Shortshanks was always bragging about how he wanted to make Chicago more "green" and "eco-friendly." He was also big on bicycles - very European in his thinking. To this end, he shut down Lake Shore Drive and invited everyone with a bike to come pedal on a venue that most people only saw at 45 MPH or more going to and from work, school or a museum. It was a friendly crowd, very family oriented. We even worked it a few times.
When did they start charging for it? And not just charging a little bit - $55 per rider (less for kids and early sign ups). The media reports 20,000 people registered. That's around a million bucks, give or take a few thousand. They already had all sorts of corporate sponsors - their webpage has around twenty listed. They still needed to charge people?
Maybe we missed something all those other times. This just struck us as a bit hinky.