Joseph Epstein: Why Mayor Daley Remains Mayor
[Mr. Epstein is the author, most recently, of "Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy's Guide" (HarperCollins, 2006).]
... Mr. Daley has by Chicago standards been a great mayor, possibly the greatest the city has known. With this new term, he shall also be the mayor longest in office. The reason for both -- his greatness and his longevity in the job -- is that he keeps the machine oiled, the joint running, the tax base low, the town prosperous. Is everybody happy?
Not a lengthy period is required for cities, even magnificent cities, to fall apart. In his novel "Life and Fate," the Russian writer Vasily Grossman notes: "Man never understands that the cities he has built are not an integral part of Nature. If he wants to defend his culture from wolves and snowstorms, if he wants to save it from being strangled by weeds, he must keep his broom, spade, and rifle always at hand. If he goes to sleep, if he thinks about something else for a year or two, then everything's lost. The wolves come out of the forest, the thistles spread and everything is buried under dust and snow."
Chicagoans understand this better than most. In the interregnum between the two Daleys, père et fils, that is in the years between 1976 and 1989, when Chicago was without a Daley as mayor, the wolves were out, snows clogged the pavement, thistles rolled down crime-ridden sad streets, dust was everywhere, that old decline-and-fall feeling was in the air. Rich Daley put an end to that: The city he has governed has become a vibrant place, culturally booming, buildings and civic works shooting up all over, without obvious racial tension, a place in which the talented young are eager to live.
In this past election, Mr. Daley had no real competition, apart from a few disgruntled aldermen and local hacks. For a time there was talk of Jesse Jackson, Jr., the congressman and son of the altogether too ubiquitous clergyman, taking a shot at running for mayor. Being mayor of Chicago is a greater launching pad for an ambitious young politician than is being a backbencher in the House of Representatives. But Mr. Jackson realized that Mr. Daley, even carrying the freight of scandal within his government, couldn't be beaten.
More is entailed in Mr. Daley's success than, a la Mussolini, a matter of making the railroads run on time. Mr. Daley is not theoretician of government but a problem solver, and a tenacious one....
Read entire article at WSJ
... Mr. Daley has by Chicago standards been a great mayor, possibly the greatest the city has known. With this new term, he shall also be the mayor longest in office. The reason for both -- his greatness and his longevity in the job -- is that he keeps the machine oiled, the joint running, the tax base low, the town prosperous. Is everybody happy?
Not a lengthy period is required for cities, even magnificent cities, to fall apart. In his novel "Life and Fate," the Russian writer Vasily Grossman notes: "Man never understands that the cities he has built are not an integral part of Nature. If he wants to defend his culture from wolves and snowstorms, if he wants to save it from being strangled by weeds, he must keep his broom, spade, and rifle always at hand. If he goes to sleep, if he thinks about something else for a year or two, then everything's lost. The wolves come out of the forest, the thistles spread and everything is buried under dust and snow."
Chicagoans understand this better than most. In the interregnum between the two Daleys, père et fils, that is in the years between 1976 and 1989, when Chicago was without a Daley as mayor, the wolves were out, snows clogged the pavement, thistles rolled down crime-ridden sad streets, dust was everywhere, that old decline-and-fall feeling was in the air. Rich Daley put an end to that: The city he has governed has become a vibrant place, culturally booming, buildings and civic works shooting up all over, without obvious racial tension, a place in which the talented young are eager to live.
In this past election, Mr. Daley had no real competition, apart from a few disgruntled aldermen and local hacks. For a time there was talk of Jesse Jackson, Jr., the congressman and son of the altogether too ubiquitous clergyman, taking a shot at running for mayor. Being mayor of Chicago is a greater launching pad for an ambitious young politician than is being a backbencher in the House of Representatives. But Mr. Jackson realized that Mr. Daley, even carrying the freight of scandal within his government, couldn't be beaten.
More is entailed in Mr. Daley's success than, a la Mussolini, a matter of making the railroads run on time. Mr. Daley is not theoretician of government but a problem solver, and a tenacious one....