Daley

Leon Despres On The Daleys And The "Business Of Politics"

Josh Kalven — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:40:06 -0800

Several weeks ago, Bob Sirott conducted an interview with 100-year-old former Chicago Alderman Leon Despres, which aired on NBC 5's City Desk this morning. Discussing the "very intelligent" Barack Obama, Despres likened him to Harold Washington, whom he called "by far the best mayor we ever had" in terms of "character and leadership." He went on to describe "the mayors Daley" as "primarily in the business of politics." Watch it:

For more on Despres -- who certainly didn't consider politics a "business" -- check out this New York Times article from several years ago, as well as the three Slate diaries he wrote in September.

More Fitzgerald Fearmongering

Josh Kalven — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 09:14:10 -0800

Back in September, we criticized former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald's baseless prediction at the Republican National Convention that, if elected president, Barack Obama would remove Patrick Fitzgerald as U.S. Attorney. Yesterday, the Tribune's John Kass devoted a column to this topic, suggesting that an Obama administration may take such action out of deference and indebtedness to Mayor Daley:

What are political promises worth from politicians with debts to pay? [...]

Mayoral brother Bill Daley has been rumored for a Cabinet post in an Obama administration, and is expected to be on the transition team if Obama is elected. Bill Daley will look to protect his brother first. Although Bill is a thoughtful politician, somehow I just don't see the phrase "Barack, we've gotta keep Pat Fitzgerald" on Billy's lips in the personnel meetings.

Another Chicago connection, U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Tomczak), is being rumored as a possible White House chief of staff. Emanuel would also look first to protect the mayor.

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. First of all, what "debts" does Obama himself owe to Daley? As the Reader's Ben Joravsky recently wrote, the mayor hasn't exactly been an Barack-booster from the get-go:

[H]e hasn’t significantly helped Obama at any stage of his career. He didn’t endorse him during his successful bid for the state senate or his unsuccessful attempt to unseat Congressman Bobby Rush. He didn’t even back him in the 2004 Senate primary. Daley only endorsed Obama in the presidential campaign because he didn’t really have a choice—he had to look enthusiastic about the hometown guy, especially since he didn’t want to alienate black voters in last year’s mayoral election. [...]

Like every other liberal Democrat in this state, Obama had to make a monumental decision when he started his career. He could fight the machine, join it, or pretend it didn’t exist. He chose the third option, which put him in the company of most of the other liberals around here.

Second, while some of Obama's Chicago-based aides have benefited from Daley's rule, his strategists have to know that getting rid of Fitzgerald would be a disaster. Beyond the great respect for him among many Illinois residents, Democrats and progressives nationwide hold the prosecutor in great esteem thanks to his spearheading of the CIA leak investigation. The mainstream media is also intimately familiar with Fitzgerald thanks to that prolonged legal battle. If he were removed, it would become an instant national controversy. There's no way the cautious, media-savvy Obama braintrust is going to let that happen.

Aldermen Raise Budget Concerns

Adam Doster — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:46:46 -0700

Thirteen Chicago city council members -- many of them affiliated with the burgeoning Independent Caucus -- opposed Mayor Daley's 2008 budget, votes that would have been unimaginable just a few years prior. Facing a $469 million deficit and impending layoffs, the council doesn't seem to be sitting on its hands this year either:

Mayor Daley's plan to slow police hiring, shrink the size of city garbage crews and lay off 929 employees by cutting basic housekeeping services came under fire from all sides today.

As the City Council opened hearings on Daley's 2009 budget, it was clear that even the mayor's most loyal aldermanic supporters are not comfortable with his solution to Chicago's worst budget crisis in a generation.

The biggest sticking point is over police hiring. Daley wants to save $10 million by hiring only 200 officers during all of 2009, a move Ald. Isaac Carothers argued would have a "devastating impact on public safety." Also of interest is Daley's massive PR machine (50 public information officials are paid $4.7 million to spin), which the Tribune outed recently. "When we are prioritizing these cuts, are these [public information] people that are being looked at, or are we just going after laborers and people that are out there getting dirty every day?" asked Ald. Michael Zalewski during testimony yesterday.

It's still unclear whether or not these provisions would keep aldermen from backing the mayor. If recent history is any indcation, as was the case over the Midway privatization vote, the City Council members will probably fall in line. But as former alderman and political science professor Dick Simpson writes, "a strong Council is not one that votes constantly with the dictates of the mayor ... It is one that debates, publicly examines alternatives, and often dissents from the mayor." In tough times, Chicagoans need a council that will stand up for us.

Shaw On The Myth Of Daley As A "Wonderful Manager"

Josh Kalven — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:26:51 -0700

While the Chicago Tonight panel's discussion of the ACORN issue left me wanting last Friday, when the conversation turned to the City of Chicago's budgetary problems, ABC 7's Andy Shaw made an interesting point -- one I haven't heard from the lips of any other mainstream reporter. He said that, in terms of the public interest, this is "a very good budget year." Why? Because Mayor Richard Daley's wasteful spending and questionable funding schemes are finally being scrutinized. "I think a lot of these problems that Daley was able to sweep under the rug for years are finally coming home to roost and being exposed to the public," Shaw said. "And I think that this myth of this wonderful manager has been ... punctured in some ways." Watch it:

The "Granddaddy" Of All TIFs Goes Off Life Support

Angela Caputo — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:34:52 -0700

In the latest issue of Chicago Magazine, reporter David Bernstein compares the legacies of Chicago's current mayor and his father in an article titled "Daley vs. Daley." Bernstein notes that despite high tax bills, low-performing schools, waste, corruption, and huge debts for public works projects, Daley I, much like his son, often got a pass from the public. But if there's one person who has been determined not to give the current Daley a pass it's the Reader's Ben Joravsky. His criticism of the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) system is featured in the article:

Urban affairs reporter Ben Joravsky has argued that Chicago's 160 TIF districts—particularly the nine or so TIFs in and around the Loop area—have become a "secret slush fund" for the mayor and aldermen to subsidize private developers (many of them friends or campaign donors to the politicians) in lucrative projects downtown. By Joravsky's count, TIFs suck away more than $500 million a year in property tax dollars that could be spent instead on parks, schools, libraries, and the city's ailing mass transit system.

Interestingly enough, Crain's reported this afternoon that Daley has decided to retire what Javorsky describes as the "granddaddy" of all TIFs -- the Central Loop district -- by the end of this year, freeing up $111 million in annual tax revenue:

At least in the short run, the action is good news for taxpayers, likely providing a windfall as soon as 2009 for cash-strapped local governments that have been scurrying to cut costs and find new sources of revenue. Public schools would get most of that, but about $20 million a year would be available for the regular city budget.

Crain's also notes that not everyone's thrilled with the news:

Mayoral aides clearly are not happy that a pot of money the mayor had tapped for everything from building Millennium Park to subsidizing development of Theater Row and Block 37 no longer will be available for those uses.

Since siphoning money from one TIF to pay for another has become common practice -- and the Central Loop is a favorite to tap -- it remains to be seen how these and other projects will fare.

Image taken from the Windy Citizen's TIF map.

Chicago Aims To Cut Carbon Emissions By 25% In 10 Years

Angela Caputo — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:04:53 -0700

Chicago officials rolled out a glossy "Climate Change Plan" this afternoon that'll no doubt be heartening for folks tuned in to the rising threat of global warming. If the city lives up to the five strategies rolled out in the plan, it'll be on track to reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent before 2020.

While officials and environmental activists say they're confident that the ambitious goals can be reached using a carrot over stick approach, it's clear from a cursory look at the plan that it's going to take a lot more than just the "cooperation" Daley called for today.

As Forbes pointed out earlier this week, environmental issues such as poor air quality and high population density are real problems in Chicago. They were primary factors landing the Windy City at the top of the magazine's list of the country's "Most Stressful Cities." The plan also banks on achieving things that are often out of the city's control, such as a financial commitments to improve the regional transportation and freight systems.

When pressed by Progress Illinois on what kind of local investment it's going to take to get the initiative off the ground, Daley said, "I think we're doing it right now. We have companies buying in. We have TIF districts and everything."

TIF districts, huh? Daley offered no further detail regarding how they're going to play a role. But if you've been keeping up with the Reader's Ben Jarovsky, you know that Chicago's TIF system is seriously straining budgets these days. And while the city has made strides in getting the word out about about individual conservation strategies, it's demonstrated that there's a long way to go in getting green basics like a proper recycling system in place.

If anybody embodies the "where there's a will there's a way" attitude, it's Daley. And goals to retool building codes and and create energy efficiency guidelines for residents will no doubt move forward under the city's environmental action plan.

The mayor also makes a good point when he says that having this sort of framework on hand will give Chicago an edge in competing for federal "green economy" grants. It goes without saying that this type of funding is more likely to expand under an Obama administration.

Obama And The Daley Machine

Adam Doster — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:09:43 -0700

Ever since Barack Obama entered the presidential race, critics have tried to take the gloss off his reputation as a reformer, arguing that the former state senator should have done more to take on the Daley machine while in Springfield. Just last week, David Freddoso laid out that claim in the pages of the National Review:

But Friday’s story also serves as a reminder of what sort of governance Obama has willingly and knowingly backed with his good name. Despite his personal popularity, and the resulting capacity he had for political independence — despite having many opportunities to change Chicago in a positive way — Obama always chose to back a corrupt status quo. This amazingly unexplored part of Obama’s career falsifies the media image he has paid millions of dollars to project, as an agent of positive change.

So is a vote for Barack a vote for Daley and machine politics? Not according to the Reader's Ben Joravksy, who penned a must-read rebuttal published today. Here's the nut graph:

This year’s presidential election is about a lot of things, but it’s most certainly not a referendum on Daley. He’d consolidated his power long before Obama came on the scene, and he’ll hold on to it no matter who wins.

Exactly right. What's made the humble rise of the Independent Caucus so encouraging is that it's the first real kink in Daley's armor since he took office. As political scientist and former Alderman Dick Simpson has documented (PDF), Daley consolidated power early in his tenure -- when Obama was just finishing law school -- and hasn't relinquished much of it since. No matter how charismatic or intelligent Obama was, there's no way he's taking down the New Daley machine on his own.

Also important to remember is that Daley hasn't even been a big Obama supporter historically -- the mayor issued no endorsement of the South Side Democrat during first state senate run, his failed 2000 congressional race, or his 2004 Senate primary. That makes it difficult to characterize Obama has a machine disciple. It's better to look at him in the context of other Illinois liberals that moved on to national office:

Like every other liberal Democrat in this state, Obama had to make a monumental decision when he started his career. He could fight the machine, join it, or pretend it didn’t exist. He chose the third option, which put him in the company of most of the other liberals around here.

But 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. Lots of Democratic superstars—like Harry Truman and John Kennedy—got their start with the backing of local political machines and went on to bigger and better things.

Joravsky's conclusion:

You want to vote Republican, go ahead. But don’t justify your vote for McCain as a vote against Daley. You’ll be fooling yourself.

Critiques about Obama's reluctance to buck Daley are legitimate when they come from progressive reformers like Toni Preckwinkle, who have stayed focused at the local level, rather than seeking higher office. From Republican operatives and the National Review? Not so much.

"Labor Is"

Josh Kalven — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:08:34 -0700

Below is the ad produced by the Chicago Federation of Labor that has been running on local television stations in recent weeks:

When the CFL announced plans for the ad campaign, leader Dennis Gannon drew a direct connection between the PR effort and reports that Mayor Daley is considering laying off some unionized city workers to help trim the Chicago's budget deficit:

"The public needs to know our people are out there, doing this work for the citizens," Gannon said. "People need to know the services will suffer if there are layoffs."

Interestingly enough, Gannon previewed the above ad, as well as a similar radio spot, at one of the Illinois DNC delegation's breakfast meetings last week. As with all the speakers, Mayor Daley introduced Gannon and was sitting barely a foot away from him during his remarks.

Public Off The Olympic Hook? Not Likely

Adam Doster — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:42:52 -0700

On Tuesday night, the Reader's Ben Joravsky stopped by the first of Chicago's three mayoral budget hearing to find out how the city was planning to deal with it's $400 million budget shortfall. While talk shifted between city service cuts, political hiring, and the police budget, Joravsky highlighted a question from a concerned resident about the possibility of Chicago taxpayers footing the bill for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Daley's response echoed earlier claims: There will be "no public money for the Olympics," he said. "There will not be any money used for the Olympics."

Joravksy isn't buying it:

Whew, what a relief. Silly me, I'd thought we were on the hook for at least $500 million ever since last year, when Daley, at the urging of the United States Olympic Committee, got the City Council to, you know, authorize up to $500 million for the games. I believe the USOC called it putting some governmental "skin in the game."

Of course, there's always the possibility that Mayor Daley forgot about that $500 million authorization. Just as it's possible that he forgot his more recent proposal to borrow $85 million to buy and demolish Michael Reese Hospital so he can eventually build the Olympic Village there.

Daley's lack of transparency and consistency on this issue is why the work of groups like Communities for an Equitable Olympics 2016 is so badly needed. If the cash for an Olympic village is ultimately coming out of our pockets, let's make sure there's some guarantees about jobs and housing for our own.

Daley To Media: "Don't Look At The Politician"

Josh Kalven — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:12:36 -0700

Last week, Mayor Richard Daley took the media to task for their coverage of police brutality charges, suggesting that the risk of bad headlines is making Chicago cops timid. During the rant, he said: "Remember how long you kept beating the police? That affects them. They’re human beings. They can’t take it. I’m the mayor. You can beat me up every day. That’s your job." Take a listen:

Internal mp3

But maybe he can't "take it" after all. Yesterday, Daley appeared to ask reporters to pay more attention to their brethren and less attention to politicians like himself:

News media too often portray communities as crime-ridden, Mayor Daley told journalists at McCormick Place on Wednesday. "Don't look at the politician. Look at the journalists and what they are reporting continuously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Daley told black, Hispanic, Asian-American and Native American journalists at the UNITY '08 conference."You have to be able to balance." WLS-Channel 7's Linda Yu, co-host of the UNITY '08 ceremony, responded: "Thank you for the reminder."

(H/T Beachwood Reporter)