Your coverage of the Port of Chicago and Illinois auditor general report is of interest because of the timing , with the Port’s potential privatization coming closer (“Audit of state authority turns up widespread mismanagement,” July 21). None of the report findings should come as much of a surprise. Anyone working with or doing business with the Port for the last three decades has been aware of its shortcomings as a freight facility. The Port oversight has been in the hands of political appointees who were seemed to be more interested in developing the golf course than they were in competing with Burns Harbor or Milwaukee. Whether this clears the way for an easier path to privatization will be interesting. Private investment will presumably provide some infrastructure improvements but the overall benefits to the city in the case of economic return are questionable.
— Christopher Clott, Chicago
