Economist.com Cities Guide: Chicago Briefing - June 2006

News this month

Neither serving nor protecting

In the 1970s and 1980s, Chicago police officers allegedly tortured 192 black men in interrogation rooms. The violent-crimes division of the Chicago Police Department, then led by Jon Burge, purportedly resorted to suffocation, electric shocks and mock games of Russian roulette in order to secure confessions. On May 19th an Illinois judge ruled that a special prosecutor’s report on these charges, which took four years and over $5m to complete, must be released to the public by June 2nd.

Lawyers for the officers have opposed the report's release, threatening to take the matter to the state supreme court. But those who accuse the force of a history of torture and brutality are demanding retribution. Though Mr Burge was fired in 1993 for mistreating a suspect, the investigation has not yet led to any prosecutions. This has especially irked the United Nations Committee Against Torture, which weighed in on the matter on May 19th. The ten-member panel, which assesses compliance with a global ban on prisoner mistreatment, said in a report that the Chicago investigation did not go far enough to ensure punishment for misbehaving law-enforcement officials.

Troubled O’Hare

Chicago's O'Hare Airport is notorious for having the worst and most-frequent delays of any large American airport. As a result many airlines were initially quick to support (in spirit, if not financially) plans for a $15 billion expansion of this midwestern travel hub. But soaring oil prices, building delays and uncertainty over the tenancy of United Airlines have conspired to slow down and possibly halt the renovation.

Meanwhile, the status quo has recently benefited big airlines, which are now disinclined to encourage change. Since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed caps on flights to and from O’Hare in August 2004, delays have fallen by 30%. This has helped business for both United and American Airlines, which together operate 85% of the airport’s flights. As these caps keep plenty of competition out of the airport, particularly from budget carriers such as JetBlue, big airlines also have been able to raise their ticket prices. Given such rosy conditions, these airlines are now loth to help pay for a pricey expansion that could ultimately hurt their effective monopoly. Meanwhile, air-traffic controllers had some bad news after a new-runway simulation: post-construction, flights may have to taxi for as much as 45 minutes. With the FAA still unsure when the renovation will begin, it is small wonder that $3.5 billion of O’Hare bonds face the risk of a downgrade from Standard & Poor, a ratings agency.

Trading spaces

Chicago already boasts the Mercantile Exchange—America’s biggest futures exchange—and the country’s first voluntary climate-emissions exchange. On May 20th the Mercantile Exchange launched America’s first real-estate exchange. This allows trading in contracts tied to American housing prices at a time when the national real-estate market, after booming for a decade, looks uncertain. Speculators will bet on the futures of housing prices on a composite national index as well as in ten metropolitan areas: New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, Boston, Miami, Denver, Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles.

The creators hope that having a market for real-estate futures will make housing prices move more rationally and predictably. The exchange also gives homeowners the chance to hedge their financial risks by buying home equity insurance—protecting themselves against downturns in the value of their property—in addition to more basic homeowners’ insurance.

Cubs left growling

Few sports rivalries are as profound as those between two teams in the same city. This was demonstrated in Chicago on the weekend of May 19th-21st, when the Cubs and the White Sox, two professional baseball teams, faced off in their first three-game series of the season. The final two games descended into violence and threats on the field. Early in the second game, the White Sox catcher, A.J. Pierzynski—who has a long-standing reputation for irascibility—barrelled into the Cubs' catcher, Michael Barrett, who responded by throwing a punch. Both benches cleared, knuckles were bared and four players were ejected from the game, including both catchers. The next day, when Mr Pierzynski hit a home-run, he mocked the Cubs' pitcher, causing tempers to flare yet again. Calmer heads prevailed, though, and the Cubs won 7-4 in the eighth inning. The White Sox still won the series 2-1, and lead 27-24 overall.

Goodbye, Butch

Butch McGuire, the eponymous owner of a bar that has become a Chicago institution, died of heart failure at his home in Minnesota on May 18th. He opened the bar at 20 West Division Street in 1961, with a $531 loan from his mother. At the time Division Street was a dodgy area; now it sits amid dozens of trendy bars and restaurants. Patrons came for the free jukebox, the twinkling Christmas lights and the “gentlemen’s rule”, which dictated that if a woman walked into the bar and it was crowded, a man should give up his seat for her. McGuire, who claimed to have served more than 12.5m patrons, also boasted that 4,750 marriages resulted from first meetings at his saloon.

Catch if you can

June 2006

“Ainadamar”

June 14th 2006

Another Chicago premiere, Osvaldo Golijov’s opera “Ainadamar”, tells the story of Federico Garcia Lorca, one of the most imaginative writers of the 20th century, who was killed by Franco’s troops at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

Mr Golijov may be the most imaginative and daring composer alive; his music draws from Arabic, Jewish, and Latin traditions (he is an Argentine Jew), as well as from the traditional classical repertoire. The opera ends with a heartrending vision of Lorca’s final hour before his martyrdom at Ainadamar, the Fountain of Tears, outside Grenada. The libretto is by David Henry Hwang, who wrote the play “M. Butterfly”, and the unmissable Dawn Upshaw takes the lead role.

Ravinia, 200 Ravinia Rd, Highland Park. Tel: +1 (847) 266-5100. Curtain rises at 8pm. Tickets: $30 for the pavilion, $10 on the lawn. For more info visit the website.

More from the Chicago cultural calendar