Chicago to Use 'Municipal Marketing' to Help Close Budget Gap, But at What Cost?

Alex Keefe reports that Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration is rolling out a plan for "leasing dozens of billboards on city-owned property, selling advertising
space on downtown trash bins and finding a corporate sponsor for the
city's recycling program," as a painless way to earn the city $18 million towards closing a projected $298 million budget gap.

"We
live in an age where our taxpayers don't want to pay any more taxes,
[but] our citizens can't accept less services," said Chicago's chief
financial officer, Lois Scott, in an interview Friday with WBEZ. "So we
have to find a third way forward. And we found that third way forward by
tapping into an industry and a revenue stream that's out there already,
but it's not benefitting our taxpayers."

"City Hall's estimate that municipal marketing will be worth $18
million next year initially raised questions from some aldermen, after a
similar plan last year fell flat," notes Keefe. "We are a few months
delayed in where we expected to be," Scott said. "And I think that the
taxpayers and the citizens will agree that we've made the right decision
about how to do this."

"'We did not want a repeat of the bridge
houses,' she said, referring to an earlier deal that put Bank of America
ads on a pair of historic Chicago River bridge houses last year. The
deal drew in just a few thousand dollars for the city, but was reviled
by architecture critics who said it tarnished the downtown cityscape."