Rahm legacy probably worth discussing even more in depth here, with the transition a week away
in general I agree with this...
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...-emanuel-mayor
In the final analysis, Chicago is better off for having Emanuel as mayor
It's been a wild ride under a civic CEO who was and is unquestionably human. And yet despite some missteps—some of them tragic—the pros of this tumultuous tenure far outweighed the cons.
Greg Hinz
Go to see Rahm Emanuel for an exit interview in his final days as mayor, and a staffer hands you a four-color bound volume—taxpayer-funded—listing his accomplishments in 226 detailed pages. Or, as the cover modestly puts it, "A Look Back on Eight Years of Progress."
It's a classic example of the downside of the Energizer Bunny who is Chicago's departing CEO: self-satisfied and even smug, all about him and rarely about what didn't get done.
Fortunately for Emanuel and Chicago, his record and what's actually in the book show a different side. Chicago is a better place after Emanuel, in some ways significantly so. But man, what a ride it's been.
Of all the mayors I've been honored to cover, all the way back to the tail end of Richard J. Daley's administration, Emanuel has been the most human. Daley was an unapproachable legend, Michael Bilandic boring and Jane Byrne as volatile as the weather. Harold Washington was so handicapped by opponents that he never really got a chance to produce. Eugene Sawyer was a nonfactor, and Richard M. Daley badly faded by sticking around too long after a stellar start. It's Emanuel, visibly, his heart always on his sleeve, who demonstrated both highs and lows. Sort of like a precocious teenager you on occasion want to both hug and slap around.
The bad side mostly was Emanuel himself. I don't want to dwell on it, but if you're a mayor, you have to get along not only with your legislative branch—aldermen—but with key constituent groups. Emanuel didn't, that fuzzy-sweater ad from his 2015 campaign notwithstanding. Moreover, on a policy level, neither Emanuel nor his public safety team figured out until too late that Chicago's murder problem was about to explode, almost literally, endangering every other accomplishment of his tenure and playing into the critical perception that while the people Emanuel really cared about lived in the downtown Emerald City, much of Chicago was stuck in the slums of Oz.
But the good side was there, too, and in my view outweighed the negatives of a very human being.
Chicago was on the verge of fiscal collapse eight years ago, swamped in pension and related debt and surviving only by selling off municipal jewels, like the parking meter system. Today, the city's budget is pretty much balanced, and the pension problem recognized and about halfway to being fixed. If the economy holds together a bit longer, a fiscal corner likely has been turned.
The nonstop mayor correctly decided that exploiting Chicago's strengths—the transportation and corporate headquarters of the midcontinent—was the first crucial step in turning around the city as a whole. And he worked tirelessly to let the world know about that. As a result, Chicago now has 163,000 more jobs than it did in 2011—that despite a population dip. Much of the Chicago Transit Authority has been rebuilt, as has O'Hare International Airport. The city has begun to nurture and attract the industries of tomorrow, instead of watching as old-line companies died or moved. Equity challenges remain, but they exist in every big global city.
Emanuel's focus on Chicago Public Schools was critical. Despite continuing shortfalls, the fights to extend the school day and year, to improve test results and offer parents and children more choices were worth it. He sometimes didn't go about it the right way—he suggests his biggest regret was getting off to a bad start with teachers union chief Karen Lewis—but his goal was the right one.
Beyond that, all of this was accomplished pretty much without political scandal, a Chicago rarity. I don't mean to minimize the Laquan McDonald situation or to shrug off the rewarding of donors with city contracts. But few mayors in the last century can say the U.S. attorney's office stayed away from their inner circle. Emanuel can.
The man has earned a break, and I wish him well. Now his lower-keyed successor, Lori Lightfoot, has to pick up on the good points and finish the job.
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