Economist.com Cities Guide: Chicago Briefing - May 2006

News this month

Guilty

After more than seven years of investigation and six months in court, George Ryan, a former Illinois governor, was found guilty of steering lucrative contracts to cronies while he was secretary of state. On April 17th a jury convicted him on 18 counts of racketeering, mail fraud, filing false income-tax returns, lying to the FBI and obstructing an Internal Revenue Service investigation. His co-defendant and friend, Larry Warner, was convicted on 12 related counts. Mr Ryan, previously most famous for ending the death penalty in Illinois, could face more than 20 years in prison under federal guidelines when sentences are handed down in August. His lawyers, however, believe his age (72) and record of service will help earn him a shorter sentence. They also plan to appeal the verdict, based on what they claim was the judge’s improper dismissal of two jurors early in the deliberation process.

This investigation of state corruption has yielded 75 convictions, making it one of the most successful federal corruption probes in Chicago history. The trial has also drawn attention to the underbelly of Illinois government in an election year: one zealous reformer called the state “a Petri dish for corruption” at a meeting of state prosecutors a week after the verdict was announced.

What’s in a name

A battle that threatened to divide Chicago’s city council along racial lines finally came to an end in late April. Madeline Haithcock, an alderman for the city’s second ward, had been campaigning to name a street after Fred Hampton, a leader of the Black Panther Movement whom Chicago police officers shot to death in his apartment in 1969. But Ms Haithcock announced on April 26th that she would give up her efforts, two days after the council’s transportation chairman refused to put the motion to a floor vote.

Controversy over the renaming had plagued the city council since February, when the transportation committee unwittingly passed Ms Haithcock’s motion in a routine vote dealing with several other matters. The city’s Fraternal Order of Police, the policemen’s union, had opposed the renaming, as had many members of the council. Ms Haithcock was backed by many black colleagues and Hampton’s former co-chairman of the Panthers, Bobby Rush, now a federal congressman. Tension boiled over at a press conference in March, when protesters, including Hampton’s son, faced off against Chicago police, shouting “No justice, no street, no peace”. Ms Haithcock, perhaps recalling the bad days of the 1980s, when the council was racially polarised, has promised to find another way to honour Hampton.

You’re on camera

Like many big cities, Chicago increasingly has its eye on its citizens. In late April Chicago’s mayor, Richard Daley, announced plans to add 70 new surveillance cameras to the more than 2,000 already in use. Like most of the existing cameras, these will be placed on utility poles in high-crime areas, feature night vision and 360-degree rotation, and will be linked both to police precincts and to the city’s emergency-response centre. Assets seized from drug dealers will cover the $1.68m installation cost. Fifty of the new cameras will be cheaper and lighter than the older models, costing about $20,000 and weighing 35lbs each, compared with $34,000 and 100lbs for their predecessors.

Mr Daley also supports a plan requiring all businesses open for more than 12 hours a day to install digital cameras. Even with the new cameras, Chicago’s digital-surveillance system still trails London’s (perhaps mercifully), which features more than 500,000 cameras producing an average of 300 recordings of every Londoner each day.

Looking for a break

As petrol prices continue to soar, Chicagoans have looked to their mayor for some respite. But on April 25th Mr Daley rejected calls to ease the city’s nickel-a-gallon petrol tax, claiming that doing so would deplete funds needed for road maintenance. The tax brings in about $60m each year, out of a total of $148m from petrol, parking and taxi and limousine drivers. Doing away with the petrol tax, Mr Daley argued, would only make roads dangerous, while ignoring what he called a fundamental “crisis” of being “too dependent” on petrol.

Chicagoans pay an average of $2.99 per gallon, though prices vary from $2.85 to $3.29 depending on the station. By way of comparison, New Yorkers pay upwards of $3 per gallon, while Britons shell out more than $6 per gallon.

Play ball

Chicago’s baseball teams have begun this year’s season more or less the way they finished the last one: the south-side White Sox, who won the World Series, are atop their league, while the north-side Cubs continue their century-long tradition of tantalising failure.

The Sox finished April tied with the Cleveland Indians for the best record in the American League Central division. The team’s success over the last couple of years has been largely attributed to playing “small ball”—a strategy that emphasises speed and savvy rather than power—which had been presumed extinct in an era of steroids and juiced balls. The Cubs, meanwhile, began the year with their two best pitchers on the disabled list. Matters were hardly helped when their top hitter, Derrek Lee, broke his wrist after colliding with the opposing team’s shortstop.

Catch if you can

May 2006

The African Presence in Mexico

Until September 3rd 2006

This is a comprehensive look at the influence of Africans on Mexican culture. It is broken up into three sections: the first looks at the lives of Africans in Mexico from 1609—when the first African township in the Americas was created. The second section traces the long-standing relationship between Mexicans and African-Americans, highlighting milestones such as the underground railroad’s terminus in Mexico and the landmark campaign of Antonio Villaraigosa, the Mexican-American mayor of Los Angeles. The third looks at the relationship between African-Americans and Mexicans in Chicago.

The Mexican Fine Arts Centre Museum, 1852 West 19th St. Tel: +1 (312) 738-1503. Open: Tues-Sun, 10am-5pm. For more information, visit the museum’s website.

More from the Chicago cultural calendar