deal that led to higher meter prices across the city.

They, in turn, have mapped it all out for us to see.

2009’s first citywide Clean and Green Volunteer Clean-Up will take place on April 25 and all are invited to attend.

For the past twenty years, the Department of Streets and Sanitation has provided communities with brooms, rakes, shovels and trash bags to help in a citywide clean-up effort called Mayor Daley’s Clean and Green Volunteer Clean-Up program.

According to a city spokeswoman, last year’s clean-up program attracted more than 10,000 volunteers and 480 different community groups throughout the city.

Anyone interested in taking part in this year’s festivities can register by calling the city at 3-1-1.