In my ongoing collection of a disappearing public sphere, we can add history itself. Check out this great post by Is that Legal? on the privatization of historic sites. Via Feminist Law Professors. Privatize This: Town! Blog! Univision! Park! Lotto! El!
Here’s a companion post to Gimmyabreakopoly. I’ve been meaning to write about the selling out of Chicago’s public transit system for a while now. And today, I remembered why: I looked up at the Red Line on my way home just in time to witness the newest manifestation of The Product Which Shall Not Be [...]
I would say that this is old news, except that it’s not, because this issue is one of those put-on-hold deals festering under the political surface until after the November elections. If you’re from Illinois you likely heard Gov. Blagojevich’s proposal to privatize the Illinois Lottery. That’s right, he wants to sell the state Lotto. [...]
Millennium Park, now two years old in downtown Chicago, is rivaling Navy Pier for tourist attention. That’s great for the city, right? But we have to ask: Is it a public park? And if not, then why did so many public dollars fund it (and not, say, public education or housing)? Budget. First of all, [...]
While we were watching the World Cup this week, the public corporation Univision Communications was sold to a private consortium. Not that I think public corporations are really that, I mean the “public” just means “with stock options,” and most decisions are made at the top. Not to mention that Univision already maintains a monopoly, [...]
I never get a free credit card in retail stores (despite 10% off your purchase if you sign up), because it always feels like the store would then own a part of me. So why would I insist that you have a Blogger account to make comments? If anything should remain public, it’s the blogosphere. [...]
Welcome to the first edition of Private This! – an exploration of the declining public sphere. Frequently in my sociology classes students get fired up in the public versus private debate. For example, the Illinois-Indiana Tollway is privately owned, as is the Chicago Skyway. The argument is that the city and state municipalities were having [...]
