In 2008, then-Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley signed a $1.15 billion deal to privatize the city’s parking meter system.

The 75-year contract has been widely criticized by transportation advocates who say certain contract provisions restrict the city’s ability to manage its own streets.

Transportation and urban planning expert Sam Kling joins the Morning Shift to share his recommendations for how the incoming Lightfoot administration can change the parking meter deal.

Also, Morning Shift gets spacey. The Event Horizon Telescope, a collaboration between several telescopes from around the world, announced Tuesday that they managed to take the first photograph of a black hole. The photo is of m87, a supermassive black hole in a nearby galaxy.

Black holes are regions in space where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape, and they’re notoriously camera-shy. Humans have never managed to capture a photograph of one before. To attempt this shot, the telescopes involved in the project hoped to find the black hole’s shadow on a brighter point in the sky. 

Brad Benson is part of the South Pole Telescope, one of the teams involved. He’s also a professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, and he joins the Morning Shift to explain the mission’s initial results.