Division Street

“Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis will be put on the City Council hot seat next week to explain a surge in homicides and violence that bubbled over at last week’s Taste of Chicago fireworks show,” the Sun-Times reports.

Surges in City Hall corruption will continue to be ignored by the council, however.

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“Police Committee Chairman Isaac Carothers (29th) summoned Weis to appear before his committee one day after the Chicago Sun-Times reported that police made major mistakes trying to head off violence at the Taste,” the paper says.

“Carothers, whose brother is a tactical lieutenant in the 2nd District, promoted as Weis was taking over, said Weis ‘needs a little bit of pressure. He hasn’t had much pressure. He’s had a honeymoon since he’s been here.’”

1. Wait. The chairman of the city council’s police committee has a brother who is a police officer? Hello?

2. Yes, Weis hasn’t had much pressure on him. Hello?

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It’s not as if I don’t care if baby bottles contain toxic chemicals. I do. A lot.

But I’m constantly amazed at the number of issues aldermen find time to research, hold hearings on, and draft legislation for that is beyond the ken of the job as if they have nothing else to do, like, say, perform oversight duties on City Hall or focus like a laser on development, crime, schools and the other basics that continue to be neglected in ward after ward.

So yes, I care about babies. Really, I do. But when I received this e-mail from my alderman, Manny Flores (1st), I had to wonder: Is this his job? Does he work for the EPA or the attorney general’s office? Why isn’t he holding hearings instead on Mayor Daley’s abuse of power? Or maybe more to the point, on the instability of Wicker Park’s business strip on Milwaukee Avenue since gentrification wiped out family businesses and brought us boutiques, bars and restaurants with shelf lives of six months each? Or about ways to maintain affordable artist housing in the neighborhood? Or about the totally inappropriate dog park in tiny Wicker Park - the actual park - that aggravates all of us who live across the street? Or, more importantly, how to implement actual community policing in the ward?

I mean, yes, I don’t want to see babies harmed, but I sense there is a long list of toxins anyone could pick and campaign against. City Hall could put together a nice effort here along with its health and environment departments. But why is Manny Flores spending his time on this one?

Here is the e-mail:

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Ben and Mick at Clout City take a closer look at the strangest and most surprising votes cast on Wednesday in the Children’s Museum debacle.

Perhaps most surprising was Bob Fioretti, who, as the Chicago Journal reports, had at some point even advised Brendan Reilly on the issue.

And a constituent at Clout Street says that Fioretti’s office told him he was a No vote a mere two days before the meeting.

Fioretti’s explanation that the most recent draft of the museum’s design won him over sounds pretty thin, especially given his ridiculous assertion that aldermen weren’t lobbied by the administration. In fact, several aldermen have anonymously confirmed to the Tribune and the Reader that a whole lot of shakin’ was going on.

Fioretti has been an independent force in his rookie season as an aldermen, but he appears to have trod that well-worn path to the Dark Side.

Other surprises: Ricardo Munoz and Toni Foulkes supporting the mayor; Leslie Hairston not. And Helen Shiller isn’t even a shadow of her former self; she’s a shadow of her shadow.

Anyway, go read Mick and Ben’s piece.

P.S. I saw Billy Ocasio with one of those cheat sheets during an appearance on Chicago Tonight about the Olympics; he tried to argue that Millennium Park came in on-time and on-budget. Our mayor can control time and space!

* “Naively, perhaps, I’ve always thought of our cultural institutions as the custodians of Chicago’s better nature,” Lynn Becker writes upon discovering even more deceit in the museum’s PR campaign. “I would never have imagined that such an institution - and for the moment let’s be kind and include the CCM among them - would conduct a public campaign built out of deliberate deception, withholding of information, race-baiting, gutter politics, and an almost pathological proclivity for telling lie after lie.”

* “Now that the ever-compliant Chicago City Council has voted 33-16 to approve the Chicago Children’s Museum Grant Park land grab, the real battle can begin: In the courts, where there are no aldermen who cower in fear of crossing Mayor Richard M. Daley, the plan’s most powerful supporter,” writes Blair Kamin at The Skyline.

* “This is a rehab project for an existing building,” Pete Scales, a spokesman for the Department of Planning and Development, tells Bloomberg. “That’s something that gets lost in the debate.”

That’s because it’s not true.

* I’ve got more on Mayor Hee-Haw and his farmhands over at the Beachwood.

The Tribune has it here.

See how Ben and Mick did!

Just released by Save Grant Park:

Fight over Children’s Museum Far from Over
City Council vote only Round One in a 15 Round Fight

CHICAGO - While expressing disappointment over the City Council’s decision to provide over $539 million in taxpayer subsidies for a children’s museum in Grant Park, opponent’s of the move say the fight is far from over. In addition to the current lawsuit against the city and several more that are planned, Save Grant Park says they will continue grassroots efforts to block construction of the Children’s Museum at Allstate Place.

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The vote was 33-16, according to the Tribune’s Dan Mihalopoulos.

Earlier, Mihalopoulous reported that “Yet another major local institution says its position on the Chicago Children’s Museum plan for Grant Park was misrepresented in newspaper ads where the museum listed what it said were supporters.”

Tell me again, Berny Stone, which side lied their way through this debate?

“The Art Institute was listed in the ad in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, but Art Institute spokeswoman Eric Hogan told the Tribune Wednesday that director Jim Cuno’s letter to the Children’s Museum was meant “as a personal letter of support” that does not reflect the Art Institute’s position.”

On to the courts . . .

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BREAKING! Reader John Kuczaj reads my mind:

“CTA airport express plan crippled.”

” . . . Huberman asked the CTA board Wednesday to approve $45.6 million in additional spending to finish construction of the shells for the station and subway tunnel . . . ”

QUICK! Someone get Jennifer Farrington on the phone! We’ve found the ideal site for the Children’s Museum: at the center of the city, near public transportation and underground.

Richard M. Daley’s Zoning Committee predictably followed Richard M. Daley’s Plan Commission in voting to support Richard M. Daley’s Children’s Museum’s proposed move to Richard M. Daley’s Grant Park, in a prelude to Richard M. Daley’s City Council giving full approval next Wednesday, which from now on will be referred to as Richard M. Daley’s Wednesday, according to a new ordinance issued from the office of Richard M. Daley.

Voting in favor of the museum’s move:

* Ed Burke (D-Daley), who must always live with the fact that he’ll never be anything more than Richard M. Daley’s Finance Commitee Chairman.

* Margaret Laurino (D-Daley), a legacy.

* Berny Stone (D-Daley), who also served the real Daley, became a Republican for a time, ran for mayor twice, and opposed his son’s run for alderman against primo hack Ted Matlak.

* Ray Suarez (D-Daley), who came up through Streets and San and who unfortunately isn’t the same guy as that NPR dude.

* Latasha Thomas (D-Daley), a Terry Peterson (D-Daley) protege.

And, natch . . .

* Bill Banks (D-Daley), patriarch of the First Family of Chicago Zoning with a killer ride.

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Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th) continues her campaign on behalf of coach passengers against American Airlines’s new baggage handling fee in a Sun-Times Op-Ed today, writing that “Singling out some people to pay more than others is just plain wrong.”

Um, maybe. But this is hardly the kind of issue Jackson was elected to the City Council to fight. In fact, it’s just plain weird. (On her website, she cites opposing the baggage fee as equivalent to opposing Mayor Daley’s tax increases.)

Is her husband, Jesse Jr., pulling the strings as part of his fight against foes of the Peotone airport? Mick Dumke points out at Clout City that the couple is running a coordinated campaign against the baggage fee.

I don’t like the fee any more than the next guy, but what’s next for our local power couple, boycotting American for a bigger bag of peanuts?

A friend forwarded this to me with a good question: Are other aldermen doing this too?

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Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 11:05:57 -0400
From: ward47@cityofchicago.org
Subject: Let Me Know Your Thoughts

Dear 47th Ward Residents,

As most of you know, the City Council will soon be considering a proposal to relocate the Chicago Children’s Museum to Bicentennial Plaza.

As your representative, I would like to hear your thoughts on this issue. Please e-mail my office at ward47@cityofchicago.org. In your emails, please include your name, address, and thoughts on the proposal.

I will be reviewing all responses before I cast a vote at City Council.

Best Wishes,

Gene Schulter
Alderman, 47th Ward

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Send me your aldermanic literature on this and anything else: divisionnbc (at) gmail (dot) com.