Chicago must reform how it manages private use of public property

Stock cars set up in downtown Chicago before the July announcement that NASCAR will hold a race in the city each year for three years, starting in 2023. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)

From festival stages to NASCAR races, selling Chicago’s public property for private use has become so pervasive that citizens and public officials have become numb to it. They forget the public interest and accept it as a way of life.

But other cities do it differently. And it’s time for Chicago to take these giveaways seriously.