Chicago Daily Observer

After the appropriate nod to the history made by Barack Obama’s presidential election, Chicago aldermen quickly got to the bottom-line, City Hall style: What’s in it for us?

Asked what she expected an Obama presidency to mean to her West Side ward, Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) replied, “One word: money. You’re supposed to take care of home first, aren’t you?”

Mitts said the city needs infrastructure dollars to “bring us up to modern times.”

Many aldermen gathered for Wednesday’s City Council meeting were happy to talk about their wish lists for the hometown president-elect.

“Obviously, the fact that you have in the White House a person who calls Chicago his home can’t hurt,” said Ald. Joe Moore (49th). “He understands the needs of the city. He knows all the key players in the city. His closest advisers, many are from the city. Clearly, Chicago is going to benefit from a ... Read More...

Trust me—the last thing I want to do is wade in the muck of 49th Ward politics. ‘Cause, lord knows, you’re all a bunch of lunatics up there.

But, gulp, here I am . . .

I posted yesterday about Don Gordon taking a surprisingly strong stand against construction on Park District property, and that prompted alderman Joe Moore to give me a ring.

“Looks like you’re endorsing Don Gordon,” he told me.

Well, not really—just saying I like what he said at the meeting and wished he had said it when he was running for office against you last year.

Lobbying by the Children’s Museum and mayor’s staff obviously had a bigger impact over the last few weeks—especially the last few hours—than the push from 42nd Ward alderman Brendan Reilly and other opponents of the museum’s Grant Park plan.

A couple of aldermen said Wednesday that mayoral aides offered them administration help for projects in their wards in return for their votes. While horse trading is part of politics, some of the projects probably would have—and almost certainly should have—received city help without the promise of a vote on a citywide issue. As one alderman put it: “I just wonder if they cashed in for too little.”

You never know what injustice is going to stir the soul of a Chicago alderman.

For instance, a few days ago aldermen Tom Allen (38th Ward) and George Cardenas (12th Ward) were moved to outrage by the $75,000 Shakman compensation award to Jay Stone, son of alderman Bernard Stone (50th Ward).

Federal monitor Noelle Brennan awarded Stone the money on the grounds that his 2003 campaign for 32nd Ward alderman was unfairly torpedoed by the throngs of patronage workers who were dispatched by Donald Tomczak to work for Ted Matlak, the incumbent.

“We’ve got potholes to fix. We spend $20 million on snow removal and the federal monitor decides in her infinite wisdom to give somebody $75,000 because they lost an election? Can I sign up for that program?”

Federal investigators have requested city records on four West Side zoning changes pushed by Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th), amid questions about Carothers’ relationship with a Chicago developer who made secret recordings as an FBI mole.

Last year, Carothers’ New 29th Ward Campaign Committee got $11,000 in contributions from Morgan Properties Inc., which lists FBI mole John Thomas as “manager.”