4.18.2005
From worst to best: Mayor for Life gets nod from Time
It's interesting that I've gotten to live in the cities of two of the mayors mentioned in Time's article this week: the Hip Hop Mayor (see Annamaria's post below) and the Mayor for Life (MFL), the latter of which was named one of the best mayors in the US. The article states:
[Daley] presided over the city's transition from graying hub to vibrant boomtown, with a newly renovated football stadium, an ebbing murder rate, a new downtown park, a noticeable expansion of green space and a skyline thick with construction cranes.
Granted, MFL has done big things to improve the city, including ensuring the grassy parks along the lake remain and bringing big contracts and business to Chicago. Granted, he's not without some controversy. Like with tearing up Meigs Field under the cover of darkness in early 2003, carving giant Xs into the runway and stranding 16 planes.
Chicago Mayor Daley had sought to close Meigs until a year ago [2002], when an historic agreement between the city and the State of Illinois "guaranteed" the airport's survival for 25 years. Daley gave his word that he would not seek to close Meigs in
Despite his assertion at the time that the move was meant mostly to secure Loop airspace from would-be terrorists (we all know that politicans used that little incident on 9/11 to promote their own personal agendas), Daley has since only talked about the land in terms of returning public acreage to the people.
Since the sabotage at the airfield, Daley has reserved the area for park space, including a 10,000-seat concert venue to be run by -- fucking Clear Channel. Local company Jam Productions is pretty pissed on having their bid be overlooked. And it's no wonder. Do we really need another place for Nickleback or the teen songstress of the moment to perform? Ick.
Well, at least there will be grass there -- so you can try and stuff it in your ears to drown out the horrible performances.
Anonymous at 4:00 PM
