Trash Buckingham Fountain: Just Eight Bits a Day!

Chicago just spent a lot of money completely upgrading the surface paving all around Buckingham Fountain. A lot more will be spent after the fountain shuts down this fall to restore it to its original 1927 splendor. Reported cost: $25,000,000.

But for a mere dollar a day, you can turn all that work and beauty into a mere backdrop for your promotional appetites.
In a city where services continue to contract even as taxes and fees skyrocket and the mayor hordes billions into his slush fund TIF's to finance his beloved Olympics, the recycling bins you see here are being marketed as a solution for a city grown incompetent to provide adequate receptacles in its public places. Just throw up your hands and toss the problem over to an entrepreneur who provides the containers - free! - in exchange for getting carte blanche - if the situation at the fountain is any example - to paste advertising messages all over city landmarks. Couldn't we just persuade the mayor to get GoldenPalace.com tattooed on his forehead and be done with it?