Far be it from me to disagree with Dave Zirin of The Nation’s assessment of Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel:
It all starts with the person who seems committed to win the current spirited competition as the most loathsome person in American political life: Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The same Mayor overseeing the closing of fifty-four schools and six community mental health clinics under the justification of a “budgetary crisis†has announced that the city will be handing over more than $100 million to DePaul University for a new basketball arena. This is part of a mammoth redevelopment project on South Lakeshore Drive consisting of a convention center anchored by an arena for a non-descript basketball team that has gone 47-111 over the last five years. It’s also miles away from DePaul’s campus. These aren’t the actions of a mayor. They’re the actions of a mad king.
I’ve thought so since he was a spokesman for the Clinton Administration. What excites Mr. Zirin’s ire? The mayor’s support for a basketball stadium for DePaul University, to be built in the vicinity of McCormick Place. That’s the arena that was characterized by stadium expert Marc Ganis as “lunacy”, “sheer folly”, and “no economic sense whatsoever”.
Mr. Zirin’s going out of his way to mention that DePaul is a Catholic university makes me mildly uncomfortable (he notes it twice in the column). That it is a private institution would be enough to make the point. Is its being Catholic somehow relevant?
The school closings were a done deal as soon as raises for Chicago Public School teachers were agreed upon. The money has to come from somewhere and there are no good ready candidates. Raising sales taxes or property taxes are more likely to drive retail and investment from the city than they are to increase tax dollars at this point. There is simply no more tax blood in the Chicago turnip. Maybe a payoff for past contributions.
Is there some major political donor, local or out-of-state, who would benefit by such a deal? I’m guessing that the DePaul arena deal has more to do with drumming up contributions than it does to anything else.
I’m guessing that $100 million is a lot of money, but doesn’t begin to touch the problems of the school district. Politicians want some ribbon-cutting to stand in front of, and not have their entire term killing programs.
Also, I would think funding problems for community mental health clinics would primarily be a Medicaid issue.
Also in defense of the Rahm, at any given time the most loathsome person in American political life, who actually holds an important job, is almost always the U.S. Attorney General. Jail them at the end of their term of office for a compensatory period before we allow them back into our community.
I suspect Chicago boosterism in this claim that your mayor is the most loathsome person in politics.
You guys just can’t over that whole “second city” stigma, can you? Always have to have the tallest skyscrapers and the thickest pizza and the most murders and the widest array of hot dog toppings and the most frequently jailed governors. Now this.