WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Except for the stripping of powers from Ald. Edward Burke (14^th), there was no substantive change at Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s first City Council meeting. But that little move was pretty significant.

Sure, there was lots of symbolism: The new City Clerk read the roll call as the first woman elected to the task. An African-American woman was named President pro Tempore of the council. A Latino was named vice-mayor.

Burke and Emanuel laughed and whispered and played buddies and, at the end of the day, Burke got the keep the Finance Committee chairmanship -- but without its previous jurisdiction over union contracts, city benefits, privatization of city services, pensions, business taxes and audits. He did keep some important things, significantly bonds, and he’ll have plenty to play with if he decides to mess with Emanuel, but let’s be frank, there’s simply no incentive for him to do so.

The aldermen understand the future is up in the mayor’s chair, lean and mean and young – not to mention doubly endowed with campaign cash. Burke would probably not have much luck fomenting revolt; he knows Emanuel can swing them without too much effort.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet

There’s an excellent chance that Illinois will pass its own DREAM ACT when it goes to the state House now that the Senate has sent it on with bipartisan support. The thing is – it’s important to understand that this bill has very little to do with immigration.

In effect, if and when it passes the House (Gov. Quinn has already committed to signing it), the state will loosen eligibility for state-sponsored tuition savings programs (that is, previously ineligible folks will be able to put their own money – not state revenues, not new taxes – into special savings accounts for college), school counselors will get some training in actually doing their job better, and the state will help administer what, in the end, will be a private scholarship fund.

Of significance is Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s support on the matter. During the mayoral campaign, Emanuel proposed a very similar program. If and when this bill becomes law, here’s how Mayor Emanuel can help: By using all that fundraising prowess of his to kickstart the program with significant contributions, perhaps even one of his own.

This is a financial program, after all, that will only help immigrant students  -- most of whom are ineligible for any other kind of college aid -- if there’s money in the kitty.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet

In letting word out that Chicago Ald. Edward Burke (14^th) gets to keep the chairmanship of a somewhat diminished Finance Committee in the new City Council, there’s a suggestion of civility in both Burke and Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel that papers over what actually happened.

I’ve loved hearing Burke talk about how he’d love to keep the committee but it’s up to the City Council – as if he hasn’t been molding that legislative body into his own design for decades. If we’re willing to suspend disbelief, Burke’s narrative now is that he’s an elder statesman, committed to the civic cause, happy to do his part – which is whatever the new mayor and new council determine for him.

And Emanuel’s posture as forgiving, as above the petty politics of the campaign (Burke’s not-so-hidden attempt to knock him off the ballot, or the anti-Rahm campaign of his puppet Gery Chico), gives him another opportunity to keep cleaning up his ruthless tough guy image. I mean, look, he’s letting Burke keep the Finance Committee, and if he’s taken away some of its powers, well, hey, that’s not personal – it’s in the interest of legislative efficiency and cost-cutting.

But the pow-wow at 40^th ward Ald.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet

There were, in fact, toasts to justice and to the people at Helen Shiller’s aldermanic retirement party. And that seemed appropriate enough. The mood was festive but also nostalgic.

Drawing hundreds of long time supporters last Friday night to a bash at the Aragon, Shiller – who didn’t run for re-election this time or tap an heir of any sort – mostly sat by, relaxed and smiling, and listened to the praise and accolades of allies and friends. (Full disclosure: I'm a family friend.)

Shiller was, perhaps, the City Council’s last great – and real – progressive, with impeccable roots and remarkable consistency.

Friday, folks mentioned how she defended subsidized housing, helped pass the human rights ordinance, the domestic partners ordinance, and tripled the city's AIDS budget in 1992. Someone brought up her work with women, how she got the city to fund a domestic violence tracking system and domestic violence counseling.

And, of course, Wilson Yards, the project that consumed her for most of her 24 year tenure in the City Council.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet

Like most Americans, I watched President Obama’s speech about the death of Osama bin Laden with a certain awe. Obama was unquestionably presidential: solemn but unapologetic; confident but never boastful; straightforward in his message but not overly detailed; patriotic but restrained.

And yet as I watched I asked aloud: When was the last time, if ever, that an American president has come forth to announce the assassination of an individual?

Sure, there have been presidential conferences to disclose arrests, to explain invasions in which countless people die, to tell of bombings in foreign lands.

But can anyone remember a time when the president has stepped up to personally tell the nation about a single kill?

I don’t question bin Laden’s guilt, nor do I doubt for a moment that this president carried this out for reasons he believes are moral and just. Whatever political gain this may have – and it will, substantial – the risks involved in the scenario were much too great to have entered into it for any such benefit.

Nor am I in a position to offer the president an alternative scenario, a way this might have gone that’s different or better had a decision been made to keep Bin Laden alive.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet

Next week, the real governing begins for Mayor Rahm Emanuel. And though his style and connections endlessly bring on comparisons to Mayor Richard M. Daley and how much of Daley’s ways and means he’ll preserve, the historic moment at which Emanuel is taking the city’s reins actually echo another mayor altogether: Harold Washington.

As improbable as it may be, Rahm was elected by the same communities who brought Harold to City Hall: an overwhelming African-American vote, strong lakefront support, a majority of Latinos.

No, I’m not being nostalgic. When Washington took over, it was a historic opportunity, with a unique coalition, to change business as usual. And he started the process of change – a process delayed by Council Wars and thwarted by Daley’s win in the 1989 special election.

Like Washington, for whom change was a mantra long before Barack Obama was even a registered voter in Chicago, Emanuel keeps talking change, and in a way different than his post-Harold predecessors.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet

Whenever the U.S. government messes with its rules for Cuba travel, my phone blows up, my inbox overflows. So when the Obama administration laid down new rules yesterday about travel, the emails and phone calls came fast and furious.

The timing of the release was certainly curious – three months from when they were first announced in January and just days after Cuba concluded its first Communist Party convention in more than a decade. For those who missed the news: Raúl Castro, 79, is now president, chief of the armed forces and 1^st secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, making him the undisputed número uno. They also named a first-ever non-Castro successor, José Ramón Machado Ventura, a youthful 80 years old.

But back to the Obama administration’s new rules for everyone who wants to go before it all changes: I’m no lawyer, nothing but a writer with a spiritual umbilical cord that goes back to Cuba, so here’s what I tell folks, and what I know to be true.

If you’re a U.S. citizen, technically, you can travel to Cuba whenever you want. The actual restriction isn’t on travel but on spending money.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet