Just a bit of history:

Posted at 10:55 a.m.

Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) said the lease will help the city during a tough budget time. (Daley plans to spend much of the one-time windfall to shore up the city budget during the next few years.)

“I think it is a good ordinance that is going to help us in the next five years, when we are going to have a most difficult time,” Fioretti told his colleagues. “It is going to lessen the blow and be good for our people and good for the City of Chicago.”

He also said rates at more than 70 percent of meters have not been hiked in 20 years.

Fioretti, a rookie alderman, said the council “should have looked at (raising parking charges) a long time ago.”

(Full story here.)

How’s that parking meter thing working out for us?