- Chris Wronski
The City Council took up an ordinance Wednesday that few aldermen know much about, except that it’s likely to raise the cost of living in Chicago for apartment and condo dwellers. Those who know more aren’t talking. The council passed it anyway.
A few years ago Mayor Richard M. Daley realized that the city was broke and he had to do more than sell off bridges and parking meters. So he and his allies began eyeing Dumpsters as a source of cash.
This might make it easier to crack down on haulers that weren’t doing a good job of dealing with overflowing garbage; it also would almost certainly force a few more of them to pay fees to the city.
Others, like Suarez, didn’t think the proposal was a bad idea even though they weren’t aware of any major problems prompting it. “In my ward, we haven’t found too many renegade Dumpsters,” he told me.
Kasper is also a registered lobbyist at City Hall whose clients include Sonrai Systems, a waste-hauling and equipment company that has been a pioneer in the use of RFID technology in trash receptacles. Neither Kasper nor Sonrai officials returned calls for comment.
