Odd Timing

Who's getting money here?

• Eight months after taking over Chicago’s legendary Maxwell Street Market, the Daley administration has more than it bargained for: a federal lawsuit accusing the city of allowing bargain “counterfeit” handbags to be sold there.

  Coach Inc., a manufacturer of luxury leather products, is accusing City Hall of looking the other way while hundreds of Maxwell Street vendors sell knock-offs of Coach purses for as little as $18.

• Late last year, the Daley administration terminated its $1.47 million contract with JAM Productions and opted to manage the market in-house with, what McDonald described as, a more lenient approach to vendors.

  [...] City management turned out to be a financial boon to a clout-heavy security company owned by three of Mayor Daley’s former bodyguards.

We've been to Maxwell Street around a dozen times at various points in our lives and damn near everything there seemed to be either counterfeit, pirated or owned by somebody else who didn't actually know it was for sale.

But all of the sudden, the City takes over and get sued? It seems the City's "deep pockets" are about to prove a financial boon to some connected lawyers.