Chicago's Toxic Civics
This is a work in progress. This analysis is the product of the 50 year+ experiences of Jonathan Peck and Tom Tresser doing grassroots democracy work in Chicago. We will be building this site out over 2018 to add sections on the history of Chicago's civics, research and resources, and a wiki space for readers to add their own stories of Chicago's civics - victories and defeats.
“Chicagoland’s civic health is on life support. This report identifies the symptoms of the region’s failure to prepare its youngest citizens for their civic responsibilities as adults, and the effects of endemic political corruption that breeds widespread cynicism and disengagement.”
That's what Shawn Healy (then Resident Scholar for the McCormick Foundation Civics Program) wrote in the report Chicago Civic Health Index – 2010, published by the National Council on Citizenship.
Fast forward to 2015. "The year 2015 was a banner year for corruption in the State of Illinois, the third most corrupt state in the nation. Based on the evidence in this report, it appears that our elected officials, our state and local governments, and society as a whole, are losing the battle against corruption." That was the dismal conclusion from Professor Dick Simpson's annual review of local corruption entitled "2015 - A Banner Year For Illinois Corruption."
Three years later, in May of 2018 Professor Simpson gives us an update with "Continuing Corruption in Illinois." The report opens with this stark declaration: "Chicago continues to be to be the most corrupt city in the country and Illinois continues to be the third most corrupt state."
This essay sketches out the details of this unhealthy civic eco-system.
First Principles
(1) Contemporary Chicago civics sits on top of an architecture with a history of land grabbing, violence and greed. You might say - "What else is new?" - but our city has a number of unique wrinkles to the American narrative. We sketch out these themes in the Pre-History section of this web site.
(2) The Chicago Machine is a tight knit group of families, corporate, philanthropic and civic interests who have placed themselves in power and used the offices of elected government, the media, and philanthropy to stay in power for 75 years. The result is a stunted civic imagination for our city. We accept corruption and incompetence. We accept injustice and inequity. Those who seek to challenge these base conditions are met with silence, resistance, no funding and isolation.
(1) Contemporary Chicago civics sits on top of an architecture with a history of land grabbing, violence and greed. You might say - "What else is new?" - but our city has a number of unique wrinkles to the American narrative. We sketch out these themes in the Pre-History section of this web site.
(2) The Chicago Machine is a tight knit group of families, corporate, philanthropic and civic interests who have placed themselves in power and used the offices of elected government, the media, and philanthropy to stay in power for 75 years. The result is a stunted civic imagination for our city. We accept corruption and incompetence. We accept injustice and inequity. Those who seek to challenge these base conditions are met with silence, resistance, no funding and isolation.
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For example, we have researched the campaign contributions made by Chicago Community Trust board members from 2000 through 2017. We note that these civic leaders have given over $800,000 to the Chicago Machine. Click to download the spreadsheet-->
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(3) Mayor Richard M. Daley inherited his reign from his father and his political Machine.
Richard M. Daley ruled as mayor for 22 years. He was never accused of personal corruption. Like his father before him, he understood that a person in his position could have either power or money. Daley Father and Son chose power. However, people close to them chose money.
Mayor Richard J. Daley famously said "In a democracy the people choose a leader in whom they trust. Then the chosen leader says, 'Now shut up and obey me.' People and party are then no longer free to interfere in his business."
Richard M. Daley ruled as mayor for 22 years. He was never accused of personal corruption. Like his father before him, he understood that a person in his position could have either power or money. Daley Father and Son chose power. However, people close to them chose money.
Mayor Richard J. Daley famously said "In a democracy the people choose a leader in whom they trust. Then the chosen leader says, 'Now shut up and obey me.' People and party are then no longer free to interfere in his business."
In 2004 City Hall awarded no-bid contract extensions worth millions of dollars to a company whose investors secretly included Patrick Daley – the mayor’s son – and another Daley nephew, Robert G. Vanecko. The city reached agreement on a multi-million-dollar deal involving a company with financial ties to Patrick Daley to bring wireless Internet service – Wi-Fi – to O’Hare and Midway airports. City Hall gives one-year contract extensions worth a total of more than $4 million to Municipal Sewer Services, a sewer-inspection and cleaning company secretly owned in part by Patrick Daley and Robert Vanecko. They invested in the company in June 2003. But their ownership interest wasn’t disclosed on documents the company filed with the city – a violation of city regulations – and remained unknown until it was revealed by the Chicago Sun-Times in December 2007.
Richard J. Vanecko, Mayor Richard M. Daley's nephew and grandson of Mayor Richard J. Daley, killed a man in bar fight and got away with it. Mr. Vanecko received 60 days in jail and 60 days of home confinement nine years and nine months AFTER the incident. Only persistent reporting in The Chicago Sun-Times kept this case alive. A special prosecutor, Dan Webb, was appointed to look into allegations of a police cover-up. However, many critics of the current administration believe Mr. Webb's investigation and subsequent report was a white-wash that caused no repercussions of any sort.
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One sad by-product of the Daley Era is a rubber stamp City Council that has not defied a mayoral decree, policy or ordinance in 60 years! One reason for this is the shocking fact that if a City Council member leaves office early (say, for being convicted of a felony) , the mayor gets to appoint the replacement! By the time Mayor Richard M. Daley left office he had appointed 26 members of the City Council. Mayor Emanuel has appointed three aldermen since he took office. It is little wonder that 27 aldermen vote with the mayor at least 90% of the time (on 67 divided roll call votes). The one "maverick," Alderman Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward) voted with the mayor the least - only 52% of the time. The Chicago City Council is NOT a place of legislative deliberation or push-back on the priorities and policies of the Machine.
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(4) Mayor Richard M. Daley's Tenure Was Toxic As He Reigned While Mass Torture Took Place in Chicago - We must remember that Mr. Daley was the State's Attorney from 1981 through 1989 and served as Mayor from 1989 through 2011. In 1982 an incident of police torture by Detective John Burge was reported to State's Attorney Daley by Dr. John Raba, Medical Director of Cermak Health Services (Cook County prison hospital). The suspect was Andrew Wilson. Mr. Wilson was convicted of the murder of two Chicago police officers and was sentenced to death. In April of 1987 the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the conviction, ruling that Wilson's confession was produced by torture. The handling of this matter is a dark stain on Chicago's rulers. After exhaustive reporting by The Chicago Reader's John Conroy - and NOT the major local media - Commander Burge was finally brought before justice in 2010 and was sentenced to prison for lying, NOT for the violence he committed upon the innocent. Mr. Conroy told one of the authors of this web site that he believes that the mass torture done to innocent black men by Commander John Burge was NOT the acts of a rogue officer and his men, but part of a systematic prosecution of violence among many police commanders. In other words, those heinous acts were not aberrations, but Standard Operating Procedure.
Richard M. Daley was the chief law enforcement officer and Mayor of the city of Chicago while Commander Burge and his men committed their crimes, and the mayor's own son and nephews committed theirs.
Mr. Daley has never answered for his complicity. In many places on the planet, the crimes against the tortured men alone would be considered a crime against humanity. Chicagoans have paid for these crimes over and over again - in terms of broken lives and ruptured families and in terms of over $660 million in pay-outs and expenses related to police abuse. You can search a database of many of these cases compiled by The Chicago Reporter as part of their "Settling For Misconduct" series.
Here is a timeline of "Jon Burge and Chicago's legacy of police torture" from the Chicago Tribune. On March 5, 2019 the City Council approved another $5.25 million for an exonerated Burge torture victim - bring the total settlements to $140 million.
Mr. Daley has never answered for his complicity. In many places on the planet, the crimes against the tortured men alone would be considered a crime against humanity. Chicagoans have paid for these crimes over and over again - in terms of broken lives and ruptured families and in terms of over $660 million in pay-outs and expenses related to police abuse. You can search a database of many of these cases compiled by The Chicago Reporter as part of their "Settling For Misconduct" series.
Here is a timeline of "Jon Burge and Chicago's legacy of police torture" from the Chicago Tribune. On March 5, 2019 the City Council approved another $5.25 million for an exonerated Burge torture victim - bring the total settlements to $140 million.
*Indicates aldermen who were indicted or convicted after their aldermanic service ended. In some cases the criminal acts began while they were alderman.
(5) Mayor Emanuel's Second Term Is Toxic As He Is Implicated In The Cover-Up Of The Murder Of Laquan McDonald. Mr. McDonald was shot on the evening of October 14, 2014. Mayor Emanuel faced a tough re-election campaign at that time. The election was held in March of 2015. Emanuel was forced into a run-off with challenger Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia. The Mayor won re-election in the run-off content held in April, winning with 56% of the vote. The overall turnout was pathetic - with only 33% of the registered voters participating.
Why did it take 13 months before the infamous dash camera recording of the teen's murder to become public? The Mayor pushed through Chicago City Council (with support of the Black and Latino Caucuses) a $5 million settlement with the McDonald family. "Reporters began asking questions about the $5 million settlement. A freelance reporter filed a lawsuit asking for access to the dashboard camera video. Emanuel and the prosecutor, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, battled for months in court to keep the dashboard camera video under wraps. On November 19, [2015] a judge ordered the release of the video."
If the video had been released in a timely manner, many believe Mayor Emanuel would've been defeated.
Why did it take 13 months before the infamous dash camera recording of the teen's murder to become public? The Mayor pushed through Chicago City Council (with support of the Black and Latino Caucuses) a $5 million settlement with the McDonald family. "Reporters began asking questions about the $5 million settlement. A freelance reporter filed a lawsuit asking for access to the dashboard camera video. Emanuel and the prosecutor, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, battled for months in court to keep the dashboard camera video under wraps. On November 19, [2015] a judge ordered the release of the video."
If the video had been released in a timely manner, many believe Mayor Emanuel would've been defeated.
In late 2015 a Police Accountability Task Force was convened by Mayor Emanuel [Co-author of this web site, Jonathan Peck, served on the Community & Police Relations Working Group of this Task Force]. This body issued a damning report in April of 2016. The report highlighted that the tragic shooting of Mr. McDonald was part of a systemic failure:
"McDonald’s shooting became the tipping point for long-simmering community anger. The videotape was painful, horrific and illuminating in ways that irrefutably exemplified what those in communities of color have long said, and shocked and stirred the conscience of those in other neighborhoods. The videotape itself, the initial official reaction, which but for the efforts of the journalist community likely would have relegated McDonald’s death to less than a footnote in the over 400 police-involved shootings of citizens since 2008, coupled with the 13-month delay in the release of the videotape—all underscored and exposed systemic institutional failures going back decades that can no longer be ignored." (page 5 of the Executive Summary)
So far, three current and former Chicago police officers, David March, Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney are charged with conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice connected with covering up the shooting. March was the lead detective and Walsh was Van Dyke's partner on the night of the fatal shooting. This led to a 13-month investigation of Chicago's Police Department by the United States Department of Justice. On January 13, 2017 - two years after the shooting - the DOJ released its report. The headline was "Justice Department Finds a Pattern of Civic Rights Violations by the Chicago Police Department." [You can download the DOJ's report and a fact sheet below]
The question before many thoughtful people is - "What did the Mayor know and when did he know it?"
"McDonald’s shooting became the tipping point for long-simmering community anger. The videotape was painful, horrific and illuminating in ways that irrefutably exemplified what those in communities of color have long said, and shocked and stirred the conscience of those in other neighborhoods. The videotape itself, the initial official reaction, which but for the efforts of the journalist community likely would have relegated McDonald’s death to less than a footnote in the over 400 police-involved shootings of citizens since 2008, coupled with the 13-month delay in the release of the videotape—all underscored and exposed systemic institutional failures going back decades that can no longer be ignored." (page 5 of the Executive Summary)
So far, three current and former Chicago police officers, David March, Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney are charged with conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice connected with covering up the shooting. March was the lead detective and Walsh was Van Dyke's partner on the night of the fatal shooting. This led to a 13-month investigation of Chicago's Police Department by the United States Department of Justice. On January 13, 2017 - two years after the shooting - the DOJ released its report. The headline was "Justice Department Finds a Pattern of Civic Rights Violations by the Chicago Police Department." [You can download the DOJ's report and a fact sheet below]
The question before many thoughtful people is - "What did the Mayor know and when did he know it?"
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The Machine refuses to die. Crain's urges us to take action.
Oh, you can't make this stuff up. On January 4, 2019 "A federal criminal complaint unsealed Thursday charged Alderman Ed Burke with attempted extortion for allegedly using his position as alderman to try to steer business to his private law firm from a company seeking to renovate a fast-food restaurant in his ward. The charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison on conviction.
Can it get any more venal and stanky? You bet! Long time Zoning Committee Chair Alderman Danny Solis was revealed to have worn a wire for the FBI for TWO YEARS recording all kinds of City Hall big wigs as a way of evading jail time for his own corrupt acts. What was the reaction from his City Hall fellow sleaze bags? “Where I come from, if you wore a wire, someone’s gonna kick your ass,” Alderman Matt O’Shea (19th) told Sun-Times reporter Fran Spielman. “You don’t do that,” Alderman Carrie Austin (34th) said. “You just don’t.” “I try to think that we’re a family down here,” Alderman Michelle Harris (8th) said. “So I got to say it’s probably a little disheartening for me.” I think these Aldermen must be referring to the code of silence binding the Mafia, called "Omerta"!
Chicago's civic ecosystem has been on "life support" for years. A major outcome is that our civics is a closed and insulated echo chamber that serves an elite at the expense of the majority of Chicagoans.
The costs are horrific:
Chicagoans die younger too. Because many of these deaths are preventable, health experts refer to
them as 'premature.' The black premature mortality rate is 13,642 years of potential life lost per 100,000
residents, three times the white rate of 5,698. Seventeen community areas have mortality rates of over 1,000 deaths per 100,000 residents. Of these communities, all have majority black populations and 16 have black populations of 85% or greater."
The costs are horrific:
- Cook County receives a grade of "C+" or a score of 56.1 out of 100 on the National Opportunity Index
- The health of poor people and people of color in Chicago is plummeting. According the report: "A Tale of Three Cities: The State of Racial Justice In Chicago":
Chicagoans die younger too. Because many of these deaths are preventable, health experts refer to
them as 'premature.' The black premature mortality rate is 13,642 years of potential life lost per 100,000
residents, three times the white rate of 5,698. Seventeen community areas have mortality rates of over 1,000 deaths per 100,000 residents. Of these communities, all have majority black populations and 16 have black populations of 85% or greater."
- According to the Loving Cities Index, Chicago provides 36% of the support needed for healthy and prosperous children and families. "Loving Cities have systems at their core that are designed to provide care, stability, commitment and capacity to children and families."
- According to the web site Million Dollar Blocks, over $1.44 BILLION as been spent on incarceration-related expenses for the people of Austin, Humboldt Park, North Lawndale, West Englewood and Roseland for the years 2005-2009.
- According to the Field Foundation, the poverty rate in Chicago's communities where the White population is less than 10% (41% of the city's population) is 32% or DOUBLE that of the remainder of Chicago.
- The City of Chicago continues to spend a fortune on policing. According to a 2017 analysis from Forbes Magazine, Chicago spends the largest percentage of its corporate budget on policing of any major U.S. city - 40% or $1.5 billion (an increase of $62.5 million over the prior year).
The authors of this web site, who are also authors of "Chicago Is Not Broke. Funding the City We Deserve," have asserted that this absurd state of civics is the result of decades of bad policies made by people who should NOT have been in power and should NOT have the power to continue these conditions.
The civic conditions we deplore include:
The civic conditions we deplore include:
- Lack of courageous leadership from different sectors of Chicago civic eco-system
- Neighborhoods have been disinvested and neglected - Tax Increment Financing districts (TIFs) have siphoned hundreds of millions of tax dollars off the table and AWAY from neighborhood development.
- Bad urban planning has led to gentrification, school closings, mental health centers being closed, and the closing of youth and family centers
- Philanthropy and civic funding follows and reinforces these regressive planning practices. For example, Julia Stash is the President of the MacArthur Foundation and served as Mayor Richard M. Daley's Housing Commissioner and Chief of Staff ("she was a key figure in launching the replacement of Chicago's notoriously derelict high-rise public housing projects with mixed-income developments."). Mary Sue Barrett is the President of the Metropolitan Planning Council and served as Mayor Daley's chief of policy. We don't know how many former Daley staffers are littered throughout Chicago's civic eco-system. But we believe it is a problem that contributes to the echo chamber nature of our civic space.
- Funders like the Chicago Community Trust have lavished funds on individuals and organizations from outside Chicago and to local organizations who are closely allied with the Chicago Machine to conduct major civic planning work that has resulted in sidelining and starving local grassroots civic leaders and their work. In 2016 The Trust awarded $350,000 to Social Labs, which is based in London and has left nothing here. There is a blog posting about a Social Labs-conducted "Rapid Action Lab" at the Chicago Teachers Union HQ over July 13-15, 2017. The blog states that "66 participants from the neighborhoods of Little Village, Brighton Park, and Austin" were brought together by United Way of Metro Chicago and Roller Strategies from England. There is an overlap between the principals of Social Labs and Roller Strategies. Considering that the CivicLab operated in Chicago's West Loop for two years and housed 16 groups, conducted over 80 open-enrollment civic workshops, hosted dozens of meetings and projects and built tools that deeply impacted Chicago's civic scene and was self-financed by co-founders Ben Sugar and Tom Tresser for $25,000. The Trust spent over one quarter of a million dollars for what appears to be a three-day workshop. In addition, the organizers for that project contacted one of the authors of this web site in an attempt to get background and contacts before setting up shop here.
- In 2016 the Chicago Community Trust gave a staggering $1.5 million to outside Chicago groups and what we regard as defenders of the Chicago status-quo in the areas of leadership development and "community development/planning." Download a pdf of these selected grants below.
| cct_selected_2016_grants.pdf |
Critical stakeholders like major real estate investors, political, business and philanthropic leaders have captured Chicago's civics and are leading the way in planning, thinking and resource allotment, while excluding the people directly affected by those decisions.
Mayor Emanuel's PAC, Chicago Forward, received 95 contributions totaling $5.4 million. Half of that came from two conservative billionaires - Michael Sacks and Ken Griffin. It is obscene that so few people can exert such a massive influence on Chicago politics and keep Machine stalwarts in office and attack or defeat challengers to the Status Quo. The mayor spent at least $650,000 propping up his allies in 2015.
The Chicago Community Trust's own board members are part of this toxic system, as we point out at the top of this web site. Their contributions often serve to solidify the power and policy of the Chicago Machine. Chicago Community Trusts grants and branding lend weight and authority to organizations efforts that sustains and furthers Chicago's Status Quo.
CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO GET THE DETAILS BEHIND JUST ONE EXAMPLE.
What chance do poorly funded (or completely UN-FUNDED) grassroots civic organizations have against this combined money and tight inter-locking web of interests? What chance do those organizations have who stake out an oppositional or counter-narrative to local entrenched power?
The sad bottom line for Chicago is that bad policies (Olympic bid, privatization, public park land grabs, corrupt practices, etc.) go unchecked, un-interrogated and power is accommodated when it should be challenged. The well-off parts of Chicago continue to prosper.
Mayor Emanuel's PAC, Chicago Forward, received 95 contributions totaling $5.4 million. Half of that came from two conservative billionaires - Michael Sacks and Ken Griffin. It is obscene that so few people can exert such a massive influence on Chicago politics and keep Machine stalwarts in office and attack or defeat challengers to the Status Quo. The mayor spent at least $650,000 propping up his allies in 2015.
The Chicago Community Trust's own board members are part of this toxic system, as we point out at the top of this web site. Their contributions often serve to solidify the power and policy of the Chicago Machine. Chicago Community Trusts grants and branding lend weight and authority to organizations efforts that sustains and furthers Chicago's Status Quo.
CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO GET THE DETAILS BEHIND JUST ONE EXAMPLE.
What chance do poorly funded (or completely UN-FUNDED) grassroots civic organizations have against this combined money and tight inter-locking web of interests? What chance do those organizations have who stake out an oppositional or counter-narrative to local entrenched power?
The sad bottom line for Chicago is that bad policies (Olympic bid, privatization, public park land grabs, corrupt practices, etc.) go unchecked, un-interrogated and power is accommodated when it should be challenged. The well-off parts of Chicago continue to prosper.
“No movement can survive unless it is constantly growing and changing with the times. If it isn't growing, if it's stagnant, and without the support of the people, no movement for liberation can exist, no matter how correct its analysis of the situation is. That's why political work and organizing are so important. Unless you are addressing the issues people are concerned about and contributing positive direction, they'll never support you. “ - Assata Shakur, An Autobiography
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