Kozlowski: The legacy of Mayor Daley II

There are times when the earth convulses and shakes and what was once thought impossible now… There are times when the earth convulses and shakes and what was once thought impossible now seems inevitable. I was shocked to read that Richard M. Daley, after 21 years as mayor of Chicago, has decided not to run for re-election. Only 13 of the last 55 years have featured a mayor other than Richard M. Daley or his father, Richard J. In a two-part series, I will consider the legacy of Mayor Daley the Younger, and then consider the scramble to replace him.

Why should we consider Chicago in a student paper 500 miles away? Simply this: The ideas that have been tried in the nation’s third-largest city will serve, for better or worse, as models of city governance around the country. Indeed, one of Daley’s more boneheaded ideas— leasing the city parking meters — was proposed in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh and Chicago also remind me of one another — two cities that were founded as Gateways to the West, that prospered based on specific industries while having to re-invent themselves in order to survive, and that have been heavily Democratic since the 1920s.

There have been a few upsides to the reign of Daley II. Chicago hasn’t turned into Detroit yet. Much of Chicago’s economy used to revolve around stockyards and railroads. It can’t do so now, and fortunately, it doesn’t. Downtown has been revitalized, and because people actually live there, many have an interest in continuing revitalization.

But at what cost have we had the Chicago Renaissance? Bankruptcy. The deficit of the city of Chicago is estimated at $654.7 million in a budget that tallies $3.39 billion overall. The deficit has not been helped by projects like the tragicomic Olympic bid and Millennium Park being finished four years late and way over budget.

Can Chicago recover from the deficit? Not bloody likely. The mayor has already leased two major city assets, the parking meters and the Chicago Skyway, the toll road from Indiana to downtown. Sales tax has gone from a scary 10.25 percent to today’s merely outrageous 9.75 percent. The mayor has promised not to increase property taxes, hotels are already heavily taxed, and even if a proposed lease of Midway International Airport goes through, it would raise $2.5 billion, enough to plug budget shortfalls for only four years.

Corruption doesn’t help this picture very much. The price for bribes, preferential hiring and kickbacks is ultimately paid by the taxpayer. Corruption has been king in Chicago for a long time, and the Daley years are no exception. Mayor Daley’s patronage chief, Robert Sorich, was convicted of mail fraud for “rigging a hiring scheme to reward clout-backed job candidates with jobs and promotions,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The city water department was embroiled in a scandal where trucks were hired to sit around and do nothing. In the mid-1990s, the FBI spearheaded Operation Silver Shovel, which ended up convicting six aldermen and other local officials of accepting bribes. While the mayor himself has not been indicted, it seems quite clear that the culture of corruption was hardly booted out by his administration.

Daley II also leaves behind a legacy of forcefulness. From the time when city bulldozers destroyed an airport in the middle of the night without the sanction of the Federal Aviation Administration to the mayor’s quixotic quest to put a children’s museum in Grant Park in spite of a century-old ban on construction in this location, this Daley, just like his dad, has let very little stop him.

Mayor Daley has gotten a lot of favorable coverage for his reform of education. But how useful was that reform? The Chicago Public Schools reports some alarming statistics. Of all 11th graders, the 33.7 percent of students who meet or exceed Prairie State Achievement Exam  standards in reading is down from 35.5 percent in 2001. Only 16 percent of black students met or exceeded standards in math in 2001 and 2010. Other statistics show similar slides, no improvement or only slight improvements. The PSAE is required of all high school students in Illinois. I took it in 2007 and can say it is not especially hard. The reading portion asks you to read simple business memos. Granted, the Illinois Standard Achievement Test test scores of 3rd through 8th graders show marked improvement over the same time period. But by the time those same kids reach 11th grade, their scores are universally dismal.

The legacy of Daley is mixed. How it is perceived depends on whether the mounting problems he presided over will end up looming larger than the positive aspects of the administration.

Write kozthought@gmail.com.