WELCOME TO DALEYLAND

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

2009-10-02T10:32:00.006-05:00

NO OLYMPICS FOR DALEY!

I take great joy in knowing that Mayor Daley has got to be so incredibly angry right now. Poor little Daley didn't get his way. No Olympics for Mayor Dick. Chicago voted down in the first round.

I LOVE IT.

Now onto the next thing...Dick, just what are we gonna do with that Michael Reese Hospital campus now?

BEST MAYOR DALEY VIDEO YET

2009-09-04T10:56:00.005-05:00

Hello everyone and thanks for reading! Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the blog lately. I don't really have a good excuse for it, but I will offer this one: out of town/busy with work/needed a break.

But never fear, I plan to be back soon with more posts about our beloved mayor, King Richard Daley II.

In the meantime, check out this hilarious video about Mayor Daley, the Olympics, and violence in Chicago:

WANTED FOR MAYORAL ELECTION 2011: CANDIDATE WITH BRAIN

2009-08-21T00:02:00.016-05:00

When it comes to all the negative press - as well as one awesome lawsuit - for Mayor Daley recently, I definitely share the hopes of a blogger at Gapers Block. Countdown to 2011:

This is keeping something in the news and in people's minds, and assaulting the Mayor's reputation as the "CEO Mayor" who "gets things done".

To defeat Daley in 2011, we all have to start seeing the mayor for what he truly is. If Daley is the "CEO Mayor," then he is an executive much like the ones running Wall Street - a man concerned only with enriching himself and his cronies, no matter what the cost. For Wall Street, that cost is an economy in shambles. In Chicago, it's a broke and crumbling city.

Who knows, maybe this local business owner can give Daley a run for his money in the next mayoral election - Future Mayor Hopeful: "Wake Up Chicago":

A lot of people like to complain about the city's leadership. Few people take their message to the streets.

But Same Wolfson, owner of String-A-Strand bead shop in Lincoln Park, has started a political manifesto in the street windows of his shop.

Wolfson has officially announced his 2011 candidacy for mayor via handwritten signs hung in his store's windows. He uses the window space to ask citizens for write-in votes and to post his own political propaganda. Wolfson touches on subjects that are crucial to both the minds and wallets of Chicago citizens.

“Wake up Chicago. We can’t be that stupid to put these corrupt politicians back in office,” Wolfson said in one window sign. “Especially Daley and Stroger who sold the people of Chicago down the toilet selling the parking meters and raising the tax to the largest in the country.”

Though he probably doesn't have much of a chance in 2011, I must admit, Sam Wolfson does have some pretty awesome signs hanging in his storefront - or, as Chicagoist put it - The Best Storefront Manifesto You'll Read All Day.

We must vote every one out of office. These are some of the worst politicians in the country. No concern for the people of Chicago. Only for the money they can pocket. We must finally stand up and say "No More!"

Al Capone was a Piker compared to Mayor Daley and his band of crooks that run City Hall.

TODD STROGER: "STUPID AND LAZY"

2009-08-21T00:01:00.006-05:00

Photo via StrogerisaCrook.com

I cannot believe I have only uttered the name Todd Stroger but once on this blog. Lest you think I save all my hate for Mayor Daley, here is my Todd Stroger Post.

Get Ready for 4 More Years of Todd Stroger:

Ask anyone, even Cook County President Todd Stroger's closest pals, and they'll tell you Ol' Todd has bumbled his way through his first term.

Stroger has rankled reformers and regular folks by raising sales taxes and padding the payroll with friends, family and a certain steakhouse busboy.
His last budget proposal was so riddled with errors it had to be reprinted three times, though his staff read Government Budgeting for Dummies just before he took office.

County insiders swear Stroger spends more time shooting hoops at the East Bank Club than tending to county business. He's had trouble keeping his personal affairs in order. The IRS put a lien on Stroger's house because he didn't pay his personal income taxes.
Even some of his top supporters aren't too happy with the guy.

"Todd's problem is he's a little stupid and a lot lazy sometimes," one of Stroger's top 8th Ward lieutenants whispered to me during my days on the county beat.
And for that, Stroger's the Rodney Dangerfield of Chicago politics -- the guy gets no respect, as he fights rumors he won't run for re-election.

photo

I'm certainly not looking forward to another 4 years of Todd Stroger. I still cannot believe how he was shuffled into office after his father, former Cook County Board President John Stroger, suffered a stroke. And, in addition to all the issues mentioned above (you know - the busboy, the tax lien, the sales tax increase, the error-filled budget, the patronage), the idiot Cook County Board President also spent $24,999 of county taxpayer money to print but never distribute a wonderful publication known as Cook County Magazine:

Last November [2007], the Stroger administration gave $24,999 to a publishing company to produce Cook County magazine, which would provide "regular, positive press -- to counter-balance negative press often found in the mainstream media." As the Sun-Times notes, $24,999 is "one dollar under the amount that would have required the approval of the full Cook County Board."
Unfortunately for Stroger, the magazine's first issue -- which features a profile of his father and predecessor John Stroger -- will never see the light of day. The administration has opted not to release Cook County because it contains too many spelling and grammatical errors:

Stroger spokesman Eugene Mullins said he has 5,000 copies of the issue in his office -- and that's where they'll stay.

"I was asked to review it and decided not to distribute it -- not because of content, but errors and omissions in the article" about John Stroger, Mullins said. "Judging on grammatical stuff -- something misspelled or that's not a complete sentence -- falls back on the president. And this is a Cook County magazine. I have to find a way to get rid of them. I'm not distributing them."

Money well spent once again, Todd.

Like the time you spent $5,000 of taxpayer money on an embroidered carpet.

Or the time the state of Illinois froze federal grant money for your job training program because of questionable spending and accounting practices.

For more fun at Stroger's expense, see ToddStroger.com.

Even better - check out Todd Stroger's very own blog.
I really liked this post: Being Todd Stroger Is Not Easy.

photo via NatalieDee

MAYOR DALEY SONG BY CHICAGOCLOUT.COM

2009-08-20T15:00:00.001-05:00

Another Mayor Daley song. This one's by Chicago Clout and the Clout Meisters.

So when you turn around
A new scandal is brewing
Daley knows nothing
It's none of his doin'

Now I have to move out
My taxes too high
Daley don't care
Let the middle class fry

And why should we change
Everything is so good
Who cares if kids are getting shot in the hood
We're cuttin deals for our family and our friends
2016's when the world's gonna end

Chicago Clout
Little Richie's gettin' richer

MAYOR DALEY GOT SERVED

2009-08-20T00:01:00.003-05:00

FINALLY!
I have been waiting and waiting for someone to step up for all Chicago citizens and give Mayor Daley what he deserves. And government watchdog group Independent Voters of Illinois - Independent Precinct Organization finally made my wishes come true. They filed a lawsuit over Chicago's parking meter lease:

A citizens' advocacy group sued Chicago today in an attempt to have a court declare the city's deal to lease parking meters to a private company "illegal and void."

The suit, filed by the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization, claims the city did not have authority to lease its streets for an "excessive period" and that the city can't pay police to enforce parking violations for a private company. It also says the city can't ask the Illinois secretary of state to suspend driving privileges for failure to pay tickets issued at private meters.

See the complaint here or here.

More on the lawsuit:

In their lawsuit, the Independent Voters of Illinois along with Chicago resident Aviva Patt charge the parking meter privatization deal "unconstitutionally obligates the city to expend public funds in order to police, enforce and maintain the privately held and privately controlled parking meter system" -- a violation of the Illinois Constitution which states "public funds, property or credit shall only be used for public purposes." Earlier this year, the city leased some 36,000 meters to Chicago Parking Meters LLC for $1.15 billion for 75 years -- a move drawing the ire of motorists who are seeing a steep climb in rates.
At the heart of the suit is a belief that portions of the agreement are illegal, says the watchdog group's attorney Clint Krislov.
"The streets are a public way that the city is not authorized to lease to a single entity," he said, noting that the term of the contract is "excessive." "It ties up public assets and commits city council beyond the term of this future city council. To tie up a public way for an excessive period -- government doesn't have the authority to do that," Krislov said, citing case law.

The city's response so far has been predictable:

The City of Chicago Law Department had very little comment on the lawsuit but in a prepared statement, spokesperson Jennifer Hoyle said, “We have obtained a copy of the IVI-IVO’s lawsuit regarding the parking meter concession agreement. We have not been served with this lawsuit and it is not clear to us whether or not it’s actually been filed. However, based on our initial review we believe it is wholly without merit, both factually and legally. We do not believe it’s appropriate to comment in any further detail about this potential litigation, except to say that we will aggressively defend this transaction in court if the suit is filed.”

See more coverage here.

Thank you IVI-IPO. I couldn't be happier right now. I will definitely be following this suit closely, so check back for more.

Also, in case you missed it - more good news coming out of City Hall. Former City Worker Accused of Writing Herself $20,000 Check.

MAYOR DALEY RANT: NO-LYMPICS

2009-08-19T08:31:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share this awesome post from the Chicago Daily Observer. Be sure the check out the whole post, because Don Rose (the author) definitely gets it - NO-lympics for Me:

It is clear, however, that the mayor and his business confederates are spending a lot of money as well as much political capital buying up the opposition...This is one of the reasons my agnosticism has morphed to antagonism. Daley Inc. just wants this thing too much, which is always a dangerous sign.

...

But what I see more and more is the old non-Olympic game of Chicago-style political scam. Daley and his business crowd are in this for more than civic glory. More like fun and profit at taxpayer expense, desecration of parklands and a stiff-arm to minority communities. (Most minority leadership, however, has been bought.)

...
Daley says the city’s financial commitment will be limited, but he won’t permit a City Council ordinance to cap the amount of tax money we taxpayers will have to cover. He’s been caught in several little fibs about exactly what long-term fiscal commitments he made to the International Olympic Committee.

Would it be too paranoid to suggest that Daley might have much more than personal grandeur at stake here?

AS THE DALEY TURNS

2009-08-19T08:30:00.001-05:00

Did you enjoy Monday's "reduced-service" day? It looks like some people didn't get the memo about Mayor Daley shutting down the city: :

You could not get a library book or see a doctor in a city health clinic Monday in Chicago, but you could pay a parking ticket or fight to un-boot your car, provided you'd wait in a line long enough for an amusement park ride. Cops, firemen and privatized parking meters were working, however, even if nothing else was.

From a security guard answering phones in the mayor's office at City Hall to a harried staff collecting payments of fines at one of the few city offices open Monday, confusion and frustration reigned in the City that Works, which by design wasn't officially working at all.

I love that the Department of Revenue is an "essential service" now that King Richard has run our city into the red. Gotta have the city workers out there making him some money, even as the rest of the city is completely shut down to save $8 million. I also noticed that my neighborhood is only getting one side of its streets scrubbed, since one of our street cleaning days happened to fall on Monday. I would have thought Daley would keep up with the street cleaning so he wouldn't miss out on all those parking tickets he gets from his lovely street cleaning scheme. Funny, even when those worthless street sweepers come through, my street is still covered in garbage and dirt.

And, in case you missed it, Neil Steinberg at the Sun-Times had some nice words for Mayor Daley - Maybe Games Can Skip Mondays:

Every time a pothole opens up in the street, or an L train runs late, or a piece of old chewing gum is left on the sidewalk, Chicagoans must fight off an overwhelming urge to rush up to the mayor, hold the sooty fingertip of an otherwise pristine white glove under his nose and screech, "How is Chicago supposed to put on the 2016 Olympics when you can't even take care of THIS???"
Which is wrong because we never apply that logic to our personal lives ("How are we supposed to throw Nathan a bar mitzvah party in 2014 if we can't even clean our garage now?") Also pointless because Daley is a foaming fanatic when it comes to the Olympics. This is life or death to him -- we simply must get the Olympics, in his view, we must, and if we don't, should the Olympics go to Rio, or wherever, don't be surprised if our mayor utterly snaps, and slips into some fugue state where he believes the Olympics are here anyway. Can't you just see him? A broken and pathetic figure, sitting by himself on a folding metal chair in an empty Washington Park, cheering imaginary runners as they fly by in his shattered mind.

Still, obvious though the point is, sometimes this job entails stating the obvious, and today, "reduced-service day" in Chicago, somebody has to say it: If we can't even keep the city open on a Monday in August, if we can't even allow Chicagoans to check out a book or drop by a shabby CHA senior center, then how exactly are we going to mount a world-awing spectacle that will top all those Chinese drummers? Remember, we not only want to host the Olympics, but we have to do a bang-up job of it. What's the point of going through all this and getting the Games, only to botch them? "Remember the Olympic Opening Ceremony in Chicago? That bit with the six trained dogs doing somersaults? That was swell."

The die is cast. We'll find out in October whether we will host the 2016 Olympics. Until then, The City That Works doesn't. At least not today.
...
Here's my bet: If any city could attempt to save money by giving its employees a few days off -- there are others to come -- only to end up spending MORE money than it would have spent without the sabbaticals, that city is Chicago. Mark my words: By the time they tote up the overtime, doing the work that should have been done Monday, and the lawsuits from citizens who needed some service and didn't get it, plus the amount stolen because whoever normally watches the chicken coop on Monday was home watching, "Jeopardy," it'll end up costing us more. Just wait

Also, NBC Chicago reporter Steve Rhodes takes on Chicago aldermen and their expense accounts in a wonderfully titled piece - Aldermen Buy the Darndest Things (It's not Easy Being a Dolt):

Pity the poor alderman.

These people are paid a paltry $110,556 salary to do everything the mayor tells them to do, and they're supplemented by a measly $73,280 expense account.

Sure, that expense account alone is more than the typical Chicagoan makes, but aldermen have a tough job.

And, in light of last week's announcement that CPS will be raising our taxes, be sure to check out this article - Whose Fault is the CPS Budget Crisis?. Seems like there is plenty of blame to go around, including Mayor Daley and his wonderful TIF scheme.

Lastly, for your viewing pleasure, check out this video featuring 1980's Chicago:

MAYOR DALEY'S ROTTEN BARREL O CORRUPTION

2009-08-17T00:02:00.005-05:00

A local blogger discovered some Mayor Daley inspired art. Photo via True/Slant.

I often wonder why the eff people put up with the corrupt crap that goes on in Chicago. And I'm always glad to find out I am not the only one. From the blog cockroach people - The Mystery of Corruption:

Everyone involved in politics in this city knows that the system of fines and permits is used by the Machine to maintain its power. Who hasn’t heard about a business that refused to put up the campaign sign of a machine candidate only to be “visited” by a team of inspectors from every department imaginable? Who hasn’t noticed a brand new business that had no problem getting started because it happens to be owned by the alderman’s daughter? The bureaucracy is not merely inefficient and bad for business, it is also one of the many ways that the City perpetuates corruption. If the City were to alleviate the bureaucratic bloat, then what would happen to the time-honored tradition of bribing your alderman for a permit or zoning change?

It’s a mystery to me that Chicagoans–tired of all the scandals, tired of having their cars towed after two parking tickets, tired of being taxed for bottled water, and tired of their small businesses being shaken down–have yet to wake up and throw the bums out! When times were good, some may have looked the other way with regard to corruption and excessive taxation, but now, when every penny counts, I hope that Chicagoans will ask themselves...Is Chicago really the city that works?

Speaking of bureaucratic bloat, I also came across this great post regarding today's "reduced service day" for the city of Chicago. Chicago City Government Closed Today - Yet City Still Claims it can Afford 2016 Olympics:

It feels like the City has a lot of fat it can trim from the payroll so that it doesn’t have to shut EVERYTHING down for a whole day every once in a while. We’ve worked on projects for the City, and many people collecting checks from the government don’t do any actual work. There are people whose parents are political Ward Captains and other kinds of operatives in the Daley Machine who sit at a desk and read the newspaper all day. One friend of ours who works for the City has one of these “legacy” workers assigned to her team. His father is a well-known member of the black community loyal to Mayor Daley. So, the son collects a very large salary to sit on his legacy butt during the day, reading magazines, never doing any of the work he’s supposed to do. Our friend can’t say a word about him. His performance reviews are filled out by someone above her. He takes up space in her department and is technically on the books as being part of her team, but he’s free to do as he pleases, collecting big City checks.
How many of these guys are on the payroll?

How many other jobs out there are redundant, particularly in the Parks Department, where City workers are notorious for taking a crew of six guys out to dig a hole: one guy with a shovel, three guys leaning against the truck to keep it from flying away, another guy to supervise the shoveler, and a final guy to make sure the three guys holding down the truck don’t fly away with the truck.

The author also brings up some interesting points about the Olympics, so be sure to check out the full post .

I think former Alderman Dick Simpson really nailed it with this great quote about all of the corruption surrounding Mayor Daley (from the New York Times circa 2004):

Richard Simpson, a former Chicago alderman who teaches political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said political corruption had been an almost unbroken tradition in Chicago since the 1860's, including the two decades the mayor's legendary father, Mayor Richard J. Daley, was in office.

''To list all the scandals he's faced would be a book-length project,'' Mr. Simpson said of the younger Mayor Daley. ''Each time there's a new one, he makes a little change to the ethics ordinance or fires someone. His theory is that there are only a few rotten apples, but the real truth is that the barrel is rotten, and he's not ready to replace the barrel.''

DADDY DALEY AND HIS ALDERCHILDREN'S ALLOWANCE

2009-08-17T00:01:00.004-05:00

Have you ever wondered what the taxpayer bill is for the 50 members of the our City Council? Well, the Chicago Tribune decided to look into this very issue:

The yearly city tab to keep all 50 aldermen in business tops $25 million. More than $15 million covers payroll for workers employed by aldermen and the committees they head.

Aldermanic salaries are $110,556, although eight opted not to take the most recent raise of about $6,400, for an annual total of $5.5 million. That's all before the expense allotment of up to $73,280 each, which boosts city costs by as much as $3.7 million. Every alderman also has discretion over how to spend $1.32 million on ward improvements under Mayor Richard Daley's 2009 budget.

This is one way Daley controls the City Council. He lays off city employees and forces many others to take pay cuts, but then he gives the aldermen millions of dollars to control, increases their expense allotments, and sits compliantly while they vote to give themselves and their staffs a pay raise.

Daddy Daley gives his 50 little alderchildren a $75,000 allowance. Wanna know how they spend all that money?:

Chicago aldermen have used their newly expanded, taxpayer-funded expense accounts to hire relatives, lease expensive vehicles and pay for downtown parking, according to a Tribune analysis.

See for yourself how each alderman spends this money here.

And then, maybe you will want to ask these aldermen some questions. Like, maybe they can explain why taxpayers need to lease cars for their part-time job. Everyone in this city is driving around in taxpayer-funded cars - City Council, CTA, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. Seems pretty ridiculous to me. As Mick Dumke said, it's A Perk That Needs to Die. Pay for your own cars like everyone else, you bums! It sure must be easy to sell off our parking meters and parking garages and raise fees on both when many of you park your cars on the taxpayers' dime.

Seriously. WHY THE HELL DO WE HAVE 50 ALDERMEN?!

New York has 51 city council members.
But NYC also has almost 3 times as many people as Chicago!
NYC population: 8,363,710, Chicago population: 2,853,114

Los Angeles has 15 city council members.
And LA is bigger than Chicago by 1 million people!
LA population: 3,833,995, Chicago population: 2,853,114

Houston has 14 city council members.
And Houston is nearly the same size as Chicago.
Houston population: 2,242,193, Chicago population: 2,853,114

DICK DALEY HAS WORDS

2009-08-17T00:00:00.003-05:00

And now, some words from everyone's favorite mayor, Richard "Dick" Daley.

Dick Hearts Rick - Daley defends 22nd Ward Alderman Ricardo "Rick" Munoz, who used clout to get his daughter into an elite Chicago public high school:

“As a parent, he is speaking for not only his family, but his own constitutents,” Daley said. “They don’t have to accept the child. They can refuse the child because [aldermen] have no power over the Board of Education. They don’t fund them. They don’t review their budgets or anything else.”

Sure, no one felt pressure to admit the alderman's daughter simply because the City Council doesn't control the CPS budget. Riiiiiight.

And that isn't even true anyway:

What Daley neglected to mention is that the City Council approves the Board of Education's property tax levy and ratifies the mayor's appointment of School Board members.

Daley should have just taken a cue from his father, King Daley the First, and told the reporters to kiss his ass:

The Mayor's father, Richard J. Daley, once famously sputtered that if reporters have a problem with a father helping his own kids -- think, for starters, son John and the insurance business -- they could kiss his ass. The late mayor's exact words: "If they don't like it, they can kiss my ass."

Dick Defends His Pick - Daley stands up for crony Michael Scott's deal to profit from the Olympics:

Dick Thinks He's Slick - Daley speaks about his call to shake up oversight of the city's scandalous minority business program:

"We want to make it much more transparent and much more effective for those that are applying," Daley said. "The Office of Compliance has become an expert in analyzing, tracking and monitoring processes and making them more effective."

Asked about the cases of fraud that have plagued the program, Daley said fraud also exists in the private sector, not just in government.

Well the private sector does it too! What is this, kindergarten? That still doesn't make it alright. Got it, Dick?

Meanwhile, some aldermen are still waiting for Daley & Co. to fulfill their promise to provide documents relating to the sale of Chicago's parking meters. How's that for transparency.

Sounds like a case for Reformer Man.

DICK DALEY AND HIS CORRUPT CRONIES

2009-08-13T00:01:00.001-05:00

So on Tuesday, the Chicago 2016 people didn't have a problem with Olympic Committee Member/developer/Chicago Board of Education President Michael Scott and his real estate deal near proposed Olympic venues. But then, on Wednesday, they changed their minds:

Michael Scott’s role in helping West Side ministers develop city-owned land near a proposed Douglas Park Olympic venue raised the perception of a conflict of interest and should have been disclosed up-front, Chicago 2016 acknowledged Wednesday.

“In hindsight, given Mr. Scott’s role as agent for the group, it is understandable that a third party, without knowledge of the facts, might perceive a conflict of interest,” Chicago 2016 said in a prepared statement.

"Without knowledge of the facts" huh? Well, why don't you enlighten us. Because from what I've read, I'm definitely "perceiving" a conflict of interest. And you can keep telling us that he has no financial interest in the project, but I'm just not buying it. This is Chicago, people just don't do this kinda stuff unless there is money coming their way. It's the Daley way.

Of course, you can take Daley's word for it. Here he is again defending Scott:

Wednesday's statement was a bit of an about-face. It happened as Mayor Daley once again defended Scott, a trusted mayoral lieutenant with a 30-year history with Daley.
“He’s been on the West Side of Chicago …We have more vacant lots. ... There’s thousands of ‘em. People are trying to do something with all these vacant lots. He tried to get ministers or anybody to do something with them — not to benefit himself,” Daley said.
“No financial interest, no professional interest. Nothing whatsoever. He told everybody that. [He said], ‘I have no interest. I was trying to help the West Side of the city of Chicago.’ He hails from there. He has lived there for many, many years.”

Listen Daley, I'm not buying this "he's doing it out of the goodness of his heart" crap. This guy's got 30 years of history with you. Do I need to say more?

Also, I had totally forgotten about Michael Scott's earlier appearance in the headlines. Check it out. From Chicago Breaking News on May 2, 2009 - CPS President Urges Principals to Push 2016 Bid:

The president of the Chicago Public Schools board, who is also a member of the Chicago 2016 Olympic committee, has asked all of the city's school principals to get on board with the push to bring the Summer Games to Chicago.

In an e-mail sent April 22 to principals, Board President Michael Scott said: "I am requesting that you register your school for Olympic Week in America. Please take a few minutes to identify a staff person who can register your school. ... You must sign up by Monday, April 27."

Olympic Week in America is a promotional effort to raise the profile of Chicago's bid starting Monday.

Peterson's e-mail stated that each school's participation would be graded as "gold, silver or bronze," with the lowest level including developing an "Olympic week proclamation," raising the Chicago 2016 flag at the school, and including Olympic-themed activities in the classrooms. The e-mail also said that a person from Scott's office would be following up by phone with the principals.

Although teachers union officials said Scott's e-mail was a heavy-handed attempt to force school employees to support the bid, the board president said that's not what he intended.
...
Still, the move smacked of coercion for some, including the Chicago Teachers Union, whose officials said several schools located near proposed Olympic venues have been slated for closing.

"The language in the memo didn't seem to leave participants much choice," said Rosemaria Genova, press secretary for the Chicago Teachers Union. "Many people favor the idea of the Olympics coming to Chicago, but it is difficult for principals, teachers and staff to participate in Olympic-themed activities when schools are closing in areas near Olympic venues."

See, this is how it works. Daley's cronies force the Olympic cause upon all us regular citizens and then Daley repays their loyalty with sweet real estate deals and contracts. Yeah, that sounds more like it.

Speaking of forcing the Olympics down our throats, what about an update from the ongoing Chicago 2016 Community Meetings? Well here we go.

These Chicago 2016 people think they are so clever with their non-binding Memo of Understanding on minority contracts, affordable housing, and local employment. Fortunately, Chicago citizens are calling them on their bullshit - Bronzeville Not Buying the Olympic Guarantee:

Apparently, Chicago 2016 thought that they had outfoxed the coalition -- and the public -- by handing them the MOU and walking away with some favorable headlines. Indeed, while appearing at one of the bid committee's community meetings in Bronzeville last night, chairman Pat Ryan attempted to trot out the document as "legally-binding" evidence that the South Side is in line for big gains. Luckily, the residents in attendance -- invited from the 3rd, 4th, and 20th Wards -- knew better.

"You're selling it like it's going to protect us," Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization's Jitu Travis told Ryan. "It's not. Where's the legally-binding document?"
...

If last night's meeting is any indication, South Siders are catching on. When Ryan attempted to prove his confidence in the Chicago 2016 plan by offering to bet each audience member $1,000 that they won't pay for any of the Olympics, he was virtually laughed off the stage.

Now we just need to laugh Daley and his goons out of town. I'm going to start laughing now. Tell me when they are gone.

DALEY RANT: DICTATOR DALEY STRIKES AGAIN

2009-08-13T00:00:00.010-05:00

I came across this amusing blog post about our very own Dictator Dick Daley.

A Little Fascist, Doncha Say, Mayor?:

As if the mayor hasn’t saved enough money on campaign signs over the years, he’s found a new method: engrave his name into the ground. My girlfriend and I were walking around California and Fullerton a couple months ago. City workers had shut down the sidewalk for some sort of project, and now everything was clear and back to normal. They had redone the alley, except now it read “Chicago Green Alley. Richard M. Daley, Mayor.” No green campaign slogan necessary – instead it’s all around the city.

It’s downright fascist to live in a place where aldermen, local governments, and other governments pander to the mayor with signs above every festival stage...

At a meeting a month ago, in Chicago, I learned that the Seattle City Council has a 40-person office to pore over all details of the city’s budget. Chicago, with six times as many people and six times as many councilpeople and six-hundred times the legacy of corruption, has no such office.

Hahaha! Why would we want to pore over the city budget when we have Mayor Daley to take care of it for us? Apparently you didn't hear - Daley's government is leading by example when it comes to transparent government. And he is more of a reformer than anyone!

MANNY! SAY IT AIN'T SO!

2009-08-13T00:00:00.009-05:00

Well, the anti-Daley/anti-Olympics movement just took a big hit. Ben Joravsky reports that First Ward Alderman Manny Flores is not following through with his plan to cap Chicago taxpayers' liability for the Olympics at $500 million. Who'll Be the Bad Guy Now?:

With Mayor Daley essentially asking for a blank check to pay for the Olympics, the taxpayers of Chicago could use a little boldness from their City Council. But Manny Flores, one of the few aldermen occasionally willing to stand up for good government, seems to be retreating from his vow to fight for a $500 million cap on public spending for the games.
...

It's clear that Flores originally underestimated the repercussions of what he put forward. Had the council adopted it, it would have torpedoed Chicago's chances...But even if it had no chance of passing, a public debate on the cap would have damaged Daley's Olympic efforts, shining a spotlight on the city's fiscal troubles—the soft underbelly of the Chicago bid—and providing a forum that could energize the opposition. Given all that, it's remarkable Flores found 11 aldermen to sign on in the first place.
...
In other words, Flores asked the bid committee to do the kinds of things that the city already claims to do but really doesn't. If the past is any predictor of future—and it usually is—the 2016 folks will say sure, no problem, we were going to do this stuff anyway. And then they won't do it, just like they haven't done it in the past, as the City Council stands haplessly by.

Be sure to check out the entire article here.

Then commence with the heavy sighing.

I will join you.

Of course this news is even worse when we see the status of all those private donations that are supposed to pay for Chicago's Olympic games:

The sum was raised from 3,600 supporters, or more than 1,000 more than attended last year's fundraiser. They paid at least $500 per ticket to attend the 2009 U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame induction ceremony at McCormick Place.

The first major fundraiser, in March 2007, raised $9.4 million, and the second, in July 2008, raised more than $12 million. This fundraiser comes at a time of deep recession and at a point when the bid has met its main targets.

Chicago's final fundraiser for its 2016 Olympic bid drew the biggest crowd yet, but raised only about $5 million Wednesday evening, the lowest tally of three major events aimed at luring private cash.

Remember, Chicago taxpayers aren't going to be on the hook for the cost of the Olympics. Mayor Daley said so. And we all know what that promise is worth.

DALEY. TAXES. DALEY. TAXES. DALEY. TAXES. DALEY. TAXES. DALEY. TAXES.

2009-08-12T00:01:00.011-05:00

Surprise Surprise, there's another budget doomsday in Chicago and your property taxes are going up! Even though Mayor Daley asked them not to and said tax increases would be a last resort, Chicago Public Schools are raising our taxes:

Faced with a “tsunami” of teacher pension costs, Chicago public school officials want to raise city property taxes by $43 million, or 1.5 percent, a new budget released today indicates.
...
And, [Chicago Schools CEO Ron Huberman] warned, even worse news is ahead. The next budget deficit, in fiscal year 2011, could top $900 million — a hole so big the system would have to increase class sizes and eliminate teachers unless “cost containment on the pension and wage fronts’’ is achieved, Huberman said.
...

The proposed property tax hike would be the 13th time in 14 years that CPS has raised property taxes for schools since Daley’s 1995 school takeover. Last year was the only time no such increase was levied, with Daley saying at the time, “Chicago taxpayers deserve a break. People are hurting.’’
This year, residents are suffering even more, with layoffs and furlough days mounting, houses locked in foreclosure, nest eggs shrinking and anger off the charts about the steep increases in parking meter rates.

And here's Mayor Daley defending this tax hike:

“They’re not raising property taxes. We’re abating 50 percent of the property tax. ... Instead of going up to $83 [million] or $100 million, we’re abating about fifty-some million,” Daley said.
“We’re abating almost 50 percent [of what the tax increase could be]. That’s what we’re doing. Any other questions?”

Uh, I got a lot of questions. Like ARE YOU SERIOUS? And, please go away. Wait, that wasn't a question.

Mayor Daley thinks because the tax hike is only half of what it could be, that it is somehow defensible. Defending the indefensible. Only in Daleyland.

And who is he to talk?:

Over the last two years alone, Daley has raised taxes, fines and fees by a whopping $329 million, including an $83.4 million property tax increase, the largest property tax increase in Chicago history.
The City Council also approved a 40 percent increase in the city's real estate transfer tax to bail out the CTA.
The mayor’s preliminary 2010 budget has a $520 million gap that can only be closed by cutting services, raising taxes or a combination of the two.

But wait! It looks like our compliant little aldermen are not pleased with the possibility of another tax hike:

“People are despondent. They’re frustrated. They’re sitting on the sidelines waiting for this elusive recovery to appear on the horizon,” Northwest Side Ald. Tom Allen (38th) said Tuesday.
“It’s a little less … politically radioactive when you’re talking about educating our kids. ... It’s not like handing out money to developers. But, part of it goes back to all the money we have tied up in [tax-increment- financing]. If that money wasn’t siphoned off to all the TIF districts, it would be available to education.”
Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) predicted that the $43 million school property tax increase would bring long-simmering anger among his constituents to a boil.
“This is clearly another step that’s gonna force more people out of the city. People are gonna say, ‘What’s the value of our education system? Where are we going with it?’” Fioretti said.

Speaking of budgets and taxes and Mayor Daley in our pockets, check out this tremendous post at Progress Illinois - Daley's House of Cards:

It means Daley has, for years now, been building a house of cards. Rather than facing the problem head-on and developing new sources of revenue, the mayor has chased short-term fixes. He has leased valuable public assets despite evidence that the deals represent a long-term loss to taxpayers. Meanwhile, he has watched hundreds of millions in public dollars flow towards his tax increment financing (TIF) fiefdom. Apparently, he is just crossing his fingers that the Olympic bid or a rejuvenated economy will save him from this downward spiral. In the midst of all this, the mayor has asked city workers to sacrifice again and again, despite the fact that the resulting savings are negligible.

Summary: Taxes for schools are going up for the 13th time since 1995...and things look even worse for next year...and Mayor Daley's still got over $1 billion in TIF funds...and he's handing it out to corporations and developers...and people are losing their jobs and homes...and mayor Dick's got a great idea - let's get the Olympics! One house of cards, coming right up.

Enough! Let's get rid of this bum Daley! DTMFA!

ANOTHER OLYMPICS POST

2009-08-12T00:00:00.003-05:00

A great idea from Tribune columnist David Greising via Progress Illinois - Subject Olympic Committee to FOIA:

If Chicago's taxpayers are to offer an indispensable guarantee, they should get more than the world's biggest swim and track meet. They should get, in fact, a tool that will provide a close-up view into the wheeling, the dealing, the high jinks and palm greasing that will make the 2016 Games uniquely Chicago [...]

In other words, the City Council should insist -- and Chicago 2016 should agree -- that the organizing committee become subject to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act [...]

Chicago 2016's demand that it needs an unlimited financial guarantee, not to mention $500 million from the city and $250 million from the state, makes organizing a Chicago Olympics a very public matter [...]

Openness should be the price of putting taxpayers on the hook for the 2016 Games.

That whole FOIA thing might work out great when deals like this pop up. Speaking of Michael Scott, get a load of this:

Mayor Daley’s Chicago 2016 panel has no problem with committee member Michael Scott’s role developing a for-profit real estate project near a planned Olympic venue, according to a statement the organization released Tuesday night.

So Mayor Daley's panel has no problem with Mayor Daley's crony profiting from Mayor Daley's Olympics. Sounds about right.

And one last thing - check out two great posts by Community Media Workshop on the potential effects of the 2016 Olympic Games on Chicago's parks and architecture.

Part One - Olympic Legacies: Give or Take:

In selling the games to Chicago's residents, meanwhile, promises of park enhancements and sports programs for kids, as well as affordable housing, have been featured alongside visions of jobs and boom times.

But current plans put great burdens on parks, and they involve the imminent demolition of a major responsitory of the city's historic architecture (see part two).

In many cases promised "legacy" facilities seem designed not to meet actual needs of current park users but to accommodate the requirements of Olympic planners. In many cases they involve taking away existing resources while promising residual benefits sometime in the future.

In some cases they involve taking away facilities that have been only recently built.

And I thought this was very interesting:

Chicago 2016 did not respond to repeated requests for information regarding the source of funding for restoring Washington Park, relocating pools from the aquatic center to other parks, restoring Jackson Park's $500,000 track, or converting the open-air velodrome in Douglas Park into a year-round recreation center. Those costs don't seem to be included in projected construction costs; $400 million for the stadium is obviously a low-ball figure.

I haven't heard too much about this subject, but I am definitely curous about these costs and who is going to pay them. Anyone heard anything?

Be sure to take a look at part two of the series - Architectural Legacy Threatened.

And, for more on these topics, check out Olympics 2016: Cementing Chicago's Future or Steamrolling its History? and A Promise Made to Be Broken.

D'OH-LYMPICS

2009-08-11T00:01:00.005-05:00

photo by Johnye West

More questions about the Olympics. Because when Daley is involved, you can never ask enough questions.

At Reform Cook County, Tony Peraica wonders what the major cost overruns on the Beijing, Vancouver, and London Olympics will mean for Chicago 2016 - All Signs Point to Olympic-Size Bum Deal for Taxpayers:

The experience of other major Olympic host cities, combined with the City of Chicago’s track record of botched budgets and deadlines for other projects, doesn’t bode well for any taxpayers hoping to avoid footing the bill for the 2016 Olympic Games.

All the more troubling given today's news about the City of Chicago's budget woes.

Despite Mayor Daley’s and Pat Ryan’s cheerleading for the 2016 Games … all signs point to a bum deal for the Chicago (and Cook County and Illinois) taxpayers.

Huge project, billions of dollars, Mayor Daley...Yeah, I'd say bum deal for the taxpayers is spot on.

A post from No Games Chicago draws parallels between the Olympic efforts in Vancouver and Chicago. Civil Liberties Nightmare and Worse - Learn from Vancouver:

I look back to 2003 and what is happening with Chicago’s Olympic bid is eerily reminiscent of Vancouver’s successful bid six years ago. Then, as now, bid boosters were promising local citizens the world: fame, wealth, and the host of goodies that would flow from a nod from the IOC. Vancouver’s then mayor promised that the 2010 Games wouldn’t cost the citizens ‘one penny”, that provincial and federal funds would be leveraged for local needs, and that the entire process would be completely transparent and accountable. Bid organizers promised a host of goodies including “the greenest Games ever”, an arts legacy, and “social inclusivity” (short hand for social housing). It was a lovely dream and many Vancouverites bought into it...

Six years later, a majority of Vancouverites who supported Vancouver’s bid are having serious second thoughts as the early predictions of the “nay sayers” and “party poopers” are turning out to be frighteningly accurate. Those who opposed bringing the Games to Vancouver, and I was one of them, noted that cost estimates for staging the Games were vastly underestimated while at the same time as the benefits were grotesquely overestimated. We were right, and in spades.
...

Civil liberties? Forget them. The security services have now concluded that the potential for domestic protests against the Games is a greater threat than Al Qaeda and legislation at all levels of government is aimed at suppressing legitimate dissent. Since those opposed to the 2010 Games don’t plan to simply give up and lie down, we now face the prospects of preventative arrests and the widespread suppression of civil liberties. If the current trends continue, February 2010 will see massive clashes between protesters and police.
So if this is Vancouver’s past, present, and future experience with the Olympics, what should Chicagoans think and do?

Others have also hit on questions about the Olympics, expanded police powers, and civil liberties:

Chicago and the Olympics: Civil Rights Violations Ahead:

London's security budget is enormous, but it isn't out of step with recent Olympics. Athens spent $1.5 billion on security for the 2004 Summer Olympics, and Turin spent $1.4 billion on security for the 2006 Winter Games. Perhaps sticker shock is the reason why Chicago has yet to release any real information regarding the potential cost and size of security for the Olympics. It's hard to imagine that the cost of security for a Chicago Olympics wouldn't match match or far exceed the security budget for London in 2012.

In this atmosphere, Chicago residents should be certain that the cost of "security" won't be limited to monetary concerns. If past Games are any indication, residents of Chicago will find their civil rights on the chopping block.

Police Powers for 2012 Olympics Alarm Critics:

The government was accused tonight of giving itself draconian powers to clamp down on protests at the 2012 Olympics. Critics said the powers were so broad they would potentially give private contractors the right to forcibly enter people's homes and seize materials.
Opposition parties and civil liberties groups criticised the powers as top security officials announced plans concerned with keeping the games, to be held mostly in London, safe from terrorist attack and from "domestic extremists" and public order problems like disruptive protests.

Thought Police Working Overtime in Whistler:

Over the past few months, law abiding citizens along with dissenters of the 2010 Olympic Games have been visited in some form or another at home, at work, or by phone by the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU).

When you have a billion dollars security budget to play with, the sky's the limit.

Police Given Powers to Enter Homes and Tear Down Anti-Olympics Posters During 2012 Games:

Police have been handed 'Chinese-style' powers to enter private homes and seize political posters during the London 2012 Olympics.
Little-noticed measures passed by the Government will allow officers and Olympics officials to enter homes and shops near official venues to confiscate any protest material.
Breaking the rules could land offenders with a fine of up to £20,000.
Civil liberties groups compared the powers to those used by the Communist Chinese government to stop political protest during the 2008 Beijing Games.

There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. you had to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized. - 1984

OH, VANECKO!

2009-08-11T00:00:00.005-05:00

Mayor Daley's nephew Robert Vanecko just won't go away.

The Sun-Times has more on the ongoing saga involving Vanecko and city pension funds. Daley's Nephew Gets Break from City Pension Funds:

Vanecko's negotiations with the pension fund officials are outlined in e-mails and other documents that a federal grand jury recently subpoenaed. Authorities are looking into how the pension funds decided to invest with the mayor's nephew, even though his new company had no track record; acknowledged that, despite potentially big payouts, its investment strategy was high-risk, and had been turned down by six other government pension funds.
Two weeks after the grand jury subpoenas were issued, Vanecko announced in June he would leave DV Urban by July 1. Neither the company nor pension officials would say if Vanecko has indeed left the company he started with Allison Davis, a longtime Daley ally in the city's African-American communities.

The Sun-Times also reports that Vanecko's company plans to build a high rise in the South Loop using city pension funds:

Next up for DV Urban Realty, the investment company Mayor Daley's nephew created to manage city pension money: building a $120 million high-rise in the South Loop.

Robert Vanecko and his company have a contract to buy what's now the South Loop headquarters of the National Association of Letter Carriers at 1411 S. Michigan, which they plan to knock down and replace with a 220-unit apartment building.

DV Urban -- which Vanecko owns with partners Allison S. Davis and Davis' son Jared Davis -- has spent more than $4.7 million from city pension funds on the deal, records show.

Vanecko must be banking on the Olympics. After all, it was Mayor Daley that said this economy isn't getting better any time soon and that the Olympics will be our economic savior. I mean, why else would Vanecko's company be spending pension funds to build a high-rise in the over-condoed South Loop? For the sake of the city workers whose pensions are on the line, I hope he knows what he's doing.

CHICAGO OLYMPICS BROUGHT TO YOU BY MAYOR CRAZY FACE

2009-08-10T00:00:00.012-05:00

photo by Johnye West

As long as this Chicago Olympic nonsense is going on, there will be great(!) news coming out of City Hall.

First, as expected we have TIFs for the Olympics! City Creating TIF to Draw $100 Million to Transform Hospital into Olympic Village:

Chicago taxpayers must spend $100 million to transform the old Michael Reese Hospital site on the Near South Side into an Olympic Village.

On Wednesday, Mayor Daley's Olympic bid team confirmed the $100 million price tag to install roads, sewers and utilities, raising questions about how the Chicago 2016 committee and Daley can continually say the Games won't cost taxpayers a dime -- especially when the city is dealing with a fiscal crisis.

While Chicago won't know until October if it will win the 2016 Summer Games, the city has agreed to create a TIF district surrounding Michael Reese to generate the $100 million.

Ben Joravsky has some words about TIFs for the Olympic Village at Michael Reese Hospital. Check out his post More Magic Beans:

Look, people, if you truly believe these games are worth the fortune they will obviously cost us, or if you don't care about the public cost but think your business might somehow or other get a crumb or two from the Olympic pie, than go ahead, join the mayor's parade.
But for your own self respect, please don't be dumb enough to believe the bull.

Also in the news lately is a Daley ally - Olympic supporter, real estate developer, and Chicago Board of Education President Michael Scott. He has been subpoenaed in the ongoing federal grand jury investigation of the admissions process at elite Chicago public schools. Scott has also been exposed for his part in a deal to develop land near proposed Olympic venues:

A member of Mayor Richard Daley's team working to bring the Olympics to Chicago has quietly arranged to develop city-owned land near a park that would be transformed for the 2016 Summer Games, potentially positioning himself to cash in if the Games come here, a Tribune investigation has found.

Developer Michael Scott Sr., an early member of the mayor's Olympic committee, leads a group planning a residential and commercial project on lots kitty-corner from the proposed Douglas Park sporting venues, a location where land values could jump if the city gets the Olympics.
...

Scott owns Michael Scott & Associates, a real estate development and investment firm. He also serves as president of the Chicago Board of Education, and was in the news earlier this week when he said he was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury looking into admissions to the city's elite public schools.

Scott's designs on the public land are sure to reinforce concerns of residents that it's the mayor's friends who would benefit from Daley bringing the 2016 Olympics to the city. The story is a familiar one in Daley's administration, where City Hall insiders have personally profited from even the most civic-minded of projects, from recycling garbage to building Millennium Park.

Of course, Daley initially refused to answer questions about another one of his friends caught with his hand in the city cookie jar:

I'm sorry I can't answer questions every day. Every day, I do it enough," Daley said.

Asked by a Tribune reporter when he would be available to talk about Scott's project, Daley said the question insulted him.

"Oh, I do it everyday, you've been with me every day. Never insult me with that question," Daley said. "You're insulting me because every day I'm here, you're never here. And don't print that, so I know you'll print it."

But later, Daley gave in and offered up this wonderful explanation:

Mayor Daley denied Saturday that Michael Scott, a member of the Chicago 2016 committee, would financially benefit from a proposed West Side development near the site of a potential Olympic venue.

"He's not involved," Daley said after the Bud Billiken Parade, where he spent the morning riding a float blasting out the music of Beyonce. "He's supporting the Olympics. Everybody is supporting the Olympics."
...

"The facts are wrong. The conclusions are wrong," Daley said, later adding, "He never had any interest -- none whatsoever."

However, the Tribune's Clout Street blog calls Daley's claims into question:

Scott...is listed as the project's developer. Letters of support from Ald. Sharon Denise Dixon (24th) refer to the project as Scott's development and made no mention of the ministers. Scott said she was mistaken in both letters, though he never asked her to change the wording. Also, in state incorporation papers, only Scott is listed as the only officer of the firm, WMC-I.

Daley attempted to dismiss that. "It doesn't matter, he had no interest," he said.

The mayor also accused reporters of trying to hurt Scott and the city's bid for the 2016 Games.

Naturally, John Kass was there to comment on our beloved Mayor Chucky - Queries Unleash a Terrifying Alter Ego:

Many of you probably don't know this, but the mayor's office insists that reporters stay "on topic" at most of his public events.

"On topic" means that he'll talk about the stunt of the moment, so reporters can give oodles of coverage to the news managed out of the mayor's press office. Many days, the mayor's schedulers inform reporters he'll only accept questions "on topic." And then you see the stunt on TV, the ribbon cutting or the meet-and-greet with the children or the seniors, and you think you're actually watching the news.

But a few local reporters on Friday, including a young Tribune reporter named Dan Blake, figured they should act like reporters, not press agents. So they dared ask "off topic" questions about Michael Scott. That's when the Mayor Chucky came out.

"No," he said. "this is just gonna be on this."

Translation: Shut up and stay on topic.

"When do you think you'll be available next to talk about the deal reported about Michael Scott?"

"Oh, I do it every day," Mayor Chucky insisted. "You've been with me every day. NEVER insult me with that question! You're insulting me because every day I'm here, you're never here. And don't print that! So I know, you'll print it."

Huh? What? All Blake asked was a legitimate question about when the mayor would answer a legitimate question.

On Saturday, the mayor finally talked about Scott, but only long enough to deny, deny, deny and say reporters were making it all up just to hurt his feelings and ruin everything. "You come to conclusions, you're trying to hurt 2016. I don't know why. ...You come to conclusions!"

Oh what would we do in Chicago without a mayor who breaks into a sweaty, angry, "I'm the victim" persona whenever we dare to question his crooked ways?

photo

TIFS. AGAIN.

2009-08-10T00:00:00.011-05:00

photo by Chicago Reader

Progress Illinois is asking questions about Central Loop TIF expenditures with their post Corporate Welfare in Chicago's Loop:

While we're on the subject of the collective $10 million directed to MillerCoors and Willis Holdings, it's worth asking who else in the so-called Central Loop TIF district stands to receive taxpayer dollars this year?

According to the 2008 annual report recently posted by the city, an additional $29 million is scheduled to be spent on four other redevelopment projects, including $5 million to NAVTEQ, a subsidiary of cellular giant Nokia. In 2007, the Tribune reported on Daley's defense of this particular giveaway:

Daley, at a press conference Tuesday, said "there's nothing wrong with TIF assistance" for corporate relocations. Without them, companies like Navteq would leave Chicago, he said. "They'd go to Naperville or New York. New York is offering huge bonuses."
Then when a firm flees, Daley added, "there'd be a big headline, 'Why does Mayor Daley let those companies move?' "

photo via Chicago Journal

And Ben Joravsky continues his crusade against Mayor Daley and his TIF slush fund with an appropriately titled piece - Mr. Big Spender:

The Central Loop Tax Increment Financing district—the oldest and largest TIF of them all—came in with a boom and went out with a binge.
It was created more than two decades ago, to great fanfare, to try to lift what was then a struggling downtown, and it quickly amassed millions of dollars for Mayor Daley and other elected officials to play with. In 2008, at the legally mandated end of its 24-year life, the city spent about $365.5 million from the Central Loop TIF's coffers—more than the city has ever spent in a single year from any TIF fund, and more than the total expenditures from the TIF over the previous three years combined. For a little perspective, that's the equivalent of about 70 percent of the city's predicted budget shortfall for 2010.

The process for phasing out a TIF is fairly straightforward, at least according to state law. The city can either spend all the money before it's closed or hand over what it didn't spend to the schools, parks, county, and other taxing bodies.

Well, in early July, when the city finally got around to releasing the 2008 reports on its 160 TIF districts, we found out which option the mayor went with. I'll give you a hint: the schoolkids didn't win. Instead the Daley administration went on a spending spree Paris Hilton could only dream about. In fact, the city burned through so much money that it drained the Central Loop TIF account and then had to borrow a little money from neighboring TIF districts ($1.45 million each from the LaSalle Central and River South TIFs) to pay the Central Loop TIF's final bills. That's perfectly legal, by the way, since our state TIF laws are conveniently pockmarked with loopholes.

Damn. All this TIF money for Daley to throw around but he insists on crying poor, laying off city workers, slashing services, selling our assets, and pronouncing the Olympics as the city's only hope for the future. I call bullshit.

I figured out what Daley's doing with all of our money.

MAYOR DALEY RANT: RED LIGHT CAMERAS

2009-08-10T00:00:00.003-05:00

The Parking Ticket Geek has a great post on his superb blog The Expired Meter. If you love all of King Daley's Cameras as much as I do, give it a read - Oops! Chicago Forgets It's National Stop on Red Week:

You would have thought, a leader like Mayor Daley, who is so concerned about red light safety, would have earmarked some of the millions and millions of dollars in red light camera fines, to promote red light safety education programs like National Stop On Red Week here in Chicago.

This had to be a grievous mistake. It would be a major embarrassment. Right?

I figured, I just might not be paying attention. Perhaps I had just missed it.

So I started calling around to see what some city department were planning to promote National Stop On Red Week.

I checked with the Chicago Department of Transportation. Nope! Nada! Nothing!

I checked with the Chicago Police Department. Zip! Zero! Zilch!

Not even Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, which runs one of the largest red light camera programs in the nation, had anything planned.

What?!?

I just know this was some sort of teensy-weensy oversight of the Daley Administration. Maybe they just forgot.

Because everyone knows, red light cameras are NOT about revenue. No! Of course not!

Red light cameras are ONLY about improving safety at intersections and decreasing vehicle collisions.

Anyone who thinks different, is itching for a fight.

I’m 100% absolutely, positively, convinced, that the City of Chicago, which is so committed to the safety of its motorists, will actively participate in next year’s National Stop On Red Week.

Right Mayor?

Read the full post here. Read more of Parking Ticket Geek's posts on Red Light Cameras in Chicago here. Be sure to check out Red Light Cameras 101: Know Your Enemy.

photo via The Expired Meter

You can see a map of Chicago red light camera locations here.

MAKE A DALEY

2009-08-06T00:00:00.001-05:00

Make your own Mayor Daley! New and improved Olympics Version.

OlympicDaley

HISTORY LESSON: MAYOR DALEY - OLYMPIC ASPIRATIONS, POLICE TORTURE IGNORE-ATIONS

2009-08-05T00:00:00.007-05:00

There are many reasons I hate Mayor Daley. One of these reasons is that when Daley was Cook County States Attorney, he ignored Chicago Police torture under Officer Jon Burge. He could have done something to stop the torture, but he didn't.

Jon Burge, the Olympics, and Torture in Chicago:

Cmdr. Burge and his midnight crew at the city's Area 2 police station tortured more than 137 African American men over a two-decade span. In many cases, Burge and his medieval sect of detectives tortured the old-fashioned way, using nightsticks, flashlights, black jacks and telephone books. At other times they went above and beyond the call of cruelty by hand cranking a telephone box that generated an electrical current, then putting it to the genitals and rectums of the black suspects they were interrogating. Other cruel and unusual practices by Burge's "A Team" included cattle prods to the bodies and plastic bags placed over the heads.
...
Accusations that Lt. Burge and officers under him were torturing prisoners into confessions have been an open secret for nearly three decades throughout much of the city and county's criminal justice system. The rumors ran rampant in the early 1980s when Mayor Daley was the Cook County state's attorney.

Police Torture and Mayor Daley:

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald finally has done what Richard M. Daley should have done 26 years ago: He has indicted retired Chicago Police Detective Jon Burge for leading a band of brutal white cops who tortured hundreds of African-American suspects in criminal cases.

It was 1982, when Daley was the state's attorney of Cook County, that he was first reliably informed -- by Chicago Police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek -- what Burge and company were doing.

What went on -- plastic bags over heads, shackling to hot radiators, gun barrels in mouths, electrical shocks to ears, nostrils and genitals, cigarette burns to arms, legs and chests -- is now well known, having been cited repeatedly in court opinions. (Even Daley, belatedly, branded the torture "a shameful episode in our history.")

A "shameful episode" but sorry, as usual, Mayor Daley doesn't know anything about it.

However, if Daley were to know something, the Chicago Reader's John Conroy posed Twenty Questions about Jon Burge and Chicago police torture that the mayor should (but won't) answer. Maybe one day, Daley will finally be forced to testify under oath about this shameful period in Chicago history. After all, he said he didn't have a problem with it:

“If they require me to be deposed, I have no problems with that,” Daley said at a news conference. But that was before the February 27 election, when one of his challengers was urging voters to “say no to the Daley/Burge team.” After the election the city’s lawyers appealed Brown’s ruling to federal judge Marvin Aspen. They argued that questioning Daley under oath was “premature and may be unnecessary”—on the grounds that busy public officials like the mayor shouldn’t be compelled to testify until all other avenues of getting the desired information have been exhausted.

...

The mayor would have the public believe that he’s already been grilled on the subject. “I answered all those questions,” Daley said in February, referring to his interview with special prosecutors Edward Egan and Robert Boyle, who were appointed in 2002 by the chief judge of the criminal court to investigate the torture

...

The 49-page transcript has the special prosecutors asking Daley 81 questions and the mayor answering with variations on “I don’t recall” 20 times. Magistrate Brown described the transcript as containing “little useful information.” For some perspective, consider that when state’s attorney Richard Devine, who served as Daley’s first assistant, was questioned by lawyers for Burge victims last year, the transcript ran 574 pages without exhibits.

photo

DALEY'S TIF TRAINWRECK

2009-08-05T00:00:00.006-05:00

Progress Illinois has two great posts about Mayor Daley's TIF scheme and Chicago's estimated $520 million budget hole for next year. Check 'em out.

A Few Questions for Gene Saffold:

Since rolling out the bad-news budget for next year, there have been a lot of questions pointed at Chicago Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold. These include whether he's exaggerated the size of the hole in the budget (pegged at $520 million) and how money from the leases of several valuable city assets -- including the $1.15 billion parking meter deal, which was supposed to help balance the budget through 2012 -- could have possibly dried up so quickly.
...

If other municipalities in Illinois can release surplus TIF funds back to local taxing bodies, why can't Chicago?

Getting Creative with Daley's TIF Network

...The property tax revenue being siphoned away from local taxing bodies through TIF has more than doubled over the past six years — from $216 million in 2002 to $570 million in 2008.
It seems ridiculous to be redirecting so much money away from the general tax base at the same time that revenues are sharply declining. Indeed, with a little creative thinking and flexibility on the part of city officials, there are several adjustments to the TIF system that could provide some relief for cash-starved taxing bodies in Chicago. In this post, we’ll examine three potential modifications: redistributing surplus funds, terminating "elderly" TIF districts, and adjusting the TIF tax base for inflation.

photo via Joe Fournier at Zanimation - check the site out for some Chicago and Mayor Daley themed cartoons

WTD PRESENTS: MAYOR DALEY RANT - DONE WITH DALEY

2009-08-05T00:00:00.001-05:00

I've never been a fan of Mayor Daley...I run into so many native people...and they are: "That's the way government is, all government is corrupt, you just gotta get over it..he gets stuff done."...I just don't believe that is how all government is. And I don't beelive that you just have to settle for it...And how much better would our city be if it all wasn't corrupt and a bunch of money wasn't wasted.
...

Hopefully he's hit a wall. Hopefully he's screwed enough people over in the last year that people will remember and maybe not re-elect the guy.
...

That's one thing that's always bothered me about the guy. He's a little dictator. He does what he wants in Chicago. And the aldermen rubberstamp his stuff or he literally just does stuff and never has to be held to account for it.
...

Get rid of the King. This is not good democracy in any way, shape, or form. Because this is not democracy. That's really the truth.

There you have it, another Mayor Daley Rant from a Stranger.

Do you have a Mayor Daley Rant? Are you a Stranger? If you have something to say about Mayor Daley or Chicago politics in general, email me your thoughts. I will be happy to publish your rant here at Welcome to Daleyland.

VIOLENCE IN DALEYTOPIA

2009-08-04T16:30:00.001-05:00

There's trouble in Daleytopia!

In the month of July, more than 200 people were shot in Chicago. 42 of these people died. And, as Second City Cop points out:

31 shootings happened within a mile of Washington Park - Daley's choice for the Opening and Closing ceremonies.

Lost suburbanites can't make it home without being injured or killed when gangbangers ram their car.

Men can't walk home alone in Lincoln Park/Lakeview without being jumped, beaten, and mugged.

People's little dogs are being killed by burglars.

And we pay Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis $300,000 per year to run the Chicago Police Department into the ground.

When Weis was hired last November to clean up the Police Department, Daley justified his top salary by saying the former FBI agent would be wearing two hats: those of top cop and chief emergency officer.

"This man could go anyplace within the FBI," Daley said at the time. "He could go outside. I'm very responsible paying him that much money -- both for being [police superintendent] and for homeland security [chief]. . . . Yes, it's worth it."

But in July, Weis' authority to supervise response to disasters was diluted when Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco was named to head the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Daley said Orozco, not Weis, will be calling the shots at disaster scenes.

So I was wondering, Mayor Daley, are the Olympics going to fix all this violence too (Jody Weis obviously hasn't)? Because if they're not, I really wish we could focus Chicago's efforts on the important issues - like making our city safe. And I'm talking about the entire city - North, South, and West.

Until something is done, I know where I'll be - at Mayor Daley's house. With its round-the-clock police protection, it's the safest place in Chicago. So, citizens of Chicago, if you don't feel safe in your neighborhood, head on down to Daley's house! If you're lucky, maybe the King will let you camp on the lawn of his castle.

DALEY DOESN'T KNOW. DALEY NEVER KNOWS.

2009-08-03T00:00:00.002-05:00

So the Feds are snooping around in Mayor Daley's business again. This time, it's Chicago Public Schools. From the Chicago Tribune:

Federal authorities have launched an investigation into the admissions practices at Chicago's selective enrollment schools, the Chicago Tribune has learned.

Federal officials recently served a grand jury subpoena on Chicago Public Schools seeking information about the admissions process, sources said. Chicago Board of Education President Michael Scott confirmed Saturday that the district recently received a federal subpoena, but declined to elaborate because of the investigation.

And here's Mayor Daley with his usual response:

Daley chafed today when asked if he thought clout had not played a role in admissions, saying the question was akin to asking, "Do you think anyone has sinned today?"

"I mean, I'm the mayor -- I wouldn't know whether or not," he said.
The mayor frequently likes to recall his decision to take control of the public school system in 1995 as an example of his decisive leadership.

Mayor Daley's playing his favorite game. Anything good coming out of City Hall is all because of his efforts. But when scandal after scandal pops up, it's the same line, time and time again: "I'm just the mayor, I wouldn't know about that."

Yes Dick, of course. What would you know about the management of the city? You're only the mayor.

Here's something else I bet Mayor Daley knows nothing about - more city contracts for Daley friends and campaign contributors. Laid-Off City Drivers Protest Chicago's Shift to Private Firms:

About 60 recently laid-off Chicago truck drivers picketed Friday at a city facility on the South Side, protesting that politically connected private companies are now doing work public employees performed for Mayor Richard Daley's administration.

The protesters were among 141 drivers fired last month in a cost-cutting move after their union refused to accept unpaid furlough days and a reduction in overtime pay.

Under a deal that went into effect July 1, the city hired private contractors to haul construction debris from city work sites for the Water Management Department. Among the companies chosen was Reliable Asphalt Corp., which received a $158 million, three-year contract.

Reliable owner Michael Vondra has donated tens of thousands of dollars to local politicians, including Daley, the Democratic organization in the mayor's 11th Ward power base and the pro-Daley Hispanic Democratic Organization. City records show Reliable's lobbyists on the deal are Victor Reyes, a former Hispanic Democratic Organization chairman and top mayoral aide, and David Bonoma, son of Daley's longtime secretary.
"This is the second phase of Hired Truck," said laid-off driver Alex Kantrowitz, referring to the City Hall program that was disbanded amid federal bribery charges.

PREPARE THE TAR AND FEATHERS

2009-07-31T00:00:00.003-05:00

photo

OH BOY! Did you hear how the city of Chicago's budget sounds for next year? $520 Million in the hole. And you thought this year's $300 million budget gap was bad. Yikes. From the Sun-Times:

Even after wringing concessions from organized labor and drying up a "rainy day" fund created by privatizing parking meters, Chicago has a $519.7 million budget shortfall in 2010 that can only be filled with tax increases and spending cuts.

"There are no obvious sources of revenue that have not already been tapped," said Civic Federation President Laurence Msall.
"You have to make very severe and structural cuts in the city's operating budget. City government is going to be forced to re-invent itself in the way it delivers services and eliminates services not critical."

Msall was also quoted as saying:

"You have to look at personnel and personnel reductions because they represent 80 to 85 percent of the operating costs," said Laurence Msall, executive director of the Civic Federation.

Significant new taxes are unlikely, Msall added. "There is little that comes to mind that the city isn't already taxing or would be a new revenue source," he said.

Will Daley hold the line on taxes and fees? Are more layoffs coming? I'm not holding my breath. Daley cutting the fat from the city payroll is something I have to see to believe. I really won't be surprised to see Daley raising our taxes and fees. AGAIN. Seems pretty inevitable, right?

Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold said nothing is ruled out. But, the mayor has instructed his staff to avoid a property tax increase at all costs.

"We understand people are hurting out there. ... The last thing we want to do ... is to further burden the citizens of Chicago. That's why that is a last resort -- the last thing that we'll turn to," he said.

Last resort? Do you believe him? I don't. Is he really going to cut $520 million from city employees alone? There is just no way that happens. He can call a tax increase a last resort if he wants. I'll just call it another day in Daleyland. After all, we've heard this before: Only One Choice - Raise Taxes.

photo by Johnye West

Some people think there's nothing left for Daley to tax. But not me. King Daley always finds a way to get more money out of his lowly subjects. So prepare your bank accounts for further assault in 2010.

I'm definitely on the look out for the city to step up its creative revenue game. Like parking tickets, towing, and red light cameras. Check out this great rant:

So beyond this, we got to talking about other ridiculous revenue streams in her area. She said she was always curious about why they did so much street sweeping in her area. One would think it would be expensive to always have the street sweeper out there, right? Nope. They tried to cut back on street sweeping, but it didn't work; THEY NEEDED THE REVENUE they get from giving out parking tickets.

Look, I never took an economics class in my life, but even I know that if your budget relies on FUCKING YOUR TAX-PAYING CITIZENS WITH BULLSHIT TICKETS to survive, something is FUCKING WRONG WITH YOUR BUDGET. No matter what social programs and bullshit spending you WANT the government to do, the money for it HAS TO COME FROM SOMEWHERE. If that somewhere is "cops give out more tickets for people who commit non-dangerous and piddly offenses", like parking in a street sweeping area or jaywalking or all this other bullshit that people insist is for "safety" but is really just a revenue stream, something has to change. I can't believe people don't see this. Especially the people in positions of power, people who get paid a significant amount to come up with a budget that makes sense and is feasible. When that budget includes something like "have a street sweeper out there (which, for what it's worth, is probably burning more fuel per mile than a Hummer does in a month, considering how slow they go) twice a week so we can ticket people who park on the street", no one looks at it and says "hey, maybe that's not the best way to get revenue?" NO ONE?!

Fuck is the system broken.

MAYOR DALEY, BEARS FAN

2009-07-31T00:00:00.001-05:00

I came across this video via the blog Drunk Bears Fans.

If I didn't know any better, I would say this is video depicts a drunk and shirtless Mayor Daley yelling some nonsense at a Bears game.

WTD PRESENTS: HISTORY LESSON - ALDERMAN FRED ROTI

2009-07-31T00:00:00.000-05:00

You may have read a previous History Lesson about Mayor Daley's connection to the mobbed-up Duff Family. Now, it's time to learn about former Chicago Alderman Fred Roti and his ties to The Outfit.

Alderman Fred Roti

Chicago Democrats and the Chicago Mob:

Yes, there have been many corrupt Aldermen in Chicago. But, one man stands above all other in terms of institutionalizing corruption in Chicago: Alderman Fred Roti. Unless we understand the prolific criminal legacy of Alderman Roti,we can't understand how today, in 2008, Alderman Roti along with his friends, relatives, and associates have turned Chicago's city government into a racketeering enterprise...The Chicago Mob ran a "made-member" for political office to take control of a city. This is why the Chicago Mob went on to become the most powerful organized crime family in all of U.S. history...In 1999, the Justice Department announced to America what many had long suspected: Alderman Roti was a "high ranking made member" of the Chicago Mob.

Upon Roti's death, Mayor Daley resorted to his usual praise for his crooked friends:

Mayor Daley remembered the Alderman as a true Chicagoan who served his constituents without regard to wealth or status, as a public official who refused to permit the intensity of the political debate to impinge upon the civility of personal relationships. Fred Roti loved politics and loved government because he loved people, Mayor Daley declared, and he leaves his family a legacy of public service.

CHICAGO IS BROKE BUT MAYOR DALEY'S GOT $1.4 BILLION

2009-07-30T00:00:00.006-05:00

What's so funny Mayor Daley?

Oh, right. You're having your way with the citizens of Chicago. And the gettin's good. You raised our taxes and fees. You laid off city workers and forced countless others to take unpaid days off. Your police department is insanely understaffed. You claim the city of Chicago has no money. But you're still tenaciously pursuing the Olympics. And somewhere, someplace sits a whole lot of money - OUR money, NOT yours - from the leases of the Skyway, the parking garages under Grant/Millennium Park, and the parking meters. You claim you're saving this money for a rainy day. I'm not sure how much more stormy it can get. Didn't you hear?...This is the worst economy since the Great Depression.

And now, comes word of the 2008 TIF report. No Games Chicago reports you are sitting on $1.4 billion dollars:

TIFs have sucked $3.1 billion out of the city’s budget from 1986 through 2007. They have been used, abused and mis-construed. The Mayor demands them from Aldermen in order to get any improvements in the communities. They are like money-draining zombies that can’t be killed and continue draining property taxes out of a neighborhood for decades, no mater why they were started and regardless if they help or hurt local improvements.

So. Mayor Daley and your assorted minions, can you please stop threatening us with your lack of alternate plans for economic development. Stop telling us “It’s the Olympics or nothing.” Release the $1.4 billion from your TIF slush fund and fix our schools, expand CTA service, re-open the shuttered public health clinics and create real, sustainable and equitable community economic development!

So forgive me, Mayor Daley, while I continue not to believe you when you speak about the financial state of this city and say that the Olympics are our only hope.

Thanks to your parking meter debacle and your Olympic nonsense, people are finally catching on. They don't trust you and your henchmen. They are fed up with your corruption and greed. And they can't wait to see your house of cards tumble to the ground.

But don't take my word for it.

The Provocateur: Mayor Daley + Olympics = Gasoline + Fire

The 2016 Olympics will guarantee billions, if not, tens of billions in contracts that the city will have to dole out for construction, security, street cleaning, etc. There is already a standard operating procedure for how these sorts of contracts get doled out now. They go to Daley's friends, admirers, and allies. Only now the budget is infinitesimal compared to what it will be if the Olympics comes here.

Bringing the Olympics to Chicago will allow a corrupt mayor to run the city in the same corrupt manner only with an exponential new sets of resources, responsibilities, and powers. Is that really what the city wants? That seems to me to be pouring gasoline on top of a fire.

Mayor Daley AKA Little Lord Fauntleroy, brought to you by my favorite YouTuber.

I hope Richie Daley is realizing that he could get hauled away in handcuffs too. You know, this guy's got a thick skull. And I don't know if anything can penetrate this guy's thick skull. But I hope for his sake he's realizing it. Judging by his actions, I don't think he is.

photo by Johnye West

Little Daley Fauntleroy. What an accurate description. Just in case you don't know, Wikipedia says:

Little Lord Fauntleroy is most often used as a term of derision. It describes a pompous spoiled brat, usually a young male, who takes his wealth and privilege for granted.

ILLINOIS LAST IN GOOD GOVERNMENT GAME

2009-07-30T00:00:00.003-05:00

According to a report by the government watchdog group Good Jobs First, Illinois ranks last (with a score of ZERO) among all states when it comes to transparency in implementing the Federal Government's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ("ARRA").

The Good Jobs First study examines the quality and quantity of disclosure by official state websites on the many ways ARRA funding is flowing through state governments to communities, organizations and individuals. Looking at both spending programs and individual projects, it evaluates the general ARRA websites that all states have created as well as their website reporting specifically on ARRA highway projects. Based on ten different criteria, each state (and the District of Columbia) is graded twice on a scale of 0 to 100.

Another fine moment for the fine state of Illinois.

THE DECEITFUL DICK DALEY

2009-07-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

Are Mayor Daley and Pat Ryan lying to you about the Olympics?

Fox News Chicago asked [deceit specialist] Perry Myers of MSI Detective Services to review footage of 2016 Committee chair Pat Ryan and Mayor Daley claiming that taxpayers would not have to pay for the 2016 Olympics. After analyzing tells of deception, evasion and untruthfullness, Perry concludes "I would be highly skeptical and would look into this much further."

Daley's gestures are equally revealing. Watch him in this press conference in 2007.

DALEY: "The Olympics must not be a burden to taxpayers of Chicago, Illinois."

Did you notice any unusual movement? "He touched the side of his face one time. It's an unusual gesture. When you bring your hand up to your face, normal would be two, three, four times scratching...He may have been holding something inside or not telling the truth or not telling all the truth.

Perry is also intrigued by Daley's actions when our crew caught him at the airport after promising in Switzerland he would sign the IOC contract.

DALEY: "All the cities that were represented and the Japanese, Spain, and Brazil, they spent all their taxpayers' money. We don't spend any taxpayer money."

"He's blinking a lot. Again there are a few words that were jumbled up. We're not getting 100% disclosure...I would be highly skeptical and look into this further and want to examine things."

DALEY IS FOR REALS ABOUT FURLOUGHS

2009-07-29T00:00:00.013-05:00

Mayor Daley is apparently aware that we all know how cushy those government jobs are. From the Sun-Times:

Referring to the furlough frenzy sweeping the public and private sectors, he said, “Everybody should do it. It’s incumbent on government because taxpayers pay for your salary, pension and health care. They pay a lot. ... They’re saying, ‘You don’t pay anything for your health care? I have to pay for your pension?’ People are really focussing on this — more so in government than anything else.”

And so, Daley is ordering all sorts of city employees to take unpaid days off. Just look at that bloated city payroll:

*1,440 CPS employees in the administrative and central office group will be required to take six unpaid holidays.

*312 CTA employees who are managers or above, and other employees who earn more than $90,000, will be required to take three unpaid holidays. Twenty-six vice presidents also will take three additional furlough days.

*14 top officials at City Colleges of Chicago will take three unpaid holidays and three furlough days and 369 City Colleges employees will forego raises.

*46 Chicago Park District managers making $90,000 or more will be required to take five unpaid holidays and three days when city government shuts down.

*84 CHA directors and above earning more than $90,000 will take six unpaid holidays.

*10 Public Building Commission senior staff members will take five unpaid holidays.

DALEY DOES THE INTERNETS

2009-07-29T00:00:00.012-05:00

Another good post at Progress Illinois starring 1st Ward Alderman Manny Flores on WTTW's Chicago Tonight - Ald. Flores: Olympics Transparency "Has a Long Ways to Go":

FLORES: I'm not going to wait, I'll tell you that Carol. I'm not going to wait until the end of a fiscal year or a calendar year before I get information so I can distribute it to the citizens of the city of Chicago. And so I will say this -- I don't know why we have to make this harder than it really is. Given the way technology is, you see the federal government they have a mandate right now with the way that they use the money from the Recovery Act. Why not adopt the same principles? Why not adopt the same principles of the Asset Disclosure Act? Now we require that assets be posted online with the revenue that we generate through asset lease and to provide a line-by-line itemization of how that money's being used. Why not require that we put other information, perhaps statements of ethics, online?

Yo Daley and Chicago 2016...you ever heard of the Internets? Rumor has it, you can post all kinds of information on the Internets. And then millions and millions of people can access that information. And oh my god, wouldn't you know it, you can even do it for free.

Wait, you wouldn't want to keep people from knowing all about your Olympic shenanigans, would you? Oh right, that would be "inappropriate to talk about."

Come on Mayor Daley, it's 2009! The Internets. Learn it. Use it. Love it.

OLYMPIC VILLAGE DEMOLITION: CONTRACTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS

2009-07-29T00:00:00.002-05:00

So, last week, it began. The city officially awarded contracts to winning bidders for the demolition of the Michael Reese Hospital campus to make way for the Olympic Village. This being Chicago, it is important to take a look at who these winning bidders are, and also, whose campaign war chests these bidders have contributed to. And Reform Cook County has done just that: Follow the Money of Olympic Demolition Crew. Check it out.

And, if you are ever interested in learning a little bit more about who is donating money to Mayor Daley or who is getting city contracts, check out these websites:

CityPayments.org

A database of all vendors, contracts, and payments that have been posted by the municipal government of the City of Chicago to the Vendor, Contract, and Payment Search lookup tool maintained by the Department of Procurement Services.

Crain's Mayor Daley's Contributions Database (browse by Employer, Occupation, Contribution, Type, Date, State, Zip Code)

Using data filed by Mr. Daley's campaign committee with the Illinois State Board of Elections, Crain's created a searchable database of the Mayor's contributions going back to 1999.

MAYOR DALEY'S DALEYTOPIA

2009-07-29T00:00:00.000-05:00

A great post over at the blog In the Loop. For anyone that thinks Mayor Daley has made Chicago all flowery beautiful, please put down the kool-aid, leave your pretty little neighborhood, and go see the rest of the city for yourself. Or, check out the video Mayor Daley's Chicago for a glimpse.

Mayor Daley's Chicago

OLYMPICS DEBATE HITS NATIONAL STAGE

2009-07-28T00:00:00.015-05:00

Did you see the New York Times piece on Mayor Daley and his Olympic dreams? It seems the national media has caught wind of the local opposition that has taken hold with Daley's promise to sign Chicago taxpayers up for an unlimited monetary guarantee for the Olympics. Recession Shadowing Chicago Bid for Games:

To hear Ms. Healey and other bid leaders tell it, there is no downside...Organizers say private financial support is mounting, with $60 million raised so far for the bid, and no city dollars are expected to be needed for either the bid or the Games.
On that last point, however, residents of Chicago seem skeptical. They have heard promises before.
This spring, a $1.15 billion deal to privatize the city’s parking meter system turned into a fiasco after City Hall’s inspector general called it a dubious financial deal and after motorists said they poured money into fancy new meters that, in turn, spat out error messages. A few years ago, Millennium Park, a downtown centerpiece, opened behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget.
“You all are projecting we’re going to make a lot of money,” a resident, Robin Kaufman, told Olympics planners at a neighborhood meeting, one in a series intended to shore up support. “But the bankers were projecting they were going to make a lot of money. Bernie Madoff was predicting he was going to make a lot of money.”
Ms. Kaufman lifted a sign that read, “No Blank Checks.”
At a high school auditorium on the West Side, where the bid leaders showed glossy Olympics schematics and stood beside toned former Olympians, Stephanie Patton asked, “Why should we trust you?”

A big thank you to the New York Times for their attention to this matter. (And thanks also for mentioning the parking meter mess and Millennium Park.) Hopefully the IOC is paying attention as well.

SAY GOODBYE TO ALDERMAN THAT "BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF THE MAYOR"

2009-07-28T00:00:00.014-05:00

You may remember, Alderman Billy Ocasio wanted his wife to fill his seat. But Mayor Daley had other ideas. So he broke the Aldermanic Succession Tradition. Why? Well, I think Fran Spielman of the Sun-Times has nailed the answer - Daley appoints Maldonado as 26th Ward Alderman:

Thirty-two times in the last 20 years, Mayor Daley has appointed aldermen to fill City Council vacancies.
Unless the outgoing alderman was convicted and headed off to prison, the mayor followed the departing alderman’s recommendation on a successor.
Today, Daley broke the mold — by appointing 57-year-old Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado to replace Billy Ocasio as 26th Ward alderman.
...
Sources said Daley was not about to wear the jacket for continuing the Chicago tradition of hand-me-down politics — especially not for Billy Ocasio, who emerged as the mayor’s most outspoken City Council critic.
Billy Ocasio cast the lone vote against Daley’s 2009 budget while ranting against a mayor he claimed, “believes everything and everyone is expendable.” He also emptied a piggybank full of quarters onto his desk to protest a 75-year, $1.2 billion parking meter lease tied to steep increases in meter rates.
Veronica Ocasio “probably would have followed in her husband’s —and [former Ald.] Luis [Gutierrez] footsteps and beat the crap out of the mayor,” said a source who asked to remain anonymous.

Little Richie Daley doesn't like it when his aldermen disagree with him, so he took this opportunity to get rid of one independent minded voice on the City Council. Good for Daley. Awful for us. Thanks Dick!

And how the hell does Daley get to appoint aldermen anyway? What kind of democracy is this? Oh right. This is Chicago. We do things our own way - King Daley's way.

DALEY WARBUCKS

2009-07-28T00:00:00.012-05:00

You may remember that earlier this month the aldermen were questioning the costs the city pays to transport dead bodies. Well, the city has now negotiated with their contractor to pay $200 less per dead body. Even with the discount, Chicago is getting the shaft on this deal:

Outgoing Chief Procurement Officer Montel Gayles announced the price cut — from $915-a-body to $690 — at a Finance Committee meeting today during which Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) demanded to know why Chicago was paying more for the grisly service than any other government agency in the nation.
Dallas pays $94-a-body. San Antonio pays $125-per-cadaver. The Cook County Sheriff’s Police pays $250-per-body.

Something is not right here.

Speaking of things that aren't right, did you hear about the suburban teacher who is snatching up affordable condos subsidized by your taxes? 1 Man, 2 Affordable Homes:

The City of Chicago spends millions of dollars to create "affordable'' homes for working families.

The program has worked out really well for Rob M. Twardy, who bought one taxpayer-subsidized condo in March 2003 — and a second one just six months later.
And Twardy — who's 34 and teaches chemistry at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park — doesn't appear to live in either affordable home.
If the southwest suburban teacher could afford to buy two condos in one year, how did City Hall find that he qualified to buy any condo subsidized by Chicago taxpayers?

Your tax dollars at work ladies and gentlemen. Overpaying to transport the dead. Helping that poor teacher buy three condos. They're just giving it away! And here I thought we had a budget crisis. If that's not the case, I'm gonna have to ask: WHERE'S MINE?!

THE CHICAGO WAY IS THE CORRUPT WAY

2009-07-28T00:00:00.007-05:00

Confirming what many of us already know, Chicago takes the cake when it comes to political corruption. But the Sun-Times had to go ahead and ask: Is Illinois the Most Corrupt State?

With 42 agents, the Windy City outpaces New York and Los Angeles and is second in the nation only to Washington, D.C., in the number of FBI agents investigating public corruption...
Why are there so many corruption agents in Chicago?

"We have a lot of work," Chicago's FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Grant told the Chicago Sun-Times. "We've made it a priority to try and have an impact on what has been a historical problem in this state and this city. We're trying to have a significant impact on the way things are done."

Grant is the special agent who, in announcing the corruption charges against since-ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich last December, told the world that if Illinois "isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it is one hell of a competitor."

So far, the impact of his office's work has been slow in coming, he said.

"I keep seeing the same kind of crime," Grant said. "There's a casual acceptance of corruption in Chicago. It's significant here, it has always been significant here. I don't just mean politicians. I mean business people. There's a culture in this state that believes the only way to do business is to delve into the corrupt areas."

And, with that ringing endorsement, all Chicago citizens can hold their heads high. We finally found a way to beat New York and Los Angeles at something. When it comes to corruption, we are are no Second City. We are #1, grade A, gold medal, first place C-O-R-R-U-P-T.

Corrupt

a: morally degenerate and perverted : depraved
b: characterized by improper conduct (as bribery or the selling of favors)

And really, that is nothing to be proud of.

MAYOR DALEY, EVIL VILLAIN

2009-07-27T00:00:00.008-05:00

photo by Johnye West, resident photoshop genius

I always knew there was something familiar about Mayor Daley.
I don't know how I missed it before.
The cat.
The claw.
That sinister stare.
But it wasn't till he said this that I made the connection:

"I'll get you next time, Gadget. Next time!"

DICK DALEY'S GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

2009-07-27T00:00:00.007-05:00

As usual, I urge you to read everything Ben Joravsky writes. Wondering how those Olympic community meetings are going? Check it out - Wanna Buy an Olympics?:

In a more perfect democracy, the campaign to host the 2016 Olympic Games would have been the subject of intense public scrutiny from the moment Mayor Daley proposed it three years ago.

The financial projections would've been scrutinized by independent-minded aldermen and their whiz-kid staffers. There would've been public hearings where ordinary citizens would get to question Daley's Olympics planners. There might even have been a referendum, carefully worded to let people know exactly what they were getting into—something along the lines of "This could cost us all a ton of money. Do you still want it?"

And if the answer were yes, we'd have moved on to try to win the International Olympic Committee's approval.

But what Chicago has is not an ideal democracy. So here we are three years later, heatedly pursuing Mayor Daley's Olympics dream whether we want to or not.
...
That said, the two hearings I sat through were fairly impressive dog and pony shows.

MAYOR DALEY, WORDSMITH

2009-07-27T00:00:00.005-05:00

You can always count on Mayor Daley to say something great.

Back in 2001, the Chicago Reader recapped some of Daley's finer verbal moments - The Illustrated Mayor Daley:

"Scrutiny? What else do you want? Do you want to take my shorts? Go scrutinize yourself. I get scrutined every day." --on whether his brother Bill's potential run for governor would bring added scrutiny to the Daley clan

"We know every one of those children have a lot of ability. They can sing rap better than us." --on public school improvements

"Everybody would like to have a weapon in America....I've got people at City Hall who would like to be armed." --on rejecting a request to arm Aviation Department security officers

"I humble myself every day. I've a very humble person." --on declining to apologize to James Newsome, who was framed for a 1979 murder, then convicted by Daley as state's attorney

"You cannot be closing everything down because you see white powder. More white powder is sold to people in cocaine. When a powder is found on the steps of a CTA platform, if you start closing all the CTA platforms you'll start closing the highways down. You can't do that." --on the anthrax scare

Then, there are some recent Daley gems.

Like when Daley discussed watching Mark Buerhle's recent perfect game:

''I shut it off because I thought it'd be bad luck for him,'' the mayor said.

If Mayor Daley causes bad luck by just watching baseball on the television, what do you think he is doing to Chicago by actually running the city? This can't be good.

Of course, his bad-luck-bringing didn't stop him from showing up at some little league baseball games. The poor little leaguers, I wonder how much bad luck they experienced that day. And - more importantly - what could this mean for the Olympics? [Gasp!] All these sporting events in Chicago...and the mayor will be watching! We can kiss our gold medals goodbye.

Also, Daley finally explained why he can always claim not to know anything about city hall scandals...he just doesn't have all the "facts" figured out. Yeah, facts. That's it. Gotta have the facts:

“You always have to have the facts. Always have the facts," Daley said. "You ask me questions everyday. You ask me questions about anything. If you want to respond to it, you better have the facts. You've got to realize that."

And, the Mayor responded to questions about how violence in Chicago may affect his precious Olympic bid:

"It has no effect because, first of all, if you look at all the victims, they know each other and their offenders," Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley said.

Oh, I get it. It's OK for people to get shot and killed because they know each other. Of course. Everyone's just going around shooting people they know. That explains it!

So, just to recap: the Mayor's got bad luck (avoid his gaze), always have the facts (unless you're Daley, then claim to know nothing), and dont' shoot people you know (shoot people you don't know!). Problems solved. Daleytopia here we come!

MAYOR DALEY EATS HOT DOG

2009-07-27T00:00:00.003-05:00

And he was still hungry...

TIF TIF BOOM!

2009-07-24T00:00:00.014-05:00

A recent article in The Economist cites Chicago as an example of Tax Increment Financing run amok:

The bravura of this last vision suggests how TIFs can get out of hand. Chicago now has 158 such zones, covering 29% of its land and 13% of its property by value. Mike Jasso of the city’s community-development department says that businesses were leaving Chicago’s Loop before it became a TIF district in the 1980s; now the zone is thriving. Others are much more sceptical, contending that many successful TIF schemes are in areas that would have attracted investment anyway. Rachel Weber, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, thinks TIFs make Chicago’s “dysfunctional system of quid-pro-quo politics more dysfunctional”. Every local politician wants a TIF in his district, and developers are eager to contribute to campaigns in the hope of securing support for their projects. In April the city council passed a measure that will, at the very least, increase transparency.

It's always good to get mentioned in a prominent international publication, right Mayor Daley?
Sigh.

comic via Married to the Sea

SING THE DALEY SONG

2009-07-24T00:00:00.013-05:00

Another Mayor Daley song, this time, it's just the words. Sing it to yourself now:

When Dick Daley was a little baby
Sittin on his mammies knee,
He took some land in his grubby little hand
Said Chicago will belong to me, lord lord,
Chicago will belong to me.

When Dick Daley was in the first grade,
His future was realized,
Cuz before he got into the Second Grade,
He had the whole damn school organized, lord lord,
He had the whole damn school organized...

"MAYOR IS ARROGANT. HE'S USURPING HIS POWER."

2009-07-23T00:00:00.003-05:00

So Mayor Daley used to be opposed to Wal-Mart opening in the city, but now he loves the idea. What changed his mind? I'm thinking the $700,000 Wal-Mart gave the city for a jobs program didn't hurt. Daley: Get Over Wal-Mart Gripes, Allow Jobs in Chicago.

Last year, Daley rejected a developer’s request to build a 150,000 sq.ft. super-center on the site of the old Ryerson Steel plant at 83rd and Stewart — even though the City Council had already granted zoning approval for a big-box store at the Chatham site.
The mayor was so concerned about maintaining the delicate labor peace he brokered to bolster Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid, he was apparently willing to single out Wal-Mart for special treatment.
...
If he feels so strongly about the need for jobs and shopping choices, Daley was asked why he refused to give Wal-Mart administrative approval to build a second store in Chatham.
“If I start doing that, you would write a headline, ‘Mayor is arrogant. He’s usurping his power. Mayor starts changing the law for his own benefit because, one day he likes Wal-Mart. The next day he’s liking something else.’... I’m not gonna fall into that trap,” Daley said.

Haha. I still wrote a headline that says that. So there.

I'm glad to see Mayor Daley is playing the victim card again. He can't do what he wants to do because then the media would call him arrogant. Boohoohoo. You are arrogant, Dick. Deal with it. We have to.

Speaking of Daley changing his mind, he's also pulled a 180 on pot decriminalization: Daley Rips County Board for Marijuana Stance

Five years after embracing the idea of issuing tickets for minor pot violations, Mayor Daley today ridiculed the Cook County Board for decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana.
“People say you cannot smoke. ... They said, ‘Please don’t smoke.’ Now, everybody’s saying, ‘Let’s all smoke marijuana.’ After a while, you wonder where America is going,” the mayor said.
“Pretty soon, the headline [will be], ‘Let’s bring cigarettes back. It makes people feel calmer, quieter, relaxing.’… We said you cannot smoke cigarettes. Cigarette smoking is bad for you. Now all the sudden, marijuana smoking is good for you. Can we take Lucky Strikes, mix ‘em together and say, ‘Smoking is coming back in the United States?’”

He sure likes to predict the headlines. Me thinks someone is a little obsessed with the media. Maybe he should sit down, have a cigarette, and feel calmer, quieter and relaxed. Didn't he read the news? Smoking is back!

CHICAGO + OLYMPICS = DALEYTOPIA

2009-07-22T00:00:00.004-05:00

It is so refreshing to see that the Chicago 2016 community meetings are not going according to Mayor Daley's plan. Bid for Olympics on the Hot Seat:

But unlike a string of recent meetings, after the bid team put its best foot forward, it was immediately hit with counter-presentations from critics who fear that the Summer Games could gravely damage the city.

While bid officials hoped to allay fears particular to Lakeview residents, such as the impact of venue construction to a lakefront bird sanctuary and further congestion to a crowded neighborhood, they had to defend the bid from attacks on multiple fronts.

...

"We're broke. We have no money. We're incompetent and corrupt, and we'll bungle it."

And, as people learn more about the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid, their skepticism grows - Learn About Impact of Games:

-The impact that hosting the Games will have on the public's use of the parks as construction takes place over the next nine years. Parks from Waveland to the harbors to Grant Park to Meigs Field/Northerly Island to Washington Park to Douglas Park will be construction zones. Where are the citizens/residents of Chicago supposed to go for recreation during the construction phase and during the 2016 Games?

-The "security" plan for the Games in the bid book, which is pretty vague, but would allow for the creation of a police state.

-Last April, I paid $300 to have two color copies of the bid printed. While it is online, the large files made it functionally impossible to read online. Lots of color pictures and teeny-tiny print. When I checked in April, the only public library that had a printed copy was the Harold Washington main branch. Chicago 2016, Pat Ryan, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Mayor Daley and the well-heeled supporters of the 2016 bid should fund the printing to make copies available at all branch libraries. That way the public can ask informed questions about the Games at the Chicago 2016 community meetings.

Daley of course, was ready to respond today. Daley Answers Critics of Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid:

Mayor Daley today accused unidentified media naysayers of trying to sandbag Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid by reporting testimony from people at neighborhood hearings who don’t want the Olympics.
“You’re against it. You were against Millennium Park. You were against 911. You were against Soldiers Field. You were against Meigs Field. What else were you against? You’re against a lot. But, that’s freedom of speech,” Daley said.
“Some people don’t want this. … That’s part of American democracy. They can stand up and say anything they want. … But, in the next five years, six years, tell me one [other] thing that can bring jobs and economic opportunities and, besides that, guarantee an investment by the federal government [of] billions of dollars in infrastructure. If you have something better, I’d love to see it.”
...
Today, the mayor warned media dart throwers to back off or risk killing an event that could be the salvation of their struggling industry.
“Why is Tokyo for it? Why is Rio de Janeiro for it? Why is Madrid? They’re all in recession. Why are they seeking it? Every other city prior to the announcement by the U.S. Olympic Committee that we were winners — everybody else wanted it,” Daley said.
“They realize it’s economic opportunity. Besides that, it will help your industry tremendously. Once you’re selected, immediately it becomes a destination for people. It’ll help tremendously in your [media] industry as well.”

Ah, the Olympics. The answer to all of Chicago's problems. The Olympics will create jobs (temporary ones). They'll bring tourists (for a few weeks). They'll come with federal infrastructure money (who said?). They'll save the Chicago media (huh?).

They'll balance our budget. And improve our public schools. And fill our potholes. And fix the CTA. And solve our crime problem. And no one will be homeless. And everyone will have healthcare. And a job. And a puppy. And free ice cream. With a cherries on top. And we will all be one big happy family living in Daleytopia (still with parking tickets).

And it won't cost us a thing (except we already bought the Michael Reese Hospital campus and are using TIF money to fix it up)!

I CAN'T WAIT!

TIFS BY DALEY

2009-07-22T00:00:00.003-05:00

Check out this great post at Progress Illinois about Mayor Daley's favorite thing in the whole world - Tax Increment Financing:

Unfortunately, corporations and their politically-connected executives, such as Willis Vice Chair Bill Bartholomay, appear to view these tax breaks as part of doing business in Chicago. Meanwhile, Mayor Daley controls the purse strings and can curry favor with these CEOs by doling out the subsidies himself.

To understand why this is so ridiculous, it's important to remember that TIF originated as a redevelopment tool for the city's blighted areas -- stretches of land that entrepreneurs and developers would surely avoid without some sore of financial incentive. Under Mayor Daley, the system has been so perverted that it is now using taxpayer dollars to build executive suites in the middle of downtown. The TIF network has also expanded so rapidly that it now siphons hundreds of millions of dollars each from the cash-starved taxing bodies, such as the city, county, park district, and board of education.

TIFS! What a scam. If you don't know by now, please educate yourself. Go to Ben Joravsky's TIF Archive.

MAYOR DALEY'S SUPER SPECIAL SECURITY

2009-07-21T00:00:00.003-05:00

This guy again! He heard about the drama at Mayor Daley's summer home and now he's got something to say. Listen to his take on the mayor's extra special police protection:

If you wanna talk about tough guys...the mayor's son Patrick, when he was a kid, probably in his late teens, he had a beer party at his dad's house in Michigan. And it got out of control. And fights ensued. And he hit somebody over the head with a baseball bat. Mayor Daley's son. So Mayor Daley, instead of costing the taxpayers a fortune to have people guard you 24/7, while you're sitting on your butt having a good old time in Michigan, just bring Patrick over. Give him his baseball bat back and pay him to watch you. Any intruders, he can hit them over the head with a baseball bat. He's good at that...You go to Michigan, you're on your own. Alright. You get Patrick, give him his baseball bat. Let him watch you.

I really love this guy.

WATCH OUT FOR THE DALEY BOOT

2009-07-21T00:00:00.002-05:00

Mayor Daley the Surveillance Creep is creeping further into your lives: Camera Surveillance Plan Rouses Privacy Concerns

A $23 million proposal to place more than 3,000 cameras around public-housing developments has alarmed privacy advocates and raised questions over the effectiveness of surveillance systems.
...

"There isn't really any sort of public dialogue, ever, about how much is enough or what's effective," says Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. "There's no real, definitive evidence that any of this is effective. There are just pronouncements that it is."

Yohnka and other civil-liberties advocates have acknowledged that people should not expect privacy in public places, but he questioned the extent of formal talks between officials and residents, and called the number of cameras in the authority's plan "extraordinary."

"You could literally have police staring into people's homes, and places of work, and into their cars," he says. "These systems are, sort of, fraught with that possibility given their power and their reach."

Existing cameras in Chicago can tilt, zoom and alert dispatchers of suspicious activity.

Creepy.

No more cops, just more cameras. Next, Daley will start ticketing people for everything he sees with the cameras: littering, jaywalking, speeding, loitering, leaving your dog's shit on the sidewalk, etc. If you fail to pay these tickets, Daley will place some sort of Denver Boot-like device on your body, leaving you immobile until you pay your fines. He is commissioning scientists as we speak to develop the technology. He wants to be first in line for the name - The Daley Boot.

MAYOR DALEYS COME TO PLAY

2009-07-20T00:00:00.004-05:00






















photo by Johnye West

Over the hills and far away,
Mayor Daleys come to play...
Time for Mayor Daleys,
time for Mayor Daleys,
time for Mayor Daleys...
Mayor Mumbles. "Mayor Mumbles!"
Daley. "Daley!"
Shortshanks. "Shortshanks!"
Dick. "Dick!"
Mayor Daleys. "Mayor Daleys!"
Say, Heeeeee-lo! "Eh-oh!"
Mayor Mumbles. Daley. Shortshanks. Dick.
Mayor Daleys. "Mayor Daleys!"

ALDERMAN OCASIO KEEPS IT IN THE FAMILY

2009-07-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

Former Alderman, Current Inmate Arenda "All Aldermen are Hos" Troutman

Since Chicago citizens are not allowed to vote on a replacement when their city council members resign (to take a new job, go to jail, etc.), Ex-Alderman Billy Ocasio thinks he has found his perfect replacement. First it was a homophobic minister that doesn't even live in the ward, and now it's his wife: Ex-Alderman Touts Wife for His Old Seat.

Ocasio himself was appointed by Daley to replace [Luis] Gutierrez when Gutierrez was elected to Congress.

Ocasio stepped down earlier this month to take a $125,000-a-year job as a senior adviser to Gov. Quinn.

Traditionally, when it comes to a replacement, Daley has gone along with the wishes of outgoing aldermen. But after De Jesus drew the ire of the gay community, Daley said he was interviewing other candidates. He has until Aug. 1 to make a decision.

Of course, no one is shocked by this news. Alderman Ocasio is simply following the wonderful tradition of nepotism in Illinois.

DALEY SLEEPS WHILE CHICAGO BURNS

2009-07-17T00:00:00.004-05:00

Is this what Mayor Daley meant when he asked everyone else to clean up his budget mess? No funding for public transportation for the disabled:

A meeting of the Regional Transportation Authority board ended in a vote to give no additional money to paratransit service for the disabled — which will run out of funds this fall.
...
Pace Board Chairman Richard Kwasneski attributed the vote to pressure from the CTA and Metra, which didn’t want to give up the money in a tough budget time.
RTA Chair Jim Reilly agreed that board members were influenced by Metra and CTA not wanting to give up any money.
“Perhaps what we need to do is get Mayor Daley on our side,” said Kwasneski, noting that 80 percent of the users of paratransit vans live in Chicago.

Or maybe Mayor Daley meant this. No funding for porch inspections:

Six years after a catastrophic porch collapse in Lincoln Park killed 13 people and forced a Chicago-wide crackdown on dangerous porches, the city has returned to a more passive vigilance of the hazards. While city officials say their hard work has reduced the potential threats, a shortage of inspection manpower and a continuing stream of newly reported cases mean that bad porches often are discovered only haphazardly -- and sometimes too late.
...
"If I lived in the city of Chicago and I had a wooden porch, regardless of age ... on a yearly basis I'd call up the city and say, 'Come out and inspect my porch,' " said attorney Patrick Murphy, who has been suing building owners and the city on behalf of porch-collapse victims in Chicago for 35 years.

"It's continually a problem that owners of the building and property managers are not properly maintaining their porches and, therefore, the tenants -- who are the users -- are at risk," said Murphy

Or maybe it was this. Cost overruns and missing records for construction at a Chicago City College:

Construction of the new Kennedy-King College campus is more than $110 million over its original budget, and officials can't explain why or locate key documents that could shed light on the spiraling costs.
...
In early 2005, the Public Building Commission, which oversaw the project, estimated it would cost $93 million.

But by the end of 2006, with construction barely started, the price tag had soared to $202 million. And at a recent City Colleges board meeting, vice chancellor Diane Minor said the total cost would climb higher once the bills for months of repairs to get the campus’ heating and ventilation systems working correctly are tallied.

The City Colleges referred questions about the project's cost to the PBC, a city agency that coordinates and manages construction projects such as schools, libraries and fire stations. The chairman of its board is Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Wait. That doesn't help.

And, where's the rest of the media on this one? Cough Olympics Cough Cough. I'm gonna go ahead and add Kennedy-King College to the list of projects Daley can't finish on budget (O'Hare, Millennium Park, Block 37, etc.). And, if we are chosen for the games, I bet Olympics gets added to the list as well.

Glad to see the CTA, Building Department and City Colleges doing their part to close our $300+ million budget gap. Thanks!

Also, inquiring minds want to know: Would you vote for Mayor Daley?

And, check out the Reader for another great Joravsky tale. This time, he discusses the Chicago Park District and their wacky ways:

I don't know who's putting these things together, but, please, for sake of this city, keep them far, far away from the Olympics.

IT'S A TURD! IT'S A PAIN!...IT'S MAYOR DALEY, REFORMER MAN!

2009-07-16T00:41:00.009-05:00

So, King Richard delivered his annual State of the City Address. As if we needed the mayor to tell us that Chicago's got issues. From the Sun-Times:

The mayor used his annual State of the City address to tackle the issues that have touched a nerve with Chicagoans. They range from higher taxes, youth violence and government corruption to video poker, the Olympics and Chicago parking meters.

Wow. Thanks Captain Obvious. But, you know, we shouldn't be so hard on the poor mayor. Acknowledging all these things is a big step for Mayor Daley.

So let's all give Dick a big ol' pat on the back.

Careful!...not too much praise. Because, now we gotta ask, just what is Daley gonna do about all these problems? Oh right - ask other people to take care of the mess:

To keep his hand out of taxpayer pockets, Daley urged the Chicago Public Schools, City Colleges, the CTA, CHA and Park District to hold the line on taxes, fees and fare hikes this year and to order their top level executives to join the furlough frenzy.

In other words, while Daley sits on a $1 billion TIF surplus, he's asking the very entities whose property tax dollars all the TIFs are bleeding dry to do his dirty work. I always thought it was funny that CPS, Park District, et al didn't raise more of a stink about all the money they are missing out on because of TIF. I'm sure they're getting theirs. Wink. Nod.

There's some other gems in the Sun-Times article, so check it out. I won't go into more detail because I think it's all lip service and I don't believe a word that comes out of Mayor Daley's mouth. But if you do, then you'll be happy to know Daley is fixing it all - violence, parking meters, taxes, the economy, corruption, video poker, patronage, the Olympics.

Don't forget. He's the Reformer Man. He'll make it better, with the push of a button! It's all in his very capable hands. SO DON'T WORRY! Reformer Man is on the job...To the rescue!

DOES CHICAGO HAVE SCANDAL FATIGUE?

2009-07-16T00:00:00.012-05:00

daley + tristan = tru luv 4 eva

Check out this great post at Gapers Block - Homero Tristan and Scandal Fatigue:

But, as always, it's important to know exactly what happened, before a scandal turns into A Scandal, where everybody knows the personalities but not the facts. Tristan's resignation and reporters' questions about it caused much Mayoral huffing and puffing, with the Mayor claiming Tristan had done nothing seriously wrong, and insinuating that the IG was running wild

...
It is important not to play into that interpretation of reform by unreasonably blowing ethical lapses and transgressions into world-shattering "scandals". This isn't a scandal on par with Hired Truck or dozens of yet-unreported scandals we may soon learn about O'Hare contracting or in the Water Department. We joke about "scandal fatigue" but it is a real problem, and one that has probably unnaturally elongated the life of a political establishment that should have collapsed years ago.
...

True, Homero Tristan shouldn't be burned in effigy as a machine hack out to clout jobs for the connected--at least, that's not what he was accused of and there's no evidence that that's what he was doing. At the same time, we shouldn't go ahead and start attacking the motives and character of an Inspector General just doing his job, and trying to make sure that the letter of the federal order is followed exactly. There's a reason the order errs on the side of less discretion for the city in these kinds of situations; it was that very discretion that allowed for shenanigans. Accusing the IG of hating democracy and holding bizarre potlucks in support of Tristan sends the message that "community groups" supposedly in the business of advocating for the people are opposed to independent oversight of government affairs.

If you read this blog regularly, you know I don't suffer from Scandal Fatigue. But I know many Chicagoans do. It's a big reason Daley is still the mayor of Chicago after 20 years of corruption, waste, clout, crimes, tyranny, and greed. Mayor Daley can count on people getting sick of hearing all about his corrupt bullshit. "Oh well, big surprise, it's just the Chicago Way." And they just forget, stop paying attention, or don't care.

photo credit

OH MY GAWD!!!...THE CITY COUNCIL

2009-07-16T00:00:00.009-05:00

OhMyGawd the Chicago City Council might be getting the hang of this legislative branch, checks and balances thing. Crain's reports that aldermen are moving forward with an actual independent audit of the projected Olympic costs and revenues:

L.E.K. Consulting, whose media and entertainment practice includes sports projects, was hired by the Civic Federation, a local tax policy watchdog group in Chicago. The firm "will help us conduct an independent review of expenditures and revenues" for the proposed Chicago games, according to federation President Laurence Msall.

Mr. Msall said he believes the firm has been involved in helping other cities prepare Olympics bids, but stressed that it has played no role in Chicago's effort to win the games.

I will be very interested to see the results of this audit and what the aldermen will do if they are not favorable for Chicago taxpayers.

In the meantime, clap hands for the City Council. Good City Council.

MAYOR DALEY BLOWS A GASKET

2009-07-16T00:00:00.003-05:00

Second City Cop had a great post regarding the escaped inmate recently captured by Mayor Daley's security detail near the mayor's Michigan home. Here's the rumor, according to SSC:

The truth of the matter is Daley blew a gasket as usual. He was shouting and screaming at his summer home about one the CPD officers assigned to his detailed got involved on this arrest. Daley was heard shouting about how the news and the public will now start writing about why CPD officers were "guarding" Daley while away at his summer home in Michigan.

I definitely got in a good laugh imagining Dick Daley getting all hot and bothered about this. Of course this story is only a rumor, but like SSC says it's "So Easy to Believe."

This whole story has me wondering just how much Chicago taxpayers pay to protect our Dear King Daley, with the cop constantly stationed outside his South Loop townhouse and the security detail that travels all over the world with the mayor. I also want to know how much Chicago taxpayers are paying for the police protection afforded to many aldermen.

With all the violence around our city, it's no surprise that our lovely politicians want this security detail. It's too bad the rest of us aren't afforded the same protections. Instead, we regular folks get to rely on an undermanned, underfunded, and clout-plagued police department. And while I have no desire to own a gun, I always found it very interesting that our elected officials are exempt from the city's handgun and and concealed carry laws. Just what are they afraid of anyway? Peasant Uprising?

OLYMPIC MYTHS: KIDS AND THE ECONOMY

2009-07-15T00:00:00.005-05:00

Have you attended any of the public meetings the Chicago 2016 people are holding? Well Ben Joravsky has and he was not very impressed. Not surprising. It's also not surprising that Daley & Co. are claiming the Olympics are all about the kids:

They lost me when they claimed that providing recreational opportunities for underprivileged children in low-income neighborhoods was their primary motivation for staging the games.
...

But let's not fool ourselves. Hosting the games is about a lot of things -- doling out contracts, making money, taking care of friends, building stuff, luring tourists to town, basking in the international limelight, feeding one man's ego...But it's most definitely not about helping underprivileged kids...

Joravsky is right, as usual. The Olympics are most definitely not about the children. The Olympics are all about Daley and his friends. And Daley's recurring exploitation of the city's underprivileged youths is starting to make me sick.

I also have my doubts about just how much the Olympics will help Chicago's economy. See, for instance, this video by No Games Chicago: 2016 Olympic Myth #1 - The Economy.

If anyone has been to any of the public meetings, I'd be interested in hearing what you thought of them.

WTD PRESENTS: HISTORY LESSON - THE DUFF FAMILY

2009-07-15T00:00:00.004-05:00

photo via Chicago Clout

What's going on? Just a week ago, Daley's Commissioner of Human Resources Homero Tristan quit. And now, another one of the mayor's city hall weasels - Montel Gayles - has also quit. Daley's Chief Procurement Officer Abruptly Resigns:

Mayor Daley’s $169,020 chief procurement officer abruptly resigned Tuesday, spinning the revolving door in a department that has struggled to boost black contracting and weed out minority fronts.
...
Gayles embarrassed and infuriated Daley with kid-gloves treatment of James Duff, head of a mob-connected family that became the poster child for minority business fraud in Chicago.
Gayles banned Duff from doing business with the city for just three years, even though Duff pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining $100 million in janitorial contracts earmarked for minorities and women.

Awww, Mayor Daley and the Chicago Mob. Meant for Each Other.

Check out The Chicago Syndicate for more on Daley's connections to the Duff family:

[The Duffs are] pinkish tough guys, with Daley clout, from a family that brags about ties to the Outfit bosses, including the late Anthony Accardo, and the imprisoned (but still vigorous behind bars) Rocco Infelice.

"I know a lot of people," Daley told reporters. "And they have to be on their merits. And that's what it is."

He was asked: Is it disconcerting to you that your friends and political supporters were indicted? "It happens, unfortunately, it does," he said.

The mayor did brag, though, once the Duff scandal became public--he forgot to mention that Tribune investigative reporters and editors made it public--that his administration denied minority contract certification to 880 companies.

A Tribune reporter asked: How many of those denied were political contributors?

"Geez, I don't know."

How many were your friends?

"Gee, I don't know. I don't really know. Doesn't matter if they're friends or not."

Geez.

Daley made news, although some might miss it, by admitting Thursday that he knows the Duffs. When the Tribune first broke the Duff investigation in 1999, he didn't know them. "Oh, I know them. Sure," he said Thursday. "You know that. They're hard-working people. This is an unfortunate incident."

What about their ties to organized crime? "Geez. I don't know about that," said the crime-fighting mayor of Chicago.

GEEZ. Same old tired lines Daley is still using. This whole Mayor Daley defending criminals as "hardworking" and claiming to know nothing about the many scandals surrounding City Hall thing is getting REALLY old.

DALEY LIKE MONEY! MONEY MAKE DALEY SMILE!

2009-07-14T00:00:00.022-05:00

I just couldn't resist posting this picture from the Chicago Tribune. Look at Daley. He is elated. Governor Quinn just raised fees on motorists, raised the state liquor tax, and legalized video gambling for a statewide construction program.

Money money money money money money money!

photo from Newsweek

WTD PRESENTS: MAYOR DALEY RANT - DICK DALEY, DICTATOR

2009-07-14T00:00:00.021-05:00

photo by Johnye West

Welcome to Chicago, Richard M. Daley, Dictator

"Richard M. Daley, Mayor"—on and on, at every corner, any event involved with the city, there is his name. It is a personalization of politics not seen in most other cities—and reminiscent of authoritarian states.

A mocking Dictator Daley poster, seen in Pilsen near 18th and Halsted. Apologies for the poor quality, only had the phone camera.

OUR PARK, DALEY'S MUSEUM

2009-07-14T00:00:00.019-05:00

Good news if you are skeptical of a children's museum with a liquor license in our "forever open, free and clear" park. It looks like a pending lawsuit is not the only hurdle for the Chicago Children's Museum and their ridiculous attempt to move into Grant Park. This shit economy is also mucking things up. Crain's Greg Hinz reports:

Just a year after winning hard-fought City Council permission to move to Grant Park, the Chicago Children’s Museum has hit a financial wall, raising a real prospect that its highly controversial new facility in the park’s northeast corner may never be built.
...
A moribund economy has crippled fund-raising, while projected costs have climbed by tens of millions to $150 million or more, insiders say. Sources close to the project say odds now are 50-50 at best that the Grant Park plan will proceed.

The Children's Museum people are, of course, denying this report. But the Sun-Times says they are also working with the city to extend their lease at Navy Pier.

I think it is interesting that the costs for the new Children's Museum are rising and private donations aren't meeting projections. I'm wondering what these rising costs spell for the proposed Olympic budget and Daley's claim that the Chicago Olympics will be entirely funded by private donors. I mean, if these donors aren't going to pony up for the kids(!), are they going to pay for the Olympics? Remember what Mayor Daley said. The move to Grant Park is all about the kids:

"You mean you don't want children from the city in Grant Park? Why? Are they black? Are they white? Are they Hispanic? Are they poor? You don't want children? We have children in Grant Park all the time. This is a park for the entire city. What do you mean no one wants children down there? Why not? Wouldn't you want children down there?"

Oh wise King Daley, go ahead and move that museum to Grant Park. Think nothing of it. After all, it's for the children! And don't fret, if the Olympics are over budget and the private donations don't pan out, I know the taxpayers of Chicago will be more than happy to pick up the tab. It's the least we can do Mayor Daley. Long live the King!

For more on why the Children's Museum should take their glorified funhouse someplace else, check out Save Grant Park and their informative fact sheet.

And one more thing: Don't think I didn't notice, Daley.

Recently, Pritzker Park - what used to be a fenced off grass lot at State and Van Buren - has undergone a complete overhaul. You may remember that Pritzker Park was an oft mentioned alternative to Grant Park for the Children's Museum's new home. While I can't complain about the improved park, I do think it's very suspect that Pritzker Park was transformed so quickly and quietly, especially as a park in my neighborhood (and many others I'm sure) has hit roadblocks and countless delays in its own transformation. Now, Pritzker can no longer be a favored and logical alternative to Grant Park.

There are many other alternatives. Daley can't put parks on all of them.

JOHN KASS: "THE SOCIETY OF PEOPLE LORD MAYOR SHORTSHANKS REALLY CAN'T STAND"

2009-07-13T00:00:00.008-05:00

photo via Chicago Magazine

John Kass strikes gold again. 2 More Members Join a Society on the Move:

Let's welcome two new members into the Society of the PLMSRCS. Everybody knows this snappy acronym: the Society of People Lord Mayor Shortshanks Really Can't Stand.

One is David Hoffman, the city's inspector general. Mayor Richard Daley appointed him to investigate City Hall corruption. Trouble is, Hoffman is good at his job.
...

Now Hoffman's credibility is under attack, and the mayor is all smiles. If Hoffman opens his mouth, the mayoral attack dogs will accuse him of playing politics and drag him into the mud. The mayor knows he can't get rid of Hoffman without first getting rid of Hoffman's stellar reputation.

Daley is the Reformer Man around here. And don't you forget it. Except you David Hoffman. You keep doing what you're doing.

photo by Johnye West

WTD PRESENTS: HISTORY LESSON - THE DALEY CONNECTION

2009-07-13T00:00:00.007-05:00

photo by Johnye West

You've seen the interactive Daley Family Tree. Now, check out the interactive Richard Daley Relationship Map.

Go to the map. Play around with it. Watch the web of corruption unfold before your eyes.

MAYOR DALEY THE COLORING BOOK

2009-07-13T00:00:00.002-05:00

Get your very own Richard M. Daley coloring book here for only $5.

When I get mine, I will definitely color outside the lines. I think Daley would like it that way.

PARKING METER QUESTIONS STILL UNANSWERED

2009-07-10T00:00:00.005-05:00

You know the drill. Check out the Reader this week for another tale by Dumke and Joravsky about the ongoing parking meter saga. This time, they break down last week's City Council hearing in a wonderful question and answer format. Unsolved Mysteries:

After months and months of begging, pleading, and cajoling by the public—and harassing calls and e-mails from the Reader—city officials finally came clean with the God’s honest truth about how and why they entered into the parking meter lease deal.
These revelations were offered during a four-hour hearing held by the City Council’s finance committee on July 2, when many Chicagoans were preparing to park their butts at home for a long weekend of eating, drinking, and watching the neighborhood kids blow things up. Public servants that we are, we’ve distilled the hearing for the edification of anyone who may have missed it, using a question-and-answer format similar to the one used by aldermen last week. Enjoy.
...
Is it just me, or does it seem like the more we’re told about this deal the less we really know?
You’re new here, right?

WE TOLD DALEY: "THANKS, BUT NO THANKS FOR THOSE GAMES TO NOWHERE"

2009-07-10T00:00:00.002-05:00

Because challenging Daley on this Olympic thing can be pretty daunting for the ordinary Chicago citizen, the US Olympic Committee offered up a little homegrown help.

I'm sure Richie LOVES this: TV Rights Squabble May Hurt Chicago's Bid

Just as Chicago tries to ride out one storm buffeting its bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games, it could face another problem: possible backlash from a money-related dispute between the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee.

"I don't see how this can help," IOC Executive Board member Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico said via telephone Wednesday.
...

He also thinks if powerful IOC members are angry enough, it could result in behind-the-scenes lobbying against Chicago.

"I'm sure Chicago is horrified," he said. "I would be."
...

University of Chicago economist Allen Sanderson said IOC members may be inclined to shun Chicago's bid if additional controversies pile atop these two.

"The IOC just doesn't want the hassle," Sanderson said.

Here's hopin.

Keep up the good work USOC. If all the slime surrounding Mayor Daley isn't enough to keep the IOC away from Chicago, we're gonna need all the help we can get.

Maybe someone can get the IOC to watch these great anti-Olympic videos I came across on the YouTube. Check it:

Good King Rich - an Open Letter to the IOC:
by the same band that brought you Pay to Play the song

Cyclists against the Olympics:

Residents concerned about the Olympics' effect on Washington Park and Bronzeville:

DICK DALEY SINGS SAD SONG

2009-07-09T00:00:00.006-05:00

Well, apparently Chicago is screwed if we don't get the Olympics. I wonder how all the other cities in America are planning to manage without them. Chicago is SO lucky. We don't have to worry about the future. Our Great Mayor should be showered with praise for arranging this Olympic thing for all of us peasants. But be careful people. If we keep up with the questions about the real costs of the Chicago Olympics, the IOC might not bless us with this wonderful gift. King Richard said so: Stop Throwing Darts or Risk Losing Olympics

"In the next eight years of any city in America, tell me where the economic development is gonna come from. Is it gonna come from the military? The military builds in the south and southwest. It does not build in the Midwest and East," Daley said.
"You tell me one economic program that anyone has offered — both in the private sector or public sector. Every other city would love to have this—when the federal government will spend billions of dollars on infrastructure and on security. Besides that, the national and global publicity we receive from the build-up all the way to 2016. This is the only economic engine. We're talking about jobs. We're talking about contracts…coming into Chicago."
But, the mayor warned, "If people keep throwing darts at it, maybe they will not get it."
Pressed on whom he believes is "throwing darts," Daley said, "Did you read any headlines?" He added, "You beat us up."
He then caught himself and said, "I'm not gonna blame the media because then, you'll say, ‘The mayor is fighting with the media. The mayor is always so arrogant. Then, he's fighting with the aldermen.' No. People can ask questions. But, there was a misconception by the media that I signed" an agreement making Chicago taxpayers the final back-stop against Olympic losses.

Poor Mayor Daley - always the victim. The media is out to get him. He's not a bad guy. In fact, he's a reformer. It's just the media that is causing all the problems. He wishes they would just go away. Let the mayor do his job. Trust him. He hasn't done anything wrong.

Playing the victim pays off, just ask Sarah Palin: Palin Plays Victim and Reaps Rewards

Because you can gain a lot more mileage these days as a victim, even if you have to inflate your victimization..."Sometimes taking offense can be the best offense." A bounty of blessings flow to those who wear the victim crown.

Cue the violins for this victim, our dear dear mayor.

LEAVE HIM ALONE! You're lucky he will even be your mayor, YOU BASTARDS! LEAVE DALEY ALONE! Please!...LEAVE DALEY ALONE! Please! Leave Mayor Daley alone right now! I MEAN IT!

MAYOR DALEY: REFORMER MAN

2009-07-09T00:00:00.005-05:00

There Daley goes again. Defending another one of his city employees caught doing wrong. Following Homero Tristan's resignation, Daley reiterated his earlier comments on the matter, which were merely an echo of comments he previously made about the now convicted Al Sanchez and Robert Sorich. From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Daley said he accepted the resignation of Human Resources Commissioner Homero Tristan because the “honest, hard-working” attorney did not want to become a “distraction” to the city’s efforts to implement a hiring system free of politics.

“He doesn’t want to be in the headlines. . . . He’s a wonderful young lawyer. He has good judgement. And he doesn’t want to be the ping-pong ball,” the mayor said.
...

“He didn’t do anything illegal . . . It was a minor violation. But he is not a person to say he stymied anything in city government.”

And then, Daley threw in this gem for good measure:

“If I say something, then you say, ‘Mayor Daley is not the reformer. He’s fighting the reformer.’ I’m more of a reformer than anyone else in regards to the peoples’ money in the city of Chicago,” he said.

Yes. He really said that. And it's not the first time. Remember, he is "leading by example" when it comes to open, transparent government.

From now on, I'm going to call him Reformer Man.
Maybe we can get Neil Young to change up the lyrics on his song just a little:

Reformer Man, Reformer Man
You run the show
Remote control
Direct the action
with the push of a button
You're a Reformer Man
Power in your hand
Reformer Man, Reformer Man

DON'T WORRY, DALEY'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE

2009-07-08T09:19:00.006-05:00

Remember that Homero Tristan fellow? Well, he quit.

Human Resources Commissioner Homero Tristan vehemently denied that he tried to cover himself by lying to investigators when asked why he had failed to report an aldermen for attempting to clout a Health Department employee out of a job transfer that would have taken the employee far from home.
But, Tristan said he cannot continue to fight the “reckless” charges levelled by Inspector General David Hoffman and still ask Hoffman to sign off on his department’s performance.
“I’m resigning because I believe I’ve become a bit of a distraction,” Tristan said today.
“The inspector general’s report is grossly erroneous and questionable in its legality. My primary responsibility is to clear my name and reputation and defend the integrity of the Department of Human Resources under my leadership. I can’t do them both simultaneously.”

Man, all it takes is one little Inspector General report and this guy goes running.

And here, we have countless federal investigations and all sorts of scandals and shady dealings surrounding the mayor, but Daley just won't go away. Dude's like a cockroach.

I'm still waiting for someone to step on him. Patrick Fitzgerald?

DALEY'S STILL HUNGRY

2009-07-08T08:12:00.016-05:00

Watch your kneecaps. Daley is coming for his money. Collection Agencies May Soon Call on Chicago's Debtors:

The same bill collectors who pester debtors on behalf of credit-card companies are being recruited by Chicago City Hall to go after anybody who owes money to the cash-strapped city.

Just months after pushing through highly unpopular parking meter rate hikes as part of a lease -- and in the midst of a recession -- Mayor Richard Daley's administration is looking for private collection agencies to track down people with unpaid parking tickets, delinquent water bills and other debts.

Last year alone, past-due fines and taxes amounted to tens of millions of dollars, including almost $95 million in unpaid water bills alone. The debts are piling up as Daley faces a budget shortfall his aides peg at about $300 million.

Daley's like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, except I'm pretty sure he won't be transforming into a beautiful butterfly.

photo by Johnye West

He sold the Skyway. But he's still hungry.
He put TIFs all over the city. But he's still hungry.
He tickets and tows our cars. But he's still hungry.
He charges us fees. But he's still hungry.
He taxes our cigarettes and booze. But he's still hungry.
He taxes our entertainment. But he's still hungry.
He sold city parking garages. But he's still hungry.
He raised our property taxes. But he's still hungry.
He taxes bottled water. But he's still hungry.
He sold the parking meters. But he's still hungry...

DALEY IS HUNGRY. FEED HIM YOUR MONEY.

WTD PRESENTS: A MAYOR DALEY RANT - "MAYOR DALEY IS A SNAKE"

2009-07-08T00:00:00.006-05:00

This person gets it. He has all sorts of videos about Daley posted on his youtube page.

Here are my favorites:

Mayor Daley is Chicago's 3 Cobra Snake

Mayor Daley and Illinois Corruption

Let's talk about Mayor Daley. It's only a matter of time, I believe,...before what's due to him, comes to him. And that's nothing personal. What it is, is just knowing that here we have someone who is in power, who has strategically and blatantly ignored the safety of the community...

It goes back to the Aldermen, though. They are the ones who are giving him the green light to anything that he wants to do...

It is just so many issues, you guys. A lady I was talking to, she said "I think Mayor Daley is doing a good job." And I told her, I'm not going to debate it with you. If you don't see, you probably won't see, even after I get through explaining it to you.

Daley Machine Need Like This

BOOT DALEY.

Don't worry. There are more. Check out some of the other videos this person has posted:

Chicago City Officials Need Shower

Mayor Daley and youtube

Mayor Daley and Charity Aeroplane

Time is Change, Chicago Need Change

Daley Sale Parking Meter, Now Planning to Sale Sidewalk

Daley Machine

Daley Machinery Moved Resident's Car and Parked Own Cars to Go See Cubs Games

Daley's Machine: Corrupt or Not?

DALEY DAMAGE CONTROL

2009-07-07T13:50:00.011-05:00

The Gazette Chicago chimes in on Daley's Olympic dreams: Mayor's Vision of Olympic Rings Not Exactly Golden:

The City Council and the public have yet to see solid numbers on what the costs will be — and the Council and the public will not be shown those figures for around 60 days, giving us all a short window of time to react before the International Olympic Committee decides which city will get the Olympics. We are expected to have faith in numbers we have not seen.

Once again, whether concerning costs or contracts, City decisions are being made in a hurry, in a vacuum with no transparency and no scrutiny.

What does Chicago’s government machinations usually come up with—the best-case scenario, or the worst? Think about that the next time you’re parking at a meter.
...
Mayor Daley may have gotten President Barack Obama to stump for the games, but he has not gotten him to guarantee one cent to pay for them. The City already is stuck with a 75-year parking deal that’s going to drastically reduce its revenue. Add a Montreal-like potential 30-year Olympic debt, and you have more than a recipe for disaster; you have a recipe for municipal bankruptcy.

In other Olympic news, Chicago 2016 officials are going to hold public meetings:

Mayor Daley’s Olympic team will hold a series of public meetings around the city in the wake of the erosion of public support for the proposed 2016 Olympics following the city’s open-ended financial guarantee.

Working with local aldermen, public meetings are being scheduled so that residents in all of the city’s 50 Wards can meet with the Chicago 2016 organizing committee, aldermen and even Olympic athletes, to talk about the city's bid for the Summer Games.

A Chicago 2016 official pooh-poohed the notion that this was damage control in the wake of Mayor Daley making a surprise announcement that he would sign an Olympic host-city contract that would leave taxpayers on the hook for any losses.
Kurt Summers, chief of staff for Chicago 2016, said this is about keeping the public informed with just 90 days before the International Olympic Committee votes for a host city.

Various meetings are in the works. You can find a schedule here.

No word yet on if these meetings will be like the ones Chicago 2016 secretly held with our aldermen. You know, the same meetings one alderman called a "bullshit" Olympic propaganda briefing.

I'm hoping these Olympic people will let the public take a look at their financial analysis and answer all the questions we have about the real costs of the Olympics in Chicago. But if these meetings are anything like other public meetings in Chicago, I highly doubt it will be much more than a lengthy presentation by the Chicago 2016 folks. Remember what Tom Tresser said in this rant:

Congratulations Mr. Mayor, your lap dogs at the Park District and Chicago Plan Commission have sullied public process and honest government once again. Your appointees to these bodies have shown us that clout and law breaking is what drives policy decisions in your administration. You have appointed hacks and cronies to every agency that is supposed to serve the public. Instead, they are fleecing the public. Your way of governing looks more like Stalinist Russia and Communist China than main street America. This body and the Plan Commission are stacked with your minions who vote in lock step after zero true public debate. This very meeting was called early to cut short public protest.

photo via Gazette Chicago

SURVEILLANCE CREEP: DALEY IS WATCHING YOU

2009-07-07T00:00:00.009-05:00

photo by Johnye West

Have you ever noticed all the surveillance cameras in Chicago? Mayor Daley loves him some surveillance cameras:

A highly advanced system of video surveillance that Chicago officials plan to install by 2006 will make people here some of the most closely observed in the world. Mayor Richard M. Daley says it will also make them much safer.

"Cameras are the equivalent of hundreds of sets of eyes," Mr. Daley said when he unveiled the new project this month. "They're the next best thing to having police officers stationed at every potential trouble spot."

I'm trying to be more aware of all the cameras when I'm walking around outside. They are everywhere. And it's even more creepy when you think that the city has the potential to link into the private cameras throughout the city. I don't know about you, but I don't like it.

And I'm not the only one who is concerned: On Chicago Streets, Cameras are Watching:

But others do worry. Chicago is the largest of a growing number of cities to use surveillance cameras to fight crime. Increasing concern for homeland security has helped tip the balance in favor of the new technologies. But critics see the trend as one more example of the way privacy rights are being sacrificed for the sake of security - a false security, some say - and one more step toward an Orwellian future where all activities are monitored by the government. They call it "surveillance creep."

Others wonder if Mayor Daley is installing surveillance cameras instead of hiring more police officers. Are Blue Light Cameras Replacing Beat Cops?

"Mayor Daley came up to me recently and said, 'Look, I like these crime cameras that you guys are doing in New Orleans. They're cheaper than hiring more police officers and we're gonna do them in a big way in Chicago,'" New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said.

...

There are scattered success stories with these cameras, but each of them can cost as much as $35,000 to install, and more to maintain. That is still far less than an officer's salary and benefits, but there are many who wonder whether investing in technology rather than police officers on the beat is penny wise and pound foolish.

Chicago Magazine also has an interesting read on Chicago's surveillance cameras: Can Cameras Replace Cops?

So much surveillance raises serious privacy issues, of course, and every technological development seems to push society closer to the dreaded Big Brother universe. But from a strictly law enforcement perspective, the criticism of camera surveillance starts with an obvious but essential fact: A camera cannot make an arrest. Beyond that, how often does a camera prevent a crime? On some streets, criminals are confident that, even though they’re being recorded, their crimes will go unpunished. “In some parts of my ward the guys are so bold they’ll commit crimes right underneath the cameras,” says Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. (27th). “They know where the blind spots are.”

...

City officials won’t reveal the exact number of surveillance cameras in place in the city’s 234 square miles, claiming they don’t want to reveal blind spots in coverage. Nor is it easy to determine how much the city spends on surveillance. Much of the network has been paid for with federal money or tucked into various city department budgets. On a neighborhood level, for instance, aldermen can set up cameras with money from their ward budgets, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone specifically accounting for these local expenditures.

And then of course, the city will probably start using all these cameras to generate more revenue. One idea has already been floated: use red light camera to check for car insurance and - of course - fine drivers who are uninsured.

Or worse:

WTD PRESENTS: ANOTHER MAYOR DALEY RANT FROM A STRANGER - "EPIC DICK MOVE"

2009-07-07T00:00:00.007-05:00

I came across the blog driftglass the other day and I just had to share this hilarious post about Mayor Daley and his Olympic lies: Epic Dick Move

And I don't believe it is simply that no one ever explained to Hizzoner the difference between "broke" ...
broke (brk)
v.
1. Past tense of break.
2. Nonstandard A past participle of break.

Adj. 1. broke - lacking funds; bust, skint, stone-broke, stony-broke, poor - having little money or few possessions

...and "broken"
bro·ken (brkn)
v.
Past participle of break.
adj.
1. Forcibly separated into two or more pieces; fractured: a broken arm; broken glass.
2. Having been violated: a broken promise.
Because when you strip away this brand-new batch of smooth, fast-talking promises (OK, the slow, awkward, mumbly-talking promises) what is really going on here is actually pretty simple.

Da Mare is broke – so broke, he says, that he has to sell off the city’s roads, airports and parking meters, fire enough people to populate a small town, and make the rest of his employees take weeks of unpaid “days off” just to keep the doors open – but he also wants to buy a big, shiny new house.

A big, shiny new house in a notoriously volatile market, where mistakes, dumbassery or bad timing have already cost very clever people billions and billions of dollars.

So what do you do when you just gotta have that fucking house, but when the closing date rolls around, for all of your slick patter, the bank still demands that you to put up waaaay more cold, hard cash than you have?

Well, as you bust open their piggy banks, you start making a lot of lavish promises to your children that this time somehow it’ll all be different.

That this time the value of the big, shiny house will just go up and up and up regardless of past history, present circumstances or future uncertainty.

That this time everybody will go home in limousines because...because this time nothing whatsoever will go wrong.

Da Mare is doing nothing less than taking out the biggest fucking subprime mortgage in the history of the world, and putting the City up as collateral.

Because, hey, we all know how well that genius strategy has worked out so far.

The rest of the post is just as great - as are many others on the blog. So check it out.

Plus, I thought the above picture - also from driftglass - was awesome.

NOT DOWN WITH DALEY

2009-07-06T16:30:00.001-05:00

See, I'm not the only one that thinks Daley's "record isn't as pretty as the flowers he's planted." Before a Daley re-election bid in 2002, Chicago Magazine made The Case Against Daley:

Now it's re-election time again...Daley will run. Not only that, he'll win. There are no serious challengers in sight.
Too bad for Chicago.
For the past decade, Daley has refused to debate his opponents. Now it looks as if he won't even have anyone to refuse (the only announced candidate so far is a computer consultant named Pat McAllister, who has quickly faded into oblivion).
No debates, no real campaign, no airing of the issues, no holding the mayor to account, no competing visions.
"Opposition tends to dwindle after a couple of re-election wins," says Dick Simpson, the former alderman who teaches political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "With more and more power, the mayor becomes like a czar."
This isn't right. No matter how good Daley looks from a distance, he has plenty of warts up close-and they should be examined. His record should be evaluated. What's more, Chicagoans deserve to know how he plans to face the bushel of serious problems confronting the city.
So, while there are compelling reasons why Daley should be returned to power, we present ten compelling reasons why he should not.
1. He's an arrogant, antidemocratic autocrat
...
2. Contract croynism
...
3. He bungles big projects
...
4. The O'Hare mess
...
5. The middle-class squeeze
...
6. The have-nots
...
7. Murder capital, USA
...
8. The police department
...
9. The heat wave
...
10. School days
...

Look, we're happy to give Daley some credit. Running Chicago is incredibly complicated. No one's record is going to be perfect. Maybe he really is the best guy for the job. He's grown in office tremendously. But if you strip away the public relations, this mayor's record isn't as pretty as the flowers he's planted. At the least, his record ought to be debated in a healthy, contentious campaign. He should be challenged by a smart, loyal opposition that would rescue the city's political culture from its one-man rule. That, to us, would produce a stronger Chicago.

Unfortunately, I don't have a subscription, so I was only able to see the first page of this lengthy piece. But it's a pretty comprehensive first page. Check it out for more on each of the items in the above list. Yes, it's not the definitive list of Daley ills, but a good list nonetheless. Certainly reason enough to question our great leader.

PAY TO PLAY, THE SONG

2009-07-06T14:58:00.004-05:00

"Pay to Play" - another song inspired by Chicago politics. Mayor Daley makes requisite appearance at the 1:32 mark.

"Pay to Play Politics in Chicago: It's Just a Group of Cheaters, Killing Us All, Slowly"

MORE OLYMPIC BULLSH*T

2009-07-04T10:00:00.003-05:00

As usual, Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader knows what's up. His article this week provides a timeline of Daley's dance around the truth about how much the Olympics will cost and who will pay for them: On the Hook: Did Mayor Daley ever really believe the public wouldn't have to pay for the Olympics?

Let’s take a moment to doff our hats to the International Olympic Committee, which has accomplished what no one in Chicago—not the press, the City Council, other politicians, or the voters—ever has: it’s made Mayor Daley tell the truth about city finances.
On June 17 the IOC wrested a public confession from Daley that the city of Chicago would have to guarantee any cost overruns if it ends up hosting the 2016 games—even if the ultimate price tag is in the billions of dollars.

It’s a conclusion realists quickly reached after Daley began unveiling his Olympic dreams in the fall of 2006. But that was just months before the February 2007 mayoral election, and back then he promised that not one dime of public money would be used for the games.
...

Well, you know what happened. And just in case you forgot, let me remind you. The mayor was reelected in 2007 with more than 70 percent of the vote. And within two weeks he flip-flopped on his no-public-money pledge.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Mayor Daley is a liar. DO NOT TRUST THE MAN. Don't trust him when he says the Olympics will only cost $4 billion. Don't trust him when he says the Olympics will be privately funded. Simple rule - if it involves money, don't trust him. Chicago taxpayers will pay. And my guess is, it will be a lot more than the $500 million and $250 million already pledged by the city and state, respectively.

Mick Dumke also reports on the private meetings Chicago 2016 and the mayor have held with Chicago aldermen, offering up a great quote from an unnamed alderman:

In closed-door meetings with aldermen, mayoral aides tried to get everyone on message. “These ‘briefings’ were bullshit—we were just given a list of talking points to help us pitch this thing,” one alderman told me. “I said, ‘You have got to be kidding—you think that’s going to work?’ I’ve supported the Olympics bid, but no one believes anything they say anymore.”

You hear that Chicago? Bullshit! Don't believe the hype.

CHICAGO CITY COUNCIL DOIN' WORK

2009-07-03T09:16:00.011-05:00

photo via Chicago Tribune: Chicago Aldermen tackle the pressing issue of bathing suit lengths in 1929

Looks like the City Council has been busy. I'm not saying they accomplished anything, but they certainly are keeping themselves busy.

With news that Chicago is grossly overpaying for the transport of dead bodies in the city, some aldermen are wising up:

"I think it’s time to start at zero and justify every single expenditure in the budget,” said 20th Ward alderman Willie Cochran.

Good idea.

The City Council's approval of mandatory furlough days for non-union employees also gave some aldermen the opportunity to voice their displeasure with the city's finances:

Lacking a complete picture of the city’s finances makes voting on budgetary matters difficult, several said.

Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) referenced the Department of Budget and Management’s “evasion” and “lack of preparation” and said departmental staffers failed to provide information about the furlough proposal aldermen had asked for.

Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) said budget staffers had shown an “unwillingness to provide information.”

“We need to start creating our own numbers,” she said. “I do not trust the budget department.”

Ald. Manny Flores (1st) even lashed out against corporation counsel Mara Georges during his statement.

“We can’t have a partnership where there is no trust,” he said, his voice rising.

And then, of course, the City Council finally got around to their due diligence on the parking meter lease. Not that it matters now. Chicago Parking Meters: Aldermen Scrutinize Deal After the Fact

Acknowledging fears of political repercussions, aldermen spent Thursday reviewing their quick decision to approve the now-controversial lease of Chicago's parking meters to a private company.

Council members devoted a four-hour hearing to the issue Thursday after spending a mere two days in December considering and approving Mayor Richard Daley's deal to get $1.15 billion upfront from a firm that will reap revenues for the next 75 years from steep rate hikes at all 36,000 parking spots across the city.

The parking meter system's new operators botched the transition, however, leading to a public outcry. And some aldermen said Thursday that business owners in the city's wards believe higher parking fees are driving away customers.

"It's important that we get this right because it will have a damaging effect on metered retail communities, which are the lifeblood of our neighborhoods," said Ald. Thomas Tunney (44th), who's also a restaurant owner.

Better yet, check out John Kass' take on the aldermen's better late than never approach: Long-Winded Aldermen are Short on Memory:

Chicago aldermen spent hours ripping out their chest hair, one painful yank at a time, to protest Mayor Richard Daley's whopping parking meter rate increase, which they had the foresight to overwhelmingly approve a few months ago by a vote of 40-5.

OK, they didn't actually rip out their chest hairs. But they sure screeched like it.

"Utilization has fallen through the floor! We have nobody using these meters. It's not working. If you're going down Belmont, no one's parking on the street," Ald. Thomas Tunney (44th) cried at a hearing on Thursday. He was one of those who foolishly supported Daley's 2016 Olympic Dreams Hidden Parking Tax Increase.

The aldermen were all yelping the same song: No one's using the meters! They really shouldn't have approved his plan!

Anyone thinking about getting out of this meter deal, think again. From the Reader's Clout City blog:

“So how do we get out of this?” Tunney asked the city lawyers and budget officials there to testify.

Their answer: we don’t.
As city attorney Jim McDonald explained, the agreement doesn’t specify any process for “unilateral termination.” “We’d have to negotiate it,” he said. Which means that the tab for tearing the deal up would would almost certainly exceed the $1.157 billion the city got to outsource the meters.

So Chicago Aldermen, what did we learn?

“This is the worst deal I’ve ever seen, but never again—it’s taught us something.”

Which brings me to my next point: Only 11 aldermen have signaled their support for Alderman Manny Flores' ordinance that will cap Chicago taxpayers' liability for the Olympic games at $500 million.

That's 12 aldermen total. We need that number to get up to 26. It better get up to 26. I don't know how the city can even guarantee $500 million when our budget looks the way it looks, with no relief in sight.

For now, you can congratulate these aldermen for having a functioning brain: Bob Fioretti (2nd Ward), Leslie Hairston (5th Ward), Freddrenna Lyle (6th Ward), Sandi Jackson (7th Ward), Willie Cochran (20th Ward), Ricardo Munoz (22nd Ward), Sharon Dixon (24th Ward), Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward), Richard Mell (33rd Ward), Eugene Schulter (47th Ward), Joe Moore (49th Ward).

If you don't see your alderman on this list, call him/her and ask why.

Never again, City Council? Haven't you learned by now?
Prove it.