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Originally Posted by ChicagoChicago
Uhhh...No. Daley may not run the CITY government in democratic fashion, but our federal government is doing just fine in that regard.
To say Daley has done nothing but improve Chicago is shortsighted. Some things have improved. Corruption has not. Daley just recently lost the city a $150m in free BRT funds. Stellar job there, DICK!
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How long have you lived here? Did you experience this city in the 80's-early 90's? I was still a young one at the time, but let me tell you in the 80's, this city was a rotting shithole. In 1982, the Chicago Tribune declared that the city of Chicago was in a decline with no end in sight and no bright future. Seriously, the amount of investment that has occurred here is nothing short of a miracle. Daley has done many great things for this city and has quite a bit of vision for the future. Yes, he may be shortsighted in some respects, yes his strong-arm political maneuvers aren't popular with some folks; but the man can get things done, has gotten many things done, and knows how to work the system. You need an iron fist to cut the red tape of bureaucracy, and that red tape exists everywhere, in every major city. Chicago is particularity difficult because our city government is structured as weak mayor, strong city council, which means 50 butting heads concerned more about their own little kingdoms than the city as a whole. Council wars in the 80's during the Harold Washington administartion is a perfect example, when city government just broke down.
Look at every other city in the Midwest. See a difference? I do. Don't give me the "Chicago was always a stronger city" argument either, because this place was hemorrhaging for 50 years and on its way to becoming a sequel of Detroit. Many of the infrastructure issues we are dealing with now are a result of a half century of neglect. That is a lot of shit to repair, especially when we get the shaft from the federal government, being the major donor state that we are. Much has improved, and yes we still have a long way to go.
You can't fault Daley solely for the BRT collapse. This wasn't "free", we had to hike parking rates in the already high garages. That had to pass the city council, and believe me, the alderman where getting quite an earful from angry car-driving constituents. There needs to be time to build a consensus in the democratic forum that you are preaching about, and it was scheduled for a vote, which was just ~13 days over the original deadline. Put some blame on Bush's plant for Transportation Secretary, Mary Peters. She had proven herself to be very pro-car over her tenure anyway.