Entries associated with the tag "Mayor Daley":

"Earlier this year the City Council approved a $500 million guarantee that the 2016 Summer Games wouldn't operate in the red.

"There will be less money available to ensure that city taxpayers won't be on the hook because of the declining real estate market, said Patrick Ryan, chairman and chief executive of Chicago's Olympic bid effort, at a news conference in Chicago."

Update: Crain's: "Under Mr. Ryan’s plan, the city would agree to cover the first $250 million of any shortfall, with insurance and a hope-for state guarantee picking up the next $500 million, and the city covering the next $250 million."

[clears throat]

Ben Joravsky, 12/4/08: "When colleagues in the media ask me why I don’t join the Tribune and Sun-Times in cheering on Daley’s Olympic crusade, I always flip it around: With so many fundamental questions about the cost still unasked, must less answered, how in the world can anyone responsibly support it?"

Ben Joravsky, 11/20/08: "To fund the proposed Olympics--another big-ticket mayoral dream we can't possibly afford--Daley sold Midway cheap (I'm starting to think the Indians got a better deal for Manhattan), and continues to siphon property tax dollars away from our cash-starved public schools."

Ben Joravsky, 8/7/08: "Think about this for a moment. The city's $400 million in the red, we're in the midst of a crisis in low-income health care, and the condo market's soft. But the mayor's gearing up to sink $85 million into a 7,500-unit condominium complex that will take the place of a hospital."

Ben Joravsky, 7/24/08: "But as I’ve learned over the years, when our esteemed leaders start conjuring visions of something for nothing, they’re usually trying to cast a spell on the taxpayers."

We're supposed to get a couple inches of snow today through tonight. Since the city's broke and has $6 million less to spend this winter on snow removal, heed the mayor's advice and, um, drive slowly. Also, he advises you to "hold on to your pants."

I do not know what that means, but it conjures cartoon images of guys wearing barrels.

I am not allowing the city to sell my pants to anyone.

The Sun-Times and the Trib have various details on the city's new parking deal. In short: the city sold all the parking meters to Chicago Parking Meter LLC, aka two Morgan Stanley funds and a parking company, which will subsequently jack up the rates, most from $0.25 to $1. The immediate reaction to any price increase is outrage, but in the abstract it's clever:

Problem: The city is broke and needs more money from parking meters (among other things).

Solution: Sell the meters, take the windfall from the price increase up front, and split the PR burden with a private company (City Council apparently has final say over rates, so they're not totally off the hook). If people are willing to pay, then, well, they're willing to pay; if not, the city's already cashed in.

It's also worth considering the substantial increase as a punitive tax on driving in the city--which will surely piss people off, of course, but it could also reduce congestion and divert more people to the CTA or other forms of transportation like biking or walking. Or Segways, which are of course hilarious. Higher rates could also lead to more parking violations, and if I read things correctly tickets would still get paid to the city, diverting what amount to parking "fees" back to the city.

Full disclosure: I don't own a car and rarely drive, and when I do it's often during free meter hours (I have no idea, but offhand I'd say I've spent less than $100 on parking meters in 7+ years in the city), so I'm obviously going to be more inclined to look on the sunny side than a lot of people. But of all the cynical moves that have arisen during the city's long dark night of the budget, this one at least has some upside.

Ben Joravsky, 7/3/08:

Put aside for the moment any discussion about whether the O’Hare expansion plan is prudent or whether it’s been rendered obsolete by rising fuel costs and ticket prices.

Jon Hilkevich and Julie Johnsson, Trib investigation, 11/20/08:

Marking an unprecedented break with City Hall that contradicts the public appearance of solidarity on the $15 billion O'Hare project, executives at six of O'Hare's largest airlines advised city planners in letters sent this summer to downsize the large-scale remake of the airport to better fit the new economic realities of the struggling industry.

Publicly, the carriers are filing documents with the Federal Aviation Administration opposing the proposed use of passenger ticket taxes for some new terminals and other parts of the O’Hare project.

Privately, the airlines say it’s only a matter of time until the city acknowledges it must scale back the project.

Damn.

"Mayor Daley on Thursday issued a sarcastic blanket apology for the alleged torture of suspects by former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge.

"'The best way is to say, 'Okay. I apologize to everybody [for] whatever happened to anybody in the city of Chicago.' So, I apologize to everybody. Whatever happened to them in the city of Chicago in the past, I apologize. I didn't do it, but somebody else did it. Your editorial was bad. I apologize.Your article about the mayor, I apologize. I need an apology from you because you wrote a bad editorial," Daley said, laughing.'"

Here are a couple previous posts on the question of Daley's culpability. 

Rick Pearson writes:

"In the lowest ratings ever recorded for an elected politician in nearly three decades of Tribune polls, a new survey found few approving of the job Blagojevich is doing as governor and even fewer who want him re-elected."

The numbers are lower than I would have guessed, in fact, really astoundingly low. Worse than GWB, and in Blagojevich's defense he's not knee-deep in a lengthy, expensive war of attrition that he can't win. Besides the one with Madigan, at least. OK, he's not knee-deep in two.

Here's what I don't get: Blagojevich is reviled. Daley wins with 71% of the vote (here's an analysis of the '07 results, in PDF format). Does fecklessness really make that much of a difference? I suppose so. Probably also worth factoring in that Daley is sort of roguishly endearing, whereas Blagojevich seems like someone who, if you are a woman, would ask you what your sign is. It's either the hair or something he can't help.

John Kass goes after Mayor Daley on the Burge scandal and specifically on Dr. John Raba's letter to police superintendent Richard Brzeczek about Andrew Wilson, which, as I pointed out yesterday, is the most obvious point of tension in Daley's role as then-state's attorney. Writes Kass:

"Instead of opening his own investigation and convening a grand jury like he did to investigate Byrne's towing contracts at City Hall, Daley decided to be reasonable. He reasoned that white cops vote in elections, and he wanted their vote. So he did the prudent thing: nothing."

That's not exactly the case, according to Daley. As John Conroy wrote in "Deaf to the Screams" (8/1/03):

"In 1989 Daley told the Reader through his press secretary that he hadn't answered that letter but had tried to respond to Wilson's complaints through his Special Criminal Prosecutions Bureau, the unit assigned to investigate the use of excessive force by police officers. Daley said that because Wilson's attorney--public defender Dale Coventry--declined to cooperate, the investigation came to an end."

Depends on what you mean by "nothing," then.

WBEZ has audio of the mayor's awkward press conference this morning, and the Sun-Times's Fran Spielman has a rundown. He's very insistent that he wasn't the mayor or the police chief during the Area 2 torture scandal, and the facts seem to back him up. Update: The Sun-Times has a PDF of U.S. v. Burge.

But that's not the issue, of course; Daley was Cook County state's attorney during critical periods of the scandal, so it's fair to ask what responsibility he might have. John Conroy directly addressed the issue in "Deaf to the Screams: The next state's attorney to investigate police torture in Chicago will be the first" (8/1/03) and in "The Police Torture Scandal: A Who's Who: 4. Knew About It" (6/16/06). From the latter:

"More than 50 men alleged that they were tortured by Burge and his detectives during Daley’s term as Cook County state’s attorney, from 1981 to 1989. He was put on notice several times, most dramatically in the case of Andrew Wilson. Photographs of Wilson’s stitches, burns, and alligator- clip wounds made compelling evidence in court, underlined by Hyman’s failure to ask if Wilson had given his statement voluntarily. Received copy of letter from Dr. John Raba, who as medical director of Cermak Hospital examined Wilson’s injuries, urging police superintendent Richard Brzeczek to investigate. Brzeczek told Daley he had promised to investigate all cases of police brutality but did not want to jeopardize Wilson’s prosecution and asked for guidance."

In May 2007, Conroy listed 20 questions he'd like to see Daley address. Among them:

"According to state’s attorney Devine’s sworn testimony, you would review each case in which prosecutors wanted to seek the death penalty. From the outset there were red flags about Wilson’s confession: Hyman’s failure to ask the coercion question, the police lockup keeper’s refusal to accept Wilson after he emerged from Area Two with so many apparent injuries, the Mercy Hospital records, the Cook County Jail intake photos, the letter from Dr. John Raba, who examined Wilson soon after his arrival at the jail, and a letter from police superintendent Richard Brzeczek asking you for guidance on the matter. Later there would be photographs of alligator-clip-patterned scabs on Wilson’s ears and nose. With so much evidence of coercion, were you comfortable asking that this man be put to death?"

What did Daley do in response to the letter? He says he pursued it via the Special Criminal Prosecutions Bureau; Wilson's public defender refused to cooperate. From "Deaf to the Screams":

"Afterward, Raba wrote a letter to police superintendent Richard Brzeczek; he noted Wilson's condition and his story of electric shock and urged the police to investigate.

"Brzeczek forwarded the letter to state's attorney Richard Daley. In his cover letter, Brzeczek asked for advice on how to proceed--he had publicly promised a scrupulous investigation of every allegation of police misconduct, but he was wary of jeopardizing Wilson's prosecution. In 1989 Daley told the Reader through his press secretary that he hadn't answered that letter but had tried to respond to Wilson's complaints through his Special Criminal Prosecutions Bureau, the unit assigned to investigate the use of excessive force by police officers. Daley said that because Wilson's attorney-- public defender Dale Coventry--declined to cooperate, the investigation came to an end.

"It's not unusual for a defense attorney to keep his client away from the state's attorney's office, particularly when that office would like to put the client to death. Anything that Wilson might say, the slightest inconsistency (a left turn instead of a right, for example), could be used against him in his criminal trial. Coventry admitted that he wouldn't cooperate. He also told the Reader that he expected nothing from the state's attorney but a whitewash; his clients were "thumped" all the time by police and no one ever did anything about it.

"Was the state's attorney's office stymied at not having Andrew Wilson to question? Investigations don't usually come to a halt when the victim is unavailable for interview--consider, for example, the many victims of crimes who are dead. Andrew Wilson did tell his story under oath at a hearing on a motion to suppress his confession; that transcript was available--as were medical records from Mercy Hospital, photographs of Wilson's injuries, and the testimony of Wilson's handcuffed neighbor at Area Two, who said she'd heard him screaming. If all that--on top of Larry Hyman's unusual performance and the letters from Brzeczek and Raba--weren't enough to make the special prosecutions unit consider an investigation, it's difficult to imagine what would have been."

Conroy strikes one note of... well, "sympathy" is not exactly the right word. Context, I guess.

"[I]t may be unfair to blame Daley's state's attorney's office for failing to investigate Andrew Wilson's allegations. His case may not have been singled out for deliberate suppression. It may simply have received the same treatment the state's attorney accorded every complaint of brutality by on-duty Chicago police."

[Revised; the S-T broke the story, so credit's due.] The Sun-Times reports that former CPD commander Jon Burge was just arrested on charges relating to 2003 written testimony about police torture in Chicago. Update: indictment, press release, and links to info on the prosecutors here. In a later post, I address the question of Mayor Daley's role in his position as state's attorney during the scandal.

If you're just coming to the story, I can't recommend John Conroy's Who's Who about Area 2 police torture highly enough, especially the sections on Burge and the powers that be who knew about it, including now-Mayor Daley. Conroy's whole archive is incomparable, but if you're just looking to get started, I recommend:

The Police Torture Scandal: A Who's Who June 16, 2006
With the results of a four-year, multimillion dollar investigation due any day, here’s a guide by staff reporter John Conroy to the key figures in the scandal. Some of them may look familiar.

The Meter's Still Running and the Mayor's Still Mum July 6, 2007
Since 2003 the city has paid some $7 million in legal fees to fight five police torture lawsuits it probably can't win. The latest turn in this saga involves a secret settlement agreement designed to protect Daley.

Twenty Questions May 11, 2007
Lawyers for police torture victims are trying to get Mayor Daley on the stand. We've got a few things to ask him too.

House of Screams January 26, 1990
Torture by electroshock: Could it happen in a Chicago police station? Did it happen at Area 2?

Town Without Pity January 12, 1996
Police torture: The courts know about it, the media know about it, and chances are you know about it. So why aren't we doing anything about it?

The Good Cop January 5, 2007
Detective Frank Laverty did the right thing—and paid for it for years.

The Persistence of Andrew Wilson November 29, 2007
A cop killer who fought to expose torture in the Chicago Police Department has died, but his testimony from beyond the grave could still help bring down its perpetrators.

The American Conservative's blog Eunomia, by U. of C. grad student Daniel Larison, is one of the best blogs I've come across in a long time: intelligent without being arrogant, serious without being stuffy. It's also a pleasure to read in the strictest sense--he writes clear, confident sentences without decoration or bluster, which is all the more impressive for a blog (see also Ben Dueholm on Larison). As an example, "That's Not Change, That's More of the Same" is a compelling and not inaccurate critique of Barack Obama, which draws on the diverse coalition of John Kass, Ryan Lizza, and David Sirota to argue that Obama tends to track towards the status quo, arguably undermining the "change" motto of his campaign.*

Larison's point underscores a very important point about why the Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright attacks have been failing. It's barking mad to infer that he's an angry black hippie Islamoterrorist because it's so clearly not the case. The more logical critique is that Obama "associated" with Ayers and Wright, inarguably two members of the Chicago political power structure, because it was politically expedient, to avoid making waves, and that's a failing, just as it's a failing to go along with the more traditional aspects of the local machine. As Larison points out, his votes on the FISA and bailout bills, which have come under fire from progressives, are in keeping with his political nature.

Reasonable people have made their peace with this, like the Reader's own Ben Joravsky: "I’ve cut Obama some slack, just as I did Dick Durbin, Paul Simon, Sidney Yates, Paul Douglas, and all the other liberals we’ve sent to Washington. Agreeing to look the other way while the machine does its dirty deeds is part of the deal they make to win a seat in Congress and start working on important national issues." For other reasonable people it's insufferable hypocrisy. I don't know. Vote your conscience.

Either way, that's not the message that's gotten through.

How this thesis will apply to an Obama presidency is complicated, however. It's likely that he'll come into the presidency with a substantial electoral and popular victory (FiveThirtyEight currently estimates a greater than 50% chance of 375+ electoral votes) and large majorities in both houses of Congress, making him, for the first time in his political career, the leader of his party. And not just the titular leader, but its organizing principle. He'll be his own Daley, in other words. How much of his political personality has been of necessity, and how much is innate? It's a compelling question, and not one I've seen addressed (or can answer).

But as (above all other ideological associations) a skeptic, when Obama presents himself as a vessel for the hope of his supporters, I can't help but think it's a subtle acknowledgment that he's still a cipher, still unformed. As the battle to elect Obama president seemingly draws to a close, it signals the next round, the battle for his presidency.

* If you wanted to take issue with this part of Larison's argument, I think it's fair to point out that for the past seven years we've had a president with an almost pathological inability to compromise, so a go-along-to-get-along Obama presidency would represent change, although not the sexiest kind.

Today's big economic indicator to watch out for:

"We have a lot of people who are confused because the current economic circumstances would lead them to believe that their assessment should go down," said county Assessor James Houlihan. "Their actual tax liability has gone up."

Yeah, kinda weird, huh? Fortunately, Ben Joravsky has written quite a bit on property taxes and TIFs, which are interconnected. (Should be helpful if you haven't been paying attention; some of the other reporting is a bit thin.) Some highlights:

--"Get Off the Pot: There’s a solution to the city’s deficit. It’s not legal, but since when is that a problem?" (10/2/08)

In many ways the entire budget process—starting with this hearing and concluding with the City Council’s approval in November—is little more than a three-ring circus in which the mayor, the aldermen, reporters, and the public passionately wrestle over the portion of the budget that’s out in the open. The mayor vows to hold the line on spending while TIFs grow at a rate of roughly 30 percent a year, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars Daley is free to spend as he wants. I’m amazed that he still gets away with it.

--"It’s the Mayor, Stupid: The city’s facing a $420 million deficit, but as usual it’s somebody else’s fault." (9/28/08)

But I suspect the bulk of the games will be financed with money from the city’s TIF accounts. That’s why Daley’s proposed tax hikes are so critical. TIFs work by freezing the amount of property tax revenue the parks, schools, county, and other taxing bodies can draw on. As property values rise, the TIF funds get all the additional tax money the property generates. By calling for a hike in the property tax rate, Daley’s accelerating the amount of money pouring into TIF funds at the same time he’s looking to impress the IOC with Chicago’s ability to pay for the games—a master stroke.

--"Thar She Blows: The white whale lurking behind the mayor’s new tax increases" (10/25/2007)

Even Mayor Daley realizes that if he tries to reduce the debt by raising property taxes he’ll force more people out of their homes. When this year’s second installment tax bills come out in October, the howling will be particularly loud from south- and west-side communities like Engle­wood, Fuller Park, and North Lawndale. Cook County assessor Jim Houlihan anticipates tax bills will rise in these areas as much as 70 percent.

[snip]

What does this all mean for the south-siders who crowded into the South Shore Cultural Center to hear the mayor? Many of them probably won’t be able to afford to live in their neighborhoods for much longer. As Houlihan’s office has been warning, rising taxes together with high financing rates could sweep hundreds if not thousands of residents out of the city, particularly from west- and south-side communities like Lawndale, East Garfield Park, Woodlawn, and Washington Park.

If it doesn’t happen with this year’s tax bills, it will happen with next year’s. But of course the mayor didn’t mention that either.

--"The Storm to Come: As Chicagoans face tax hikes that will force people from their homes, Daley deflects blame onto state leaders" (8/31/2007)

The good news: we don't have to feel bad about gutting streets and sanitation.

As Daley hailed the opening of an extended runway at O'Hare International Airport, Weis waited at the edge of the crowd for more than two hours. Weis waited at the edge of the crowd for more than two hours. After the event, as reporters asked Daley about police hiring, Weis stepped up to the microphone stand.

That's when the mayor abruptly ended the news conference. Daley said he would talk Thursday about O'Hare expansion and nothing else.

--Dan Mihalopoulos and Angela Rozas, Chicago Tribune, 9/25/08

On the other hand, the O'Hare expansion means it'll be much faster to get out of here. Worth noting: market volatility is going to make it harder to issue municipal bonds. These sorts of bonds.

Mayor Cultural Hero on City Hall's plan to ask Wrigleyville and U.S. Cellular bars to "voluntarily" cut off service after the seventh inning of MLB playoff games:

Bar owners reacted angrily, arguing that customers who don’t get served will get up and leave and never come back.

Daley was not sympathetic.

"Then I’ll have someone buy their place tomorrow. It’s not gonna cost ’em any business [Ed. note: !?!]. They made enough money all year. I’m sorry. We’re just talking about common sense. That’s all this is. Because I’ll tell you one thing — if that community sees something they don’t like, they will not have a bar. They will not have a liquor license. They will vote it completely dry," the mayor said.

Couldn't they just raise liquor taxes for two innings? Maybe force them to buy near-beer from the Wirtz family? That's how we usually do it, right? 

Chicago taxpayers will not be left holding the bag for shifting the $1.1 billion Olympic Village to the campus of Michael Reese Hospital—even though the cost of demolition and environmental clean-up is 60 percent higher than anticipated, Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan insisted Friday.

--Sun-Times, 9/12/08

And anyway, how can we deny Oprah? Plus, we just spent $8 million in TIFbux to help renovate the Inland Steel Building in an act of preemptive blight clearance (the Daley doctrine?). Being broke is not an excuse.

I haven't been paying especially close attention to local politics recently, in part because of the presidential race, in part because of brainfreeze issues, but you should read Ben Joravsky's latest post over at Clout City. But before doing so, take a moment and make a little over/under bet with yourself on whether the demolition and cleanup of the Michael Reese Hospital site will cost 1) less 2) more than was estimated just a few short weeks ago. If you're feeling gutsy, guess the percentage by which the estimate was off. Okay? Go.

(Don't tell Oprah or Michael Phelps I told you, though--wouldn't want to get on their bad side.)

But Mr. Daley and the alderfolk look like a combination of Milton Friedman and Warren Buffett, compared with the fiscal circus in Springfield.

Greg Hinz, perhaps the city's most underrated columnist, gives a thumbnail hierarchy of local and state financial incompetence--and Todd Stroger comes off looking good by comparison. In other financial-disaster news, TribCo posted a $4.5 billion 2Q loss.

The Mayor is over in China and is super-excited about the Beijing subway; in response, some of his constituents are at least grudgingly encouraged that something's got him interested in the El, even if he had to fly across the world on a wild-goose chase. He does go to DC here and there, right?

Anyway, aside from the absurdity of the Olympics being the trip to the ice cream stand we get for cleaning our room, after reading about the riches and wonders of totalitarian transit I had a couple questions (not addressed in the article, of course):

How late does it run? Until midnight. Naturally. The CTA, alternately: "one of the few mass-transit systems offering 24 hour service in the U.S" (not all lines, of course, but the two busiest).

How well does it serve the city? Well, Beijing has about 17.5 million people, compared a bit less than 3 million for Chicago (about 10 million in all of the metropolitan area). And Beijing has eight lines running on about 200km of track, compared to eight lines running on about 175km of track in Chicago. Is that a problem? Yes, and they're scrambling to catch up.

The El is dumpy, busted, and slow, all of which are problems of various importance. But it's worth remembering that nicer systems often come at a price; it's a lot easier and cheaper to keep a line clean and efficient when you shut it down for several hours every night (as is also the case on the comparably nice DC Metro). Depending on which sacrifices you make, you get deeper into questions about what constituencies you're serving and issues of safety. Or you can have it all and pay for it; I don't have an answer for you.

But this...

"How did Chicago's system compare? What was missing? To name a few things familiar to Chicagoans: Dank station platforms with condensation dripping from the ceiling; graffiti; foul smells; and the cacophony of screeching wheels and beeping electronic systems often heard on the CTA."

...while true, still makes me crazy, because the Trib reporter seems more impressed with the Beijing subway's aesthetics than interested in it as a transit system. Seen as such, it's a little less impressive on balance.

Are you really going to take that, Sun-Times?

This is a lot different from Mayor Daley's usual responses, eg that the press is way too negative or WHY DO YOU HATE CHILDREN?!!? THE CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN etc. Claiming that a journalist fabricated a story (in this case Fran Spielman, author of the article in question) is actually as serious an accusation as you can make.

So it'll be interesting to see how they react. Pass the popcorn.

Teh Mayor on the Chicago Housing Authority's Plan for More Gradual Than We Thought Transformation:

"I said we’re going to rebuild their souls. Not give them an apartment, not give them a home, but you rebuild their souls."

1) that's really creepy and probably a First Amendment violation

2) no, it was about building fucking apartments like the article said

3) is the Plan for Transformation now some kind of cross-promotion with the Stir the Soul 2016 Olympics?

I wish WBEZ ran more raw audio of Mayor Daley freaking out, not just for my own sorry amusement but as a public service, but the clip is worth listening to anyway.

Chicago has smarter corruption than L.A., Kaye said, because it's a strain of graft that gets things done rather than just lining pockets.

For better and worse, the dictatorial Daley family has been unafraid to reward friends and punish enemies and has used its power to keep the machine in line all the way down to ward heelers and block captains.

Maybe I just have my dander up because I'm 3/4 of the way through Robert Caro's The Power Broker*, and "a strain of graft that gets things done rather than just lining pockets" basically describes the entire second half of the book, but wondering "wouldn't it be nice if we had a dictatorial mayor... but an awesome one" kind of flies in the face of thousands of years of history and understanding about human nature. (via )

Depending on what you want, of course; if you have different interests, it could work out just fine. Quoth Caro: "It was no accident that most of the world's great roads--ancient and modern alike--had been associated with totalitarian regimes, that it took a great Khan to build the great roads of Asia . . . that during the four hundred years in which Rome was a republic it built relatively few major roads, its broad highways Whether or not it is true, as Moley claims, that 'pure democracy has neither the imagination, nor the energy, nor the disciplined mentality to create major improvements,' it is indisputably true that it is far easier for a totalitarian regime to take the probably unpopular decision to allocate a disproportionate share of its resources to such improvements . . . ."

In fairness to Steve Lopez, he does mention that vast swaths of Chicago are totally busted--but, well, duh. That's kind of what happens. It happened with New York under Moses, who pretty much singlehandedly destroyed the South Bronx. The will to that sort of power tends to be neglectful of the details (like "let's not wipe out functional neighborhoods") for obvious reasons. It's hard to take credit or to feel responsible for organic successes, whereas monuments speak for themselves.

It's not an entirely fair comparison, Moses vs. Daley, since the former eventually just turned into a monster in ways that Daley doesn't seem to approach (although no one realized Moses was such a monster, argues Caro, until the World's Fair clusterfuck), not to mention that the latter is, after all, democratically elected and caveat emptor. Then again, while Moses wasn't democratically elected, he was popular, so popular that even the politicians who wanted rid of the SOB had no choice but to acquiesce to his rule. Point being: when someone as knowledgeable as Ben Joravsky asks why Daley gets so many votes, I can't help but think that the abstractly logical but historically insane desire for a benevolent dictatorship might be the driving force.

*more, also

I'm only just beginning to wrap my head around the article, but this piece in the Boston Globe is a very, very good start if you want to understand the Obama-Rezko-Allison Davis-public housing-Daley nexus. None of it seems especially new, but it is a fine overview.

Also related in ways I'm still figuring out:

"Public housing limbo: Thousands of families displaced. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent. Years behind schedule. What went wrong with Chicago's grand experiment." Trib piece from Sunday on the CHA's Disorganized Stab at Slum Clearance Plan for Transformation. (via Division Street)

"American Murder Mystery": Atlantic article from a couple months ago on the on the Gautreaux program backlash and its relationship to rising crime rates in smaller cities and ring suburbs (see Harold Henderson's review of Waiting for Gautreaux for background)

Steve Rhodes over at Division Street points out that the Trib article isn't particularly surprising; that goes double if you keep up with the Chicago Reporter and its outstanding housing coverage.

All of this is part of a narrative; it's a complex one, however. 

How'd Daley's commencement speech go?

"It was the most generic speech anybody could come up with," said Laila Chen, a political science graduate who grew up near the mayor's Bridgeport neighborhood. "None of it was directed to us. It was just about him selling himself, the city, the Olympics. He could have given that speech to anyone, anywhere, anytime—and he probably has."

Tyler Brandt, a computing graduate from Berkeley, Calif., said, "He spent a lot of time talking about what he had done and all the things that made him great and not so much time talking to us."

I have nothing to add here except that the political science grad student quoted above clearly doesn't read the paper or she'd be even more underwhelmed, and that--to make a gross generalization--IT/IS types are good at cutting through the crap.

(*)

Asked how he was doing, Burge joked, “I never had a bad day in my life, though I’ve been know to fib occasionally.”

The Sun-Times is reporting that a federal probe into police torture in Chicago is "ramping up." Back in 2003, it was determined that Burge and other detectives wouldn't face criminal charges because the statute of limitations had expired. But as part of a lawsuit filed by pardoned ex-death row inmate Madison Hobley, Burge and other detectives declared that they had not tortured suspects--which opens them up for prosecution on the basis of obstruction of justice, if their written testimony is false.

And at least some of their claims to innocence almost certainly are. As John Conroy wrote in 2003: "This much is well-known: Detectives under the direction of Commander Jon Burge used torture--or, in the words of the city of Chicago's own lawyers, "savage torture"--to get confessions from suspects. The pattern of complaints indicates that the method was first deployed in 1973. The last alleged incident was in 1991."

And, from the same piece: "Though the [Police Board] had nothing to say about the conduct of the state's attorney's office, it did make clear its belief that Burge and men in his command had violated the law in the Wilson case and had probably used electric shock on Melvin Jones. Those officers had never been prosecuted. Daley had been state's attorney at the time.

"Eventually the city's lawyers would explicitly recognize that torture had occurred. For the better part of a decade, the corporation counsel's office had denied this, but on March 28, 1994, with Wilson's suit still in federal court, the same office sent Burge a letter telling him that his acts went beyond the scope of his employment. Much more certain of what had happened than the Police Board had been, the city's lawyers would eventually characterize Wilson's treatment as "savage torture" and acknowledge that Burge had shocked Melvin Jones on the genitals. This about-face was not the opening salvo of a campaign to bring justice to the victims and the perpetrators, but an attempt to save the city from paying damages to Andrew Wilson by repudiating Burge's behavior as a violation of his duties."

As the new probe gains momentum, John Conroy's two decades of reporting on the scandal, collected here in a handy archive, will prove invaluable. The 2003 story linked above is a very good history, but I also recommend our Who's Who and Conroy's twenty questions for Mayor Daley, who was the state's attorney when the bulk of the torture allegations took place, and despite being made aware of them never acted.

But in some ways the most interesting of Conroy's pieces is "Tools of Torture," a biographical piece about Burge that argues he learned to torture in Vietnam. Hopefully the subtext to me mentioning this piece is pretty clear. 

Drop whatever you're doing and read this essay on how Chicago's civic government is a model for 21st century politics. It does for unmitigated gall what Barry Bonds did for home-run hitting, with about as much class and honesty, but it actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it.

And that's when it hit me--of course Daley's Chicago is a model for America in the 21st century. It's expensive, it doesn't work very well, it's been designed so it's virtually impossible to fix without costly technical help, and yet it's really popular.**

Chicago is the perfect product.

---

* Commenter petronius: "Chicago (and Illinois) is not 'post-partisan', it is omnicriminal."

**I was going to say it's like an iPod, which is pretty and seemingly very simple until it breaks, and then you take it to the Genius Bar and they ask you for an ungodly sum of money, only unlike an iPod it isn't secretly easy to fix, by which I mean you can't open it with a small flathead screwdriver and reseat the loose hard drive connector, metaphorically speaking.

It doesn't to me.

--Eric Zorn

But if not quite a dead horse, the argument against defiling a sacred vista is too lame to make it around the track against the opposition of not only the mayor and the Children’s Museum’s other powerful allies but even Lois Wille, Grant Park’s biographer and the Tribune’s former editorial boss. What ultimately undoes the museum’s claim on Grant Park is its failure to look anywhere else, and Bruce Dold, who now holds Wille’s old job, decided early on that the Tribune would have to propose alternatives.

--Michael Miner

Sometimes I think the Children's Museum fracas has less to do with kids or Grant Park or architecture or free and clear etc. and has a lot to do with the powers that almost are but aren't having lost a lot of pissing matches to the powers that be. And I'm okay with that. There are obviously bigger problems, but you might as well throw down against a weak hand for a small victory.

--me

I think the key here is what Zorn mentions offhandedly--"here, somehow" (emphasis mine). Now, it doesn't seem to make any sense that a "lame horse" defense of a not-beloved part of Grant Park vs. the heretofore unremarkable Chicago Children's Museum (I'd never heard anyone say anything about it until this mess) would hold any promise as a wrench in the gears of the Daley Quality of Life Tyranny. Even the specious concert-promoter bill is a bigger and more important fight. This is, on the surface, kind of dumb on both sides.

And that's why it's so important. That's the "somehow." Unlike foie gras, unlike concert promotion, and don't even get me started on TIFs, all the supposed merits on each side of the argument are so transparent that the only tangible goal, for the Machine and its discontents, is the dark beating heart of the city: Clout.

And we, the discontents, we have charts.

PS:

The losers prolong their agony as much as possible, because they're convinced the alternative is worse. Meanwhile the winners, who might earlier have accepted a compromise peace, become so maddened by the refusal of their enemies to stop fighting that they see no reason to settle for anything less than absolute victory.

--Lee Sandlin, "Losing the War"  

I vote for the Trib's Doctors Hospital suggestion. It's pretty, it's next to a park and the MSI, it's near underserved neighborhoods and an institution of higher education, and the damn thing has been boarded up since I moved here.

"'[The Tribune is] advising me what to do with the city and they're going right in the tank. I love that. The Sun-Times is in there, too. This is unbelievable. They're giving us advice constantly on how to run the city, [while] their stock is going down,' Daley said."

Is it possible that he just doesn't understand how taxation and budget deficits work? Because that would explain a lot.

“We’re the city of flowers. We’re the city of trees and gardens and all that. I’d like to maybe change that motto to, ‘City of Children.’ I really believe that.”
--Mayor Daley, 4/10/08 

We'll be needing a new seal, then. Collect all four!

Update III: I think I got it right this time (previously it was "urbis liberi," which is "children of the city," right?). I checked a grammar book, at least.

Pedantic update: From the article: "How do the latin [sic] words, 'Urbs of Liberi' sound?" Er, they sound 66% Latin. Not that I am without flaws, as my misadventures in translation prove.

Update IV: Hey, they fixed it. Sorry, I took two years of college Latin and I have to get something out of it, even if that something is minor irritation.

Update: Got the translation wrong. The above reads "Children of the city" (I think; haven't done Latin since high school). Working on it.

Update II: Is "child" liber or parvulus? 

His local backers tell me Obama was only making a strategic choice when he backed Daley -- it's a purely political move by a guy who, in this campaign, has proved to be a remarkably sure-footed politician. It’s not that he likes the way Daley runs Chicago. It’s just that by supporting the mayor, Obama got Daley’s endorsement for his presidential run. That helps with fund-raising.

Ben Joravsky, attempting to explain Obama's Chicago years to the good folks in the District of Columbia who only know his major-label work, sums it up better than I can: We hope he's pandering more to Daley than America, but it's hard to know, honestly.

Hope you found reason to miss me. As an offering, here are some variations on Mayor Daley, with apologies to the Wu-Tang Clan and Shepard Fairey. Particular apologies to Fairey as I'm still tweaking the OBEY Giant knockoff. (Daley art by Derek Erdman)

The city's budget crunch is causing a flurry of activity to get the numbers in shape; here's a rundown.

* Todd Stroger wants to raise lots of taxes: gas (100 percent to 12 cents a gallon), parking (100 percent to $40 a month), and  in particular the sales tax from 0.75 percent to 2.75 percent, a 267 percent increase, making the total sales tax in the city the highest in the country. But it's cool, because then he'd just cut them again.

* In other words: Dude, I'll totally pay you back.

* He's open to independent control of the county health system. "'I don't know how fast it's going to happen," he said. 'It's like everything else, you got to get together, get people to talk about what they will agree to.'"

* In other words: I'll get around to it. 

* Here's something I bet you didn't know: "For every dollar the city of Chicago collects in property taxes, about 47 cents goes toward pensions." How to lower that? Bet on a high-risk, high-return real-estate venture run by a mayoral ally and the mayor's nephew, geared in part towards the 2016 Olympics.

* Speaking of gambling, Daley not only wants a casino, he wants 70 percent of the net revenues, meaning it's probably not going to happen.

* Here's a novel way of making money off of gambling: convince people not to take the money if they win too much. The Illinois lottery calls this "voluntary self-exclusion," not "cutting your losses."

* Our city's parking meters might follow the Chicago Skyway, leased for 99 years for an up-front fee of over a billion dollars. Back in December Harold Henderson had a good post on the deal, inspired by a Mother Jones article on infrastructure privatization. 

* Side note: Speaking of the Skyway, one of its purchasers, Macquarie Bank, is making CNBC's Jim Cramer freak out in a bad way. Why? "Macquarie sells shares in infrastructure funds to investors to finance the purchases, using debt to fund about 85 percent of the purchase price. The funds own the assets and Macquarie Bank manages the funds in return for hefty management fees. This creates reports of consistently high profits while the significant debt load of the assets is tucked away in the infrastructure funds' accounting ledgers." More here.

It's a shame people are harshing on Mayor Daley for his passionate support of the Children's Museum. His love for the children, and the poor, and the poor children, is boundless. And all he wants to do is express his love in the form of a museum, and the Javerts who live next to Grant Park want to put it far away from the poor children, like all the way on the south side. Or something. It makes me so sad that I want to break into song.

Mayor Daley is going to discuss Paris's awesome rent-a-bike program, run by the French outdoor advertising giant J.C. Decaux, with the mayor of the City of Lights.

You're welcome.

Da Mare brings the hardcore logical jujitsu he must have learned in the state's attorney's office elementary school in defending skirting the city's unwillingness to reveal the names of cops who are the subjects of multiple citizen complaints.

"'We have a very good police department,' Daley declared. 'You cannot say there are a few bad apples and write them off just like the media does.

"'You have a few bad apples as well,' he told reporters."

It's funny you should mention that.

If you're wondering why maybe members of the media would really like for the city to be somewhat transparent about potential "bad apples" in the police department, John Conroy's almost-two-decades of coverage about the police torture scandal is a good place to start. Transparency! All the cool kids are doing it.

* The smartest, pithiest thing anyone's said about this controversy comes from . . . Mayor Daley? I'm paraphrasing, because I saw it on the news last night and can't find the quote, but the gist is: any politician who said what Imus said would be meat; why can't journalists apply the same standards to other people in the media? Anyway, somebody get that man a blog.

* The normally reasonable Eric Zorn thinks this . . .

 . . . is mob rule. Hmm.

Caveat: It's apparently not "mob rule" if the powers that be haven't made their decision. Once they have, it's our job to accept the decision and be quiet, since we live in a democracy. Or if it's a group of 500 or more it's a mob. I had trouble parsing his argument. Anyway, please keep your protests to ten or fewer so as not to shake the foundations of the rich, diverse democracy that is corporate media.

* Other members of the unruly mob calling for Imus's head: Barack Obama, former NAACP head Bruce Gordon, the National Organization for Women, Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, Newsday sports columnist Johnette Howard, numerous major advertisers, Al Roker.

* Important people in Imus's corner, far above the unwashed mob: John McCain and Mike Huckabee , as well as prominent Washington journalists like Fred Barnes, Paul Begala, Tom Oliphant, and Howard Fineman.      

* Mary Mitchell argues that the "mob" outside the NBC building (and those that have joined it on the street, the airwaves, and the Internet) are the only reason Imus got punished at all.