Richard J. Daley is diefied as the greatest mayor in Chicago history, and, according to at least one list, the 6th best American mayor of the 20th century. I do not deny that he did a lot for the city. But his adminstration was corrupt to its core, rivalling the heyday of Tammany Hall. His popularity in Chicago can be explained by the many thousands of people who benefitted from his patronage system; his image outside may be the result of people seeing the surface results of his administration without realizing what went on in smoky back rooms.
Jane Byrne was blunt and brusque, more than she needed to be. And she was an extraordinarily poor loser. But I don’t recall her doing anything to damage the city or its reputation. Yet she is almost universally reviled, by all ends of the plotical spectrum, as one of the city’s worst mayors.
Why? (I’m more interested in the Byrne end of this equation – I think we’ve discussed Richard I to death…)