Will he survive? Is he on his way out? Anyone think this city is run efficiently? Anyone think it's mismanaged?

One example that pisses me off is the conditions of the roads. We pay a lot of money every year (sometimes every day!) for the privledge of owning and operating vehicles in this city and yet almost everywhere the roads are patchy and full of potholes. Roman roads lasted 1000 years. We're lucky if Chicago ones last 10.

So anyway, Mayor Daley? For life? Or just for a little while longer? He has a stronger hold on the council than his father did, yet the flames of scandal are licking at his feet.

I will bake a cake when he leaves office. It will be the sweetest cake I ever make.

Daley has been good for Chicago. The streets get cleaned, the snow gets plowed, and the city looks beautiful. The Daley management style has greatly improved the quality of live in the city for most Chicagoans- look around Chicago is booming. There is always going to be corruption in a city the size of Chicago. Every ten years or so another FBI probe happens and shakes up city hall. Daley will survive this.

R.F.F. wrote:The streets get cleaned, the snow gets plowed

Is this unusual, among major American cities? That street cleaners drive around the nice neighborhoods on a regular basis, and that the major streets get plowed?
I don't think it's anything to hang your hat on. It's something the least competent mayor should be able to handle.

R.F.F. wrote:the city looks beautiful.

I agree that some the city looks a lot better than it used to. But there are huge parts of the city that I never see, so I can't really say what those look like.

R.F.F. wrote:The Daley management style has greatly improved the quality of live in the city for most Chicagoans- look around Chicago is booming.

What's the "Daley management style?" Does it include violating federal law and draining millions of dollars of public money into the pockets of your friends?
I think Daley has been lucky to be mayor at a time when American cities in general, not just Chicago, were enjoying a resurgence, especially in terms of rising property values and new construction. I see no evidence that Daley has any notable ideas or political skills that are lacking in most mayors.

R.F.F. wrote:There is always going to be corruption in a city the size of Chicago. Every ten years or so another FBI probe happens and shakes up city hall.

There is always going to be some sort of corruption in everything, but that's not really the issue.
The issue is whether there is always going to be this kind of corruption, for this long, carried on in such an obvious manner.
If you think it's perfectly alright to have city administrations so corrupt that every decade there is a years-long federal corruption probe leading to the convictions of dozens of city workers from multiple departments, including heads of departments working closely with the mayor, you've got very low standards.

R.F.F. wrote:Daley will survive this.

I hope he gets what is coming to him, whatever that may be.
Whether he survives this, I could give a shit.
The city won't be any worse for his defeat or conviction.

The Kid wrote:I hope he gets what is coming to him, whatever that may be.
Whether he survives this, I could give a shit.
The city won't be any worse for his defeat or conviction.

lol. LOL!!! jesse jackson jr running chicago, and it won't be any worse? LOL!!!!

and FWIW, no streets don't get cleaned and plowed in all the big cities in the US. not even close.

toomanyhelicopters wrote:lol. LOL!!! jesse jackson jr running chicago, and it won't be any worse? LOL!!!!

I'm not a Jesse Jr fan any more than I'm a Daley fan, and I'm still not convinced he's going to run.
But if you think the city is going to fall apart because Daley isn't "making the trains run," I don't think I'll be able to convince you otherwise.
I guess we'll just have to see. Perhaps there will be a mass exodus upon the great man's death, as his fearful subjects flee the apocalyptic chaos that fills the city in his absence. I tremble to imagine the city without its strongman.

toomanyhelicopters wrote:and FWIW, no streets don't get cleaned and plowed in all the big cities in the US. not even close.

Where, Detroit?
Residential streets in Chicago don't get plowed either, unless you confuse Ford Explorers with snow plows.

R.F.F. wrote:Daley has been good for Chicago. The streets get cleaned, the snow gets plowed, and the city looks beautiful. The Daley management style has greatly improved the quality of live in the city for most Chicagoans- look around Chicago is booming. There is always going to be corruption in a city the size of Chicago. Every ten years or so another FBI probe happens and shakes up city hall. Daley will survive this.

I have to agree with you. I think he is dirty but he is OUR dirty Mayor! He hooks his buddies up but all in the name of making the city work, and making it work his way. I still think he does it all for the good of the city.

I like our dirty Mayor. I also think he will live to rule another day.

R.F.F. wrote:Daley has been good for Chicago. The streets get cleaned, the snow gets plowed, and the city looks beautiful. The Daley management style has greatly improved the quality of live in the city for most Chicagoans- look around Chicago is booming. There is always going to be corruption in a city the size of Chicago. Every ten years or so another FBI probe happens and shakes up city hall. Daley will survive this.

This city is booming? Tell that to all the homeless people, and people who happen to live on the southside and westside. I can see where you would think Chicago was in great shape if you only went downtown and on the northside. Maybe you don't see it, but the crime and poverty in this city is out of control. Look up the statistics, 600 murders in 2003. 700 murders in 2002. They are jumping for joy because the murder rate had gone 'way down' for last year....uh, but there were still 550 people murdered. New York, which is 3 times the size of Chicago had roughly half the murders in 2002. People are poor and starving in the shitty neighborhoods, while they spend tens of millions on a silver blob for yuppie assholes to look at. While they give away hundreds of millions to political friends and allies with bogus construction contracts. I find that offensive, and criminal in it's neglect. Ever been to one of those schools in the ghetto? They barely have a fucking roof, the textbooks are complete shit and there's 70 kids crammed in one room. Tell all those people the city is beautiful and booming. The way this city is run makes me sick, it's a disgrace. Fuck Daley, he's a fucking lying crook gangster. Daley has done nothing good for the poor people of this city besides steal from them and neglect them.

i'm genuinely torn about daley, as are a lot of chicagoans obviously

favoritism and political corruption are so ingrained in chicago politics that a lot of us just kind of take it for granted

that's not a good thing

i think it would be great if all that shit was rooted out and the playing field was genuinely even. i think the boondoggles perpetuated on behalf of daley's pals are troubling and harmful.

and of course chicago should do more for its less fortunate citizens. but this is true across the board in this country. chicago is not a special situation.

and coming from seattle, and the endless, referendum-driven dithering on behalf of both the populace and the government, it's kind of nice to live someplace where shit just gets done when it needs to get done.

i know people are getting their palms greased, and i know the 'need' for some of what gets done is debatable.

but would chicago make plans for a new light rail system and end up having to fight to get it to go out to the fuckin' airport? or push the completion date out a full decade? no. it would get built.

i would rather have principled competence than less-than-completely principled semi-competence. but i would rather have either than principled incompetence.

thinking about this a bit more....things 'getting done' in chicago is a constant, throughout the history of the city. i think i'm wrong to give daley much credit for that, and it's probably wrong to hammer him too much for every single shady aspects of it as well.

it depends on who you want to put in his place. a competent, semi-competent, or an incompetent....

while they spend tens of millions on a silver blob for yuppie assholes to look at.

11.5mil. a lot, anyway. it's nice for what it is....

Yeah, I think our experiences in Chicago would be fairly different if we weren't practically all white (aren't we?)