Here’s my lengthy thread on the 2015 Chicago Mayoral election Chuy Garcia was a clown and Rahm was the only serious candidate in the race.
Most of the unpopularity came after the election. The Laquan McDonald video didn’t help, plus all the ‘activists’ happily exploited it with numerous protests. The tax increases were necessary to try to fix the pension mess. Karen Lewis and the CTU have been a constant pain and I’m sorry that Rahm gave in to their extortion.
I don’t know the best answer to Aldiboronti’s question. But Rahm didn’t win the last election in a landslide. He had to go to a runoff, something I believe he didn’t begin to anticipate when he announced his run for re-election. He was not terribly popular. I believe that the haves and the have-mores, who were certainly enriched and favored by a Rahm administration, simply outvoted the have-nots. If you read through the thread that dalej42 referenced, you’ll see plenty of reasons people had to vote against him. What perplexes me is the fact that even now, after a term of office characterized by more of the same and even worse (see today’s report from the DOJ about our police department) he’s rumored to be considering another run.
Chicago has some wonderful qualities. In some ways I still love it. They used to call it the City That Works. But until it works for the people on the south and west sides, until it works for the public schools, and until it works for people who are NOT connected, it’s a loser city.
Before this thread dies her natural death …
Chase Bank Auditorium … in beautiful downtown Chicago (just a couple blocks from Chicago Reader Towers) … I’ve always believed this was one of the finest ballrooms in all the Midwest … carved rosewood panels … gilded seats … enameled frescoes in the lobby … last night Tom Hanks implied it was a total piece of shit, completely underwhelming and one of the worstest places he’s ever MC’ed a quiz show …
What’s the StraightDope?
Yeah, Tom Hanks made Simone Biles cry … the bastard …
Chase Bank Auditorium is a boring piece of nothingness.
The Auditorium Theater is probably the one you’re thinking of, and it is so incredibly opulent and gorgeous that you can’t even get a decent picture of it.
Thanx … that is a awful place … c’mon people, donate to Public Broadcasting will’ya … no wonder Tom Bodett quit the show …
Just to note that the Chase Bank Auditorium isn’t owned by WBEZ (Chicago’s NPR station, which produces “Wait Wait”). It’s part of the Chase Tower (formerly First Chicago Bank) office complex, and I suspect that it’s owned by Chase – WBEZ likely just rents the auditorium for recording the show.
I’ve attended several business meetings there, and I agree with WhyNot – it’s a serviceable, but boring, location.
you know this is one of those problems that I feel that didn’t need to happen … I mean when I first read about them tearing down cabrini-greene aka the “good times” ghetto (if you can catch the unedited reruns that show the high rises they look like the twin towers prison in la … )
the response was "yay finally getting rid of the pus ridden eyesores (then after thinking for about 10 minutes) but wait wheres everyone (aka the gangs drug dealers ect) going to go ?
All the gangs that didn’t have a hood anymore were relocated to places that had established gangs and once the new decided to compete with the old … the bad side of the roaring 20s/30s all over again
The cpd and agencies knew there was going to be fallout all they had to do was prepare if possible …
I hear what you’re saying, and yeah… but I’m not sure what else would have made sense. This is one of those hindsight issues. Now, it seems so totally obvious that what happened was going to happen. At the time, the vision was different.
At the time, the theory was that if you dispersed the bad guys into a larger pool of good guys, they’d straighten up and fly right. That mowed lawns and picket (well, at least wrought iron) fences would inspire them to share in the American middle class dream. That the social pressure of disapproving grandmothers scowling from their front porches - a time honored and often effective form of policing without a badge - would persuade the drug dealers to go get a real job.
Problem was/is, there aren’t real jobs. Not enough.
So the drug dealers kept dealing, got themselves some more guns, and chased the disapproving grandmothers into their front rooms to shake their heads while peering through the curtains.
Chicago is nothing like NYC or LA. One thing I notice is how wrong Hollywood is on gangs in NYC or LA.
Where Hollywood makes out there lots of gangs in NYC or LA and this so wrong.
Where Chicago, Detroit and st. louis is invested with gangs. I never seen so many gang members in one day in Chicago and Detroit on different streets than all of my life.
Chicago has major gang problem.
Thank you for the link, dalej42, I shall be reading that thread.
So many great replies here, my ignorance is well and truly fought when it comes to Chicago.
Drove thru Englewood a few years back and was surprised at how it was so yuppied (buppied?) up. Nobody even offered to sell me a map because I obviously didn’t know where I was, as the old joke went.
Heh. I only started going there myself in late 2011, so I don’t have a really old frame of reference. I’ll tell ya that I feel pretty good in Englewood, although (until the Whole Foods plaza went in) I’m not sure I’d go so far as “yuppied up.” “Yuppied up” is Hyde Park. 
But I feel okay in Englewood. Much better than I do in Roseland, or in that neighborhood I don’t even know the name of, over by like Kedzie and the 40s? What is that? I dunno. I think it’s too far north to be Gage Park, but maybe that’s it. Anyway, that neighborhood does scare me some. When I’m over there, I will park in front of the house I’m visiting and call them, and I won’t leave my car until they’re at the front door. Not waiting on the front stairs in that 'hood. It’s not a good sign when there are more boarded up houses on the block than clearly occupied ones.
But Englewood is still the one with the reputation. I have a heck of a time getting Physical Therapists to do house calls over there.
40s and Kedzie? That’s Brighton Park. That’s directly a mile east of me. It’s not great, but it’s not a place that I worry too much about being in. As you head further south and east into parts of Back of the Yards, things get a bit more dicey.
I should also add that it depends where you are. Brighton Park west of Kedzie? Very little happening there. Brighton Park as you get between California and Western? A bit more concerning. I’m not even sure Brighton Park makes the top 20 community areas in terms of physical violence, whereas Austin, Englewood, and West Englewood, and maybe Grand Crossing top the charts year after year. I can’t find last year’s violence map, but here’s a map for 2015. (New City is the community area that includes Back of the Yards.)
Yeah, you’re right. I just Google streetviewed it, and that’s not the right place. I’m not remembering it right; it’s been a while since I’ve had a patient in the area I’m thinking of. What I remember is lots of boarded up buildings, lots of empty lots, and a disturbing lack of trees. Maybe it was North Lawndale, and I’m mixing up my 40’s South with my 40’s West.
Or it could very well be part of Back of the Yards I’m remembering. Not one of my favorite neighborhoods, either.
It could very well be a pocket of Brighton Park – the area near Shields Elementary School (43rd and Rockwell) has become a bit of a gang warzone in the past year or so. But that’s much more near Western than Kedzie.
I was born in Back of the Yards (and was there until I was 3 or 4), and my grandfather lived there until the early 90s at 43rd and Wood (and we would visit him pretty much every Sunday). It’s really sad to see how that neighborhood has become overrun with gangs in the past generation.
My time in Chicago is limited to the area around 130th & Torrence, which looked pretty rough. but I’m aware it isn’t representative of the city as a whole.
To which the general response in Chicago has been, paraphrased, "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA. Good luck with that. 
"
