Chicago Daily Observer

A funny thing happened to Bill Ayers in the years between his first headline-grabbing activities and his cameo role in the 2008 presidential campaign. He became a pillar of the very establishment he had once conspired to bring down.

Mayor Richard Daley proclaimed Ayers, an educational consultant to the city, “a valued member of the Chicago community.”

Ayers, 63, was less charitable about Daley’s father, who was mayor in 1968 when Vietnam War activists tried to disrupt the Democratic National Convention.

“White and fleshy, he reeked with the stench of evil,” Ayers wrote of Richard J. Daley in his 2001 memoir, “Fugitive Days.”

First the good news: The city deferred action on its latest proposal for licensing concert promoters, originally set for tomorrow’s City Council meeting.

Some people have been naive enough to call it a victory, but don’t be fooled. The delay doesn’t protect all the small promoters and club owners and not-for-profits who want to throw fund-raising bashes. It’s merely what one alderman calls a “tactical retreat” on the part of the mayor.

Here’s the deal from several good City Hall sources, including an alderman or two.

The vendor’s licensing bill (commonly known as the promoter’s ordinance) has been resurrected because Mayor Daley wants it, and no one in City Hall has the guts to tell the mayor he can’t have what he wants.

A pop quiz: When was Chicago supposed to run out of landfill capacity and we’d all have to start eating our garbage?

Answer? I don’t know exactly, but it was some time past, according to environmentalists who warned that in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s the city—and the rest of the country—would run out of places to dump the garbage. Adding to the crisis mentality were scary claims that leaking toxic substances and methane would poison and asphyxiate the populace. Somebody had to “do something,” and fast.

So, Chicago and other municipalities stampeded into adopting solid waste recycling programs. Americans suddenly were “educated” or forced into massive recycling efforts, separating paper, cans, plastic and other materials from the oozing, dripping, rotting stuff. Recycling became a matter of given truth in the bible of the caring, even though the net benefits were, and in some quarters still are, in doubt.

Among ... Read More...

Will Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy serve his state and city by finally drawing national attention to the sleazy and corrupt politics of Illinois and Chicago?

It is all about context. The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate’s politics were born in Chicago. Yet he is presented to the nation as not truly being of this place, as if he floats just above the political corruption here, uninfected, untouched by the stain of it or by any sin of commission or omission. It is all so very mystical.

The Chicago Plan Commission is set to take up the Chicago Children’s Museum’s plans to move into Grant Park at its May 15 meeting, and the safe bet is on the museum getting its way. Why? Well, the commission rarely sees a high-powered zoning change it doesn’t like. Then there’s the rather vocal position of its most important member, Mayor Daley. And finally there’s the matter of the individual loyalties and ties of all the other commissioners:

• Linda Searl, chair: A partner in the respected Searl Lamaster Howe architectural firm, Searl is ten-year veteran of the commission, a donor to Daley’s campaign committee, and a longtime adviser to Daley and the city’s planning department.

• Mayor Richard M. Daley: Didn’t we hear something about how he’s going to look out for the children?

• Arnold L. Randall: As the commissioner for the city’s planning department, he reports ... Read More...

His father was a stern, law-and-order man whose 21-year tenure as Chicago mayor will forever be associated with the 1968 Democratic convention protests over the Vietnam War.

But his son, current Mayor Richard M. Daley, has a much more conciliatory view about that history than you might expect. In an interview with the Financial Times, he declared off-limits attempts to make political capital out of links between two of his constituents – Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, a former leader of the Weather Underground radical group that bombed the U.S. Capitol and other targets in the 1970s. Mr. Obama has declared that he and Mr. Ayers have a “friendly” relationship and served together on a foundation board. Mr. Ayers has become controversial again because, in a newspaper interview that happened to be published on 9/11, he declared not only that he didn’t regret setting bombs but that he and his ... Read More...

In a rebuke to the Chicago Park District, a judge Friday afternoon handed a partial victory to a citizens’ group that has been fighting the district’s deal with Latin School of Chicago to build a soccer field in Lincoln Park.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird ruled that construction of the $2-million field, which is mostly complete, will be allowed to finish by the scheduled May 26 opening. But the judge put at lest a temporary halt to work on the field’s lighting, bleachers and scoreboard, and said that once work is complete, Latin will have to stand in line with any other group that wants to use the facility at about 1800 N. Cannon Drive — at least for now.

The revelations keep coming in the lawsuit to keep the Latin School from building a soccer field in Lincoln Park.

North-side residents have formed a group called the Committee to Keep Lincoln Park Public and are suing the city, the Park District, and Latin, asking Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird to issue a restraining order to block further construction, in part because the field was never approved by the Chicago Plan Commission, as required by the city’s lakefront protection ordinance. The field’s already about 60 percent completed.

Last Friday, during day one of the proceedings, it was revealed that the city hadn’t even acquired a building permit for the project. A lawyer for the city claimed that the Park District and Latin didn’t need one to build a large Astroturf field with bleachers, a scoreboard, and drainage pipes. A back porch would be another matter.

A top level authority on police attitudes told “The Chicago Daily Observer” yesterday that “there’s a good chance that murders are rising in Chicago because police are demoralized and intensely dissatisfied with conditions at the very top of the department. That doesn’t mean they’re lying down on the enforcement job, but what’s the point of pursuing a rigorous enforcement and deterrence when the department is in the hands of the civil libertarians—and punitive penalties are meted out against officers for doing their jobs effectively?”
He said that Jody Weis’ appointment…an FBI agent who never wore a uniform nor patrolled a beat…signaled a mayoral disapproval of the department that is ruining morale. He contrasted this with the record of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani who stood by his department and beat off civil libertarians who tried to super-enforce infractions that hobbled the New York police.
“As a result ... Read More...

Did you know you can dig a huge hole in Lincoln Park without a permit?

That’s just one of the revelations that came out of Friday’s opening hearing in the lawsuit filed by the Committee to Keep Lincoln Park Public, a group of north-side residents looking to keep the Latin School from building a soccer field just east of the zoo.

The residents say there are many reasons to oppose the soccer field deal the Park District struck with Latin back in October 2006. But on Friday they asked Cook County Circuit Court judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird to issue a temporary restraining order to block further construction on the grounds that the Park District never got a building permit to construct the field.

Lois Wille looked like a deer caught in a car’s headlights.

Wille, an icon in the lakefront preservation community, had just announced at a press conference her support of the proposed controversial move of the Chicago Children’s Museum to Grant Park.

Rich Samuels, a reporter for WTTW Channel 11’s Chicago Tonight, had asked if she was “selling out.” Pause. “Selling out?” Wille asked. I’m trying to remember her exact response, as I was taken aback as much as she appeared to be. Her answer, as I recall, was calm and reasonable, even persuasive for someone (me) who has opposed the move. Certainly reasonable enough to wonder where the “sell out” question came from.

Wille’s credentials are unrivaled: editorial page editor at the Chicago Tribune, Sun-Times and Daily News, twice Pulitzer Prize winner, and, most relevant to the Grant Park debate, author of Forever Open Free and Clear: The Struggle ... Read More...

he Chicago Park District is so short of funds it’s cutting programs, raising fees, and telling community groups that if they want a playlot, soccer field, or running track, they’ll need to raise the money themselves. Nevertheless, it has somehow found roughly $22 million to spend on Streeterville real estate for its central office. The district has been renting there since 2001, and officials say the conversion to ownership, which the board approved in February, will save about $720,000 a year in property taxes.

Geraldine A. Ferraro missed the point by concentrating on Sen. Barack Obama’s race to explain his rapid rise in politics. If you want to understand Obama, think Harry S. Truman.

On the surface, they don’t seem to have much in common. Truman was old and crusty when he came on the national scene—Obama is new and fresh.

But in a way you could look at them both as a couple of machine politicians working to overcome their provincial roots as they move to the national stage.

In Truman’s case, he rose to prominence thanks to his ties to Mayor Thomas J. Pendergast’s infamously corrupt political machine in Kansas City, Mo.

Playing the race card once again, Mayor Daley said today he’s not afraid of a protracted court fight over his plan to build a $100 million Children’s Museum in Grant Park because he’s firmly convinced he would win it.

“A 5-year-old child is worth fighting for. . . . I believe that as a parent. I believe that as a grandparent. I believe that as a mayor. . . . It’s very important to have a great children’s museum next to Millennium Park. I’m very passionate about it,” Daley said.

Seven months ago, the mayor took considerable heat for accusing residents of high-rises surrounding Daley Bicentennial Plaza who oppose the project of having racial motives.

Since its inception, the proposed Ogden-Pulaski TIF has stirred commotion among residents in North Lawndale.

Those who support the plan argue it provides a much needed strategy for catalyzing development in the community. Those who oppose the plan argue the community has not had a voice in its creation. Although the consensus appears to be that community development is needed in North Lawndale, many believe the current proposal is not sufficient and requires more resident input before implementation.

Last Tuesday, a public hearing was held at City Hall in front of members of the Community Development Commission. There, community members were given the opportunity to voice their support or concerns publicly before the TIF is passed into law.

When Mayor Daley says, “Ours is a 1920s system. It’s costly and inefficient,” you’d be excused for thinking he’s talking about local government.

Instead, it’s the CTA, which the mayor has suddenly realized is a mess.

This afternoon he announced that the agency will borrow and bond its way to improving service. This will be welcome news to riders who have watched the transit system deteriorate dramatically over the two decades Daley has been in office, and perplexing news to everyone wondering why Daley has been unable to find a management team interested in doing this before now.

He’s at it again.

In this week’s Works, I wrote about a recent press conference where Mayor Daley denounced the county assessor’s office and called for widespread “corrections” to property tax assessments.

Now, in today’s Tribune, there’s an op-ed by the mayor

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-oped0213daleyfeb13,0,4892131.story

that tells a few more whoppers about his role in our property tax system.

Chi Trib is at it again, 2nd day in a row, surrendering top-billed op-ed space (hard-copy: it’s buried on the web site) to a politician blowing his own horn:

Property tax bills went out across Chicago last week, and homeowners are rightly concerned. They’re seeing the evidence that our property tax assessment system is broken and needs to be reformed.

The increases in property tax bills are due largely to higher assessments determined by the Cook County assessor, not a tax increase by the City of Chicago.

That’s the mayor speaking or writing, but who thinks he wrote it? And why, if he can be so calm and lucid, doesn’t he talk that way?

Again, we have perhaps a standing practice, in its best light encouraging op-ed dueling. But if that’s it, then give equal space, equally billed, to that highly suspect Cook County assessor. He is mentioned, yes:

I ... Read More...

This just in: an alderman decides not to cave.

Forty-second Ward alderman Brendan Reilly has helped forge an agreement that allows Children’s Memorial Hospital to proceed with its plans for a new facility in Streeterville while requiring it to conduct additional studies on the safety of a proposed heliport, a demand made by neighborhood residents.

Chicago billionaire and businessman Lester Crown is among the 32 members of a new commission introduced Friday by Mayor Richard M. Daley to find ways to solve the city’s pension shortfalls.

Called the “Commission to Strengthen Chicago’s Pension Funds,” the group of business, labor and city leaders will conduct an analysis of pension funds for Chicago’s fire, police, laborers and municipal employees and make recommendations within 18 months on how to reach and maintain higher funding levels.

He didn’t call them racists this time.

But this week Mayor Daley chastised Gold Coast opponents of a helipad Children’s Memorial Hospital wants to build as part of a new facility on Chicago Avenue east of Michigan. Some area residents have raised concerns about the safety of helicopters taking off and landing from the area, which is packed with residential and commercial high-rises. The mayor, though, insinuated that their questions were petty next to the possibility that kids could be saved, according to the Sun-Times. “So, once in a while, we have a helicopter landing. Why? To save your child—not your child, in a sense. But your child really. Another child coming from another city [who] does not have a Children’s Memorial Hospital. ... We will look back in 20 years what we did with this new and wonderful hospital.”

Could Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley survive as the head of a corporation as infected, as is his administration, with the same level of corruption, waste, incompetence and red ink?

Business Week raised that question in an interesting and readable account, “The CEO of City Hall,” of the Chicago business community’s love affair with Daley and its tolerance of destructive and illegal practices they would never allow in their own operations.

“Admittedly, Daley’s admirers overlook some shortcomings,” wrote correspondent Joseph Weber with longtime Chicago business observer Bob Reed. “In fact, if he were a corporate CEO, his job security would be, well, in doubt.” The article then goes on to list the administration’s hiring-and-promotions scandal, bribe-taking and shake-downs, public works cost-overruns, a shockingly huge budget and tax increase, charges of police corruption and brutality, troubled schools, a high murder rate, out-of-control tax increment financing districts, a clunk of ... Read More...

The mayor coughs up $40 Million in financial assistance for one of the most successful corporations in the country that has just finished a $12 Billion merger. The governor arranges for a $4 Million to be paid to a good friend of Karl Rove. In a time of record high gas prices, both senators arrange a 50 cent tax on imported ethanol to assist a local conglomerate, while using the same conglomerate’s private airplane to travel back and forth to Washington D.C.

The senator who extols the fact that he comes from a poor neighborhood campaigns for a public school monopoly, while neither he nor his children have attended a day of public school. The other senator campaigns for sugar tariffs, while 10,000 Teamster union workers are laid off because of high sugar prices. Such a combination of favors to business and the State enterprise monopolies in exchange for campaign ... Read More...

The first thing you need to know about Mayor Daley’s budget, released on October 10, is that it’s nothing more than a projection. The mayor’s bean counters calculate how much money the city can expect to take in through fees, fines, and taxes over the next year and balance that against the amount they plan to spend. If, one year later, the city brings in more or spends less than anticipated, there’s a surplus and taxpayers would theoretically get a refund (ha ha ha). If it brings in less or spends more, there’s a deficit, requiring new fees and taxes to make up the difference.

Here we go again!

In my misspent youth, I watched Abbott and Costello comedies on television often enough to memorize some of their routines. It wasn’t that difficult. If a comedic bit worked, Bud and Lou were certain to repeat it over and over again. Some of their most celebrated sketches were performed in the movies as well as on radio and television. Constant repetition of familiar routines may have served to hasten the end of their careers as headlining entertainers during the Fifties.

Listening to our politicians engage in brinksmanship and double talk, makes me pine for a straight man like Bud Abbott. He could at least put over some of the nonsense more skillfully than our elected officials.

Higher taxes are being threatened by City Hall and the County Board, but how much of it is genuine and how much of it is part of a bait and ... Read More...

Al Gore is to receive a Nobel prize for his crusade against global warming, which was the focus of his documentary movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Back in Chicago, where Rich Daley has been mayor for 18-plus years, where corruption flourishes, and where property taxes are about to surge, there is also an “inconvenient truth” – namely: that Chicagoans love their mayor. Polar icecaps may be melting, and Al Sharpton may be invading Chicago, but there has been no cooling of popular affection for Daley. Not yet.
There are times – indeed, many times – when the mayor appears to be frazzled, fumbling, bumbling, and nearly incomprehensible, but these shortcomings are offset by the urban “livability index” theory. In short, when crime rates are declining, education performance is increasing, taxes are tolerable, city services are acceptable, property values are stable or growing, the economy is robust, and the city ... Read More...

Isn’t there some way for fed-up citizens of Illinois, Cook County and Chicago to force their governments into receivership?

After all, when a corporation is as stunningly incompetent as are Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, legislative leaders, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and his toady City Council, creditors can force it into bankruptcy in which a court-appointed trustee straightens out the mess or, if necessary, shuts it down to preserve the remains.

Governor Blagojevich’s last-minute bailout spared CTA riders long-threatened doomsday hikes in fares and cuts in services—for the moment. Still, without a permanent tax hike to close the budget gap of $110 million a year the CTA is likely to slash bus routes and raise fares to as much as $3 a ride. At the same time, the local property tax machine is gearing up to send out property tax bills that will jump as much as 100 percent for some home owners. And what’s the city’s response to this pending crisis?