Chicago Daily Observer

Prohibition Mayhem Made Chicago “Crime-town U.S.A.” in the 1920s

You can talk about Michael Jordan, deep dish pizza, Millennium Park and the latest John Buck office tower rising like a phoenix on west Wacker Drive. Just don’t mention Al Capone, Clark sreet massacres or the one-way ride to our mayor. His face will likely turn beet red if you do.

Richard M. Daley is self-conscious about Chicago’s notorious and lusty past. Mention Capone and you evoke the “C” word. Out-of-town producers of cable documentaries covering this well-traveled subject matter are advised by this city’s department of cultural affairs not to expect any assistance from the city if the “C” word is invoked, and the subject is gangsters.

Chicago is embarrassed about its lusty past, and it doesn’t appreciate authors, filmmakers, and crime buffs prowling the streets in search of the famous gangster landmarks that bore witness to the bloodshed of ... Read More...

Each time I walk toward the Loop from the rail station, I’m hit by panhandlers including Larry, saying they’re hungry and homeless.

With the abundance of social services in this city, why are they reduced to begging on the street?

. I submit that the loosening of morals, the break up of the family and the rising tide of divorce after 1960 is the root of the problem. The liberal acceptance of drugs, and the “do it if it feels good” attitude emerging from the “Beat” culture of the 1950s and the hippy generation that followed made the world what it is today. When I see a grainy film clip of 1960s “love-ins,” “be-ins” and images of communal living, I wonder how many of those “Haight-Asbury utopians” who dropped out of society to live in a hippy-dippy drug-haze in 1967 where no rules or regs applied, are today part of ... Read More...