Quote:
Originally Posted by HomrQT
The city of Chicago should not be promoting a gangster thug piece of trash like Al Capone in any way.
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Again, I'm suggesting that it might not be a bad idea to deal with the reality such as it is, not as we'd like it to be. If you go to Japan and say you're from Chicago, they'll go "Al Capone! Rata-tat-tat" [finger guns]. I don't love that. But in the any-publicity department, it's foolish to assume that if you pretend that's not the case it will go away. People from out of town LOVE going to the Green Mill. For that matter, I love going to the Green Mill. And I love taking people to bars like the California Clipper (R.I.P) because it feels like you've stepped into something authentic that only exists quite like that in Chicago, even if it has no ties whatsoever to 1920's mafia. Las Vegas has a Mob Museum that is 60% about Chicago. People want to know where Dillinger was shot and where on Clark Street the St. Valentine's day massacre happened. Acknowledging that that stuff happened creates a sense of place, which you can't buy. As an example, I don't love the Catholic church because of the thousands of child rapes that have happened just in the churches I see every day. Way worse than Capone by any measure. But I would feel pretty bad if one of those churches gets torn down. On the one hand, thousands of child rapes. On the other hand, it's a pretty nice building and now that it's here, no reason to go crazy. The steeple makes the neighborhood look nice. I went to the Vatican two years ago. It was very nice to visit, despite it being the headquarters of an international child rape syndicate! Chicago's mob history is like that.
There's plenty of space between "glorifying a murderer" and acknowledging Chicago's rough and tumble, anything goes history from a century ago. Speakeasys, Flappers, bootleggers and the mob are all part of a zeitgeist that exists. You could throw a party with that theme and everyone would know what to wear and how to act. Since it's not going away, it probably isn't a bad idea to tap into a little bit of that mythology while, of course, not forgetting to avoid glorifying murder. You could drive a tractor between the space between those two concepts, so the marketing and publicity is a breeze to do with needing to get all self-righteous.