Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Come on, man.

Second rate reporter says what?

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

So many bastards, so little time.

Let there be snark.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

No one could have predicted…

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Rahm-ing Home

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Rahm-ing Home

by | 62 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Edward McClellan, at Slate, reports that “Rahm Emanuel Has Made Chicago a Worse Place to Live“:

… Emanuel’s mayoralty may look like a success. And that may be the case if you spend most of your time in City Hall, or even downtown. But most Chicagoans never visit City Hall, and they don’t live downtown. They spend their days in Auburn Gresham, Norwood Park, Hegewisch, or Avondale—the self-contained neighborhoods that make Chicago feel more like a confederation of 50 wards than a single city. And in most of those places, life has become more of a hassle. The libraries are open only half a day on Mondays. (And that’s a compromise after the mayor initially closed them all day.) Speed cameras spit out $35 tickets for going 36 miles an hour in a 30 zone. In the poor neighborhoods where Emanuel closed 50 schools, the children walk farther every morning and afternoon, often crossing gang boundary lines. Water rates have nearly doubled.

These may sound like petty aggravations, but they eventually add up to the question Do I really want to keep putting up with this? Between July 2013 and July 2014, Illinois lost 10,000 residents, in its first population drop since the 1980s—an indication that the state and presumably the city have become less livable…

… Chicago has become a city for wealthy people and a city for poor people—people who can afford traffic tickets and people who can’t afford cars, with fewer and fewer left in between.

As Richard C. Longworth points out in his book Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism, Chicago has developed an hourglass social structure, divided between global citizens—“hardworking, well educated, well paid, well traveled”—and global servants, who park their cars, bus their tables, and walk their dogs…

Emanuel did not create this divided city, but his mayoralty is a product of it, and he has an interest in perpetuating it, because the global citizens vote for him and fund his campaigns. The most extraordinary finding of the 2010 census was that the fastest-growing neighborhood in Chicago was the Loop, which has a median household income of $93,745. In the first round of the election, on Feb. 24, Emanuel made his best showing there, winning 73.2 percent of the vote in the Loop-based 42nd Ward. Billionaire hedge fund manager and 42nd Ward resident Ken Griffin, the richest man in Illinois, has donated $750,000 to Emanuel during the runoff. As a graduate of an elite suburban high school who made his career in Washington, D.C., then settled in the city to enjoy its cultural amenities, Emanuel embodies Global Chicago…


It’s the Golden Rule — them that has the gold, makes the rules!
***********
Apart from watching the hourglass, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  1. 1.

    catclub

    I remember that on the election of Harold Washington, for some strange reason, the spoils system, where the backers of the new mayor get a disproportionate number of city jobs, was sen as horribly unfair. Apparently it is back. But as Pierce says, it is never about race.

    Also, Harold Washington was mayor when Obama was a community organizer there.

  3. 3.

    trollhattan

    Just watched a thunderstorm pass by the office and hit my neighborhood with rain heavy enough to obliterate the view, complete with lightning, hail and funnel clouds. Mind, this is California, not Kansas.

  4. 4.

    Violet

    Chicago has become a city for wealthy people and a city for poor people—people who can afford traffic tickets and people who can’t afford cars, with fewer and fewer left in between.

    Failing to see how this is different from the rest of the country.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    @trollhattan:

    Nearly 60% of Rahm Emmanuel’s donors received “contracts…business permits or some other tangible benefit.”

    I followed the links, and this is a misleading tweet. I don’t like it when I can’t rely on statements from liberal-minded folks.

    @trollhattan:

    Mind, this is California,

    Congratulations on the rain?

  6. 6.

    BGinCHI

    Voted for Chuy today.

    This morning I asked a friend of mine whether he voted.

    Friend: I voted for Rahm.

    BG: What? Capitalist.

    Friend: I require professionals to fun my city into the ground, not some amateur.

    This is a guy who is liberal and a smart political animal. I was really surprised but I think it gets at why Rahm will win (beyond just the sheer money issue). People think that a politically-connected guy will be a better manager, even if he is crooked and has some bad ideas.

    The Devil You Know.

  7. 7.

    srv

    Sigh, now everybody hates the Rahm.

    Good Chicagoans are not going to vote for a guy named Chewie. They’ve always preferred Vader.

  8. 8.

    Violet

    @BGinCHI:

    I require professionals to fun my city into the ground, not some amateur.

    Funning the city into the ground doesn’t sound like a bad way to go.

  11. 11.

    ThresherK

    NCAA womens’ hoops final.

    Have three schools wearing Under Armour ever made one Final Four on the men’s side?

  12. 12.

    germy shoemangler

    Imagine the shit-fit Rahm would throw if he lost. Imagine being a campaign aide and having to witness that.

    I hope Jesus wins.

  16. 16.

    rikyrah

    @BGinCHI:

    This is a guy who is liberal and a smart political animal. I was really surprised but I think it gets at why Rahm will win (beyond just the sheer money issue). People think that a politically-connected guy will be a better manager, even if he is crooked and has some bad ideas.

    Yeah, the money guy who has already overseen several downgrades in Chicago’s credit rating.

    Don’t get me started on this kind of thinking.

  17. 17.

    germy shoemangler

    I was hoping for an upset, but it seems Rahm is a done deal.

    That’s what everybody seems to be saying, anyway.

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

    And if he wins, when he closes the next 50 schools, I have a list of folks that if they open their mouths, I will feel like hunting them down myself and telling them to shut da phuq up.

    The man already showed you who he was.

    That you choose not to believe him is on YOU.

  19. 19.

    germy shoemangler

    I remember the old Lenny Bruce quote: “Chicago is so corrupt it’s thrilling!”

  22. 22.

    germy shoemangler

    115 year-old Jeralean Talley of Inkster, Michigan is now reportedly the world’s oldest person.

  24. 24.

    kc

    From the link at top: “Nearly 60 percent of his 103 donors”

    He only had 103 donors?

  25. 25.

    geg6

    The vast majority of Chicagoans are going to idiotically and mindlessly vote for Rahm. I hate it but it’s true. What I’m hoping for is change coming to Ferguson. That’s the election I’m watching and hoping for.

  26. 26.

    BGinCHI

    @rikyrah: It’s maddening. Government is wired for people who project confidence, even if they suck at it and/or have bad motives.

  27. 27.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Baud: wouldn’t be the first misleading alternet headline I’ve seen, especially not about Rahm.

  29. 29.

    germy shoemangler

    @BGinCHI: It’s maddening. Government is wired for people who project confidence, even if they suck at it and/or have bad motives.

    The WORLD is wired for people who project confidence. If you excel at public speaking and present a calm thoughtful demeanor, you can rise to the top, no matter how venal, dishonest, incompetent and evil you are.

    Some of the wisest people I’ve ever known were terrified at the idea of giving a speech in front of a group. Some of the most horrible were comfortable with public speaking.

  32. 32.

    Major Major Major Major

    @germy shoemangler: I ghostwrote one of those “it must be true because it has 900 footnotes and full sentences” self help books by a Public Academic(TM) one time.

    Ew. He and his colleagues were some of the most confident charlatans I’ve ever met. And he has a nice five million dollar house and I’ve got an author non-credit I can only use during interviews since I’m too ashamed to put it on my resume.

    But yeah. People eat that shit up.

  34. 34.

    Violet

    @geg6:

    The vast majority of Chicagoans are going to idiotically and mindlessly vote for Rahm.

    As it’s not a presidential election or even a midterm election but instead a runoff during April, aren’t the vast majority of Chicagoans not going to vote at all? Or does Chicago have a much higher turnout than most places in the country?

  35. 35.

    germy shoemangler

    @Major Major Major Major: I’m ashamed to admit I may have read it and believed he wrote it himself without help. I went through a phase where I thought I could improve myself by reading self-help books. I certainly helped the self-help book industry.

    @BGinCHI: I remember reading somewhere that when they cut his corpse down a lady ran out of the crowd to urinate on him. So sometimes things spin out of control for the confident speech makers. But this is the exception.

  36. 36.

    Tree With Water

    I just read this over at Deadspin.com, and laughed. Recollection of an intern: “When a patient is having a heart attack, a Harvard student’s instinct is to sprint not to the patient’s bed­side but rather to the library, to read more about the nature of chest pain. Don’t ever do that.”

  38. 38.

    delk

    @catclub: Washington agreed to settle the Shakman litigation. In the short term, that prevented him from doing a massive house cleaning.

    Of course, the two Eddies didn’t help.

  39. 39.

    Major Major Major Major

    @germy shoemangler: I sure hope not, haha. I’m not that old though (I was trying to break into publishing and there’s no dick you shouldn’t suk, as it were, if that’s your goal, at the time) so you probably haven’t read it.

  40. 40.

    dogwood

    I get that no one around here likes Rahm, but I’m surprized he gets the brunt of of the hate. I’m a lot more upset with Schumer et al who seem to be ready to join the Tom Cotton brigade and scrap the Iran deal. Rahm might be a shitty mayor, but these Likud Democrats could be enabling another war not to mention screwing with our ability to conduct any foreign policy. This doesn’t bode well for Schumer as minority leader.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @dogwood:

    There was a summary of the bill on dailykos. While I don’t like it, it wouldn’t stop the agreement directly. It would give Congress 60 days to vote on killing the agreement, and any such vote would need to overcome Obama’s veto.

    ETA: Here is the description from kos.

    Currently, the president has authority to lift most of the sanctions on Iran through the Treasury Department without congressional approval. As it stands, the bill would not give Congress power to kill an agreement outright. But it would give it the opportunity to pass another bill rejecting any deal with Iran. After an agreement is completed, Congress would have 60 days to review it, during which time the president would be barred “from suspending, waiving or otherwise reducing congressional sanctions.”

    If Congress approves an agreement or lets it stand without acting, the president can start lifting sanctions, something the Iranian negotiators, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei says, is crucial to getting Tehran to sign. But if the Senate and House pass a resolution rejecting the agreement with enough votes to override a veto, then Obama loses his authority over the sanctions. Thus, even though any agreement would be a multilateral arrangement with the U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and Iran, the wrench a hostile Congress might stick into the works could sabotage it.

  42. 42.

    germy shoemangler

    @dogwood:
    I’m reading the comments on Sen. Schumer’s Facebook page:

    https://www.facebook.com/chuckschumer

    “Senator Schumer…you are a U.S. Senator, not an Israeli Senator….Understand the difference and act accordingly. You represent the best interests of the U.S. not Israel!”

    “I have a nephew in the Marines and I don’t approve of you supporting any legislation taking negotiations away from the President! Congress is too stupid to manage a fair deal to keep Iran from going nuclear. No more war! No more American lives at risk until you miserable creeps in Congress have to send your sons first!”

  43. 43.

    delk

    For what it is worth, the weather in Chicago today is probably the worst we have had in a while. I regretted not wearing a sweater.

    And, if it is close, there are 50,000 or so absentee ballots out, so this may drag on. At least the ads will stop.

  45. 45.

    Botsplainer

    Query – does Chicago’s mayor actually run the city schools? I thought that was generally a function of local boards that were on a separate selection track.

    It always made me a little nuts that Ray Nagin got blamed for not using the school buses which weren’t under his control to evacuate people.

  46. 46.

    Keith G

    @Violet: You won the thread in four.

    Our society was a damn long way from being as good as it should have been, but at least most of the trends (IMO) were heading in the right direction. Now, not so much.

    The Chicago experience is really quite common in lesser media markets. This is something we really need to figure out.

  47. 47.

    geg6

    @Botsplainer:

    I don’t live in Chicago, but I read something somewhere (sorry, don’t remember!) that the mayor in Chicago has a lot of power over schools. I think NYC is similar.

  48. 48.

    dogwood

    @Baud:
    Thanks for that primer. I imagine that Obama will prevail in the end, but just as with every other issue, the Democrats have lost the narrative. The President will have to sell this on his own, and the only Democrats who will get a megaphone will be Schumer and his gang. I’m sure the treaty will be enacted, but by the time it’s over American opinion will be against it.

  49. 49.

    rikyrah

    @Botsplainer:

    Query – does Chicago’s mayor actually run the city schools? I thought that was generally a function of local boards that were on a separate selection track.

    Chicago is the only district in the state of Illinois that does NOT elect their school board.

  50. 50.

    NobodySpecial

    @Botsplainer: Mayor handpicks the School Board. Currently in Chicago this features at least one person who’s heavily invested in companies who specialize in no-oversight contracts to the Chicago School System, because it seems all their contracts are one dollar under the cutoff for oversight. Funny how that works. She won’t resign and Rahm won’t fire her, and plus his board is stacked with Rhee admirers, so therefore somewhere around 80% of Chicago voters in a referendum (nonbinding, natch) voted for an elected school board.

  51. 51.

    Mandalay

    From the OP:

    Between July 2013 and July 2014, Illinois lost 10,000 residents, in its first population drop since the 1980s—an indication that the state and presumably the city have become less livable…

    So the author concludes that a miniscule fall in Illinois’s population over a 12 month period means that Chicago has become less livable? And regardless of that, Chicago’s population has been trending down since Truman was president. That says nothing either way about whether Chicago has become less livable.

    A classic example of someone shoehorning some dubious facts to fit a conclusion.

  52. 52.

    Hobbes

    “Speed cameras spit out $35 tickets for going 36 miles an hour in a 30 zone.”
    I don’t have a lot of sympathy for those people who are so important that speed limits don’t apply to them. Traffic accidents are a major cause of death in children, and six miles an hour actually makes a difference.

  54. 54.

    satby

    @Hobbes: Yeah, I don’t either, but the water doubling has been brutal. I had to almost double the utilities charge my son and his fiance were paying on my house, now they’re moving it all over into their own names. And it’s months behind.

  57. 57.

    Princess

    Bright side: some of the Progressive caucus challengers are doing well in their races, and Emanuel allies are facing tough races.

    And frankly, though I voted for him, Chuy was not much of a progressive.

  58. 58.

    jackmac

    FWIW — Norwood Park, mentioned in the Slate piece as a Chicago neighborhood, is actually a suburb. It’s surrounded by the City of Chicago, but a suburb nonetheless.

  59. 59.

    Matt McIrvin

    @germy shoemangler: I was just looking up lists of the world’s longest-lived recorded people… and it’s striking how many of them have been African-American women. I’m not sure whether this is an actual effect or some sort of arcane measurement bias: are super-centenarian African-American women more likely to have had their birthdates recorded? I doubt it.

  60. 60.

    Tripod

    I fail to see how the machine wouldn’t stock elected school board seats with hacks anyway. The suburban district board members are all education insiders, and unless the God bothers or tax crazies are throwing up a slate, it’s not uncommon that not enough candidates run to fill the board, or resigning when they realize it actually takes time and effort, so seats end up being appointed anyway.

  61. 61.

    Sherparick

    Rahm is applying the “Ferguson” model to Chicago as far as harvesting any possible surplus money the poors may have. I am sure Mayor Hedge Fund and Governor Hedgefund will take Illinois down the Wisconsin – Kansas – Mississippi path to the late 19th century.

  62. 62.

    My Truth Hurts

    All you need to know about Illinois and Chicago politics is that there is a club and you are not in it.

Comments are closed.