Chicago’s starring role at this week’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte was the opposite of its role at the GOP convention in Tampa. At the latter, the city was a symbol of everything corrupt and thuggish about urban politics. Through the DNC lens, Chicago was once again was the shining city on the lake that the world adored on Election Night 2008…
As DNC speakers celebrate the economic mobility that brought them to the political stage, middle-class jobs are eroding during the recession, and are being replaced by low-wage jobs. The implications for the economic mobility of the next generation are worrisome.
Chicago pols—and expat Deval Patrick—dominated the second night of the DNC. Pat Quinn and Rahm Emanuel got the undercard, while Patrick and Michelle Obama stole the show.
Ten years ago, more children died in Illinois in vehicle crashes than by firearms, according to DCFS reports. With fewer people on the road in the wake of the recession, and more children dying from gunfire, that’s no longer the case.
Illinois’s often-troubled Department of Children and Family Services has seen its budget decline over the past decade—and a new round of cuts will reduce staffing even further, to 1980s levels.
The Obamas mostly have always maintained a strict zone of privacy when it comes to their daughters, but the president has occasionally shifted the zone to gain political advantage…
Using jaywalking arrests to look at police-citizen relations downstate; why Elston doesn’t have its own bus and how the CTA decides these things; and a timelapse installation of a huge railroad bridge.
Preventing segregation is one thing; encouraging desegregation is much, much harder, and outside of school policy is historically uncommon. The future might look European, where even conservative governments have addressed the issue through housing policy.
Illinois couldn’t be bluer, so not surprisingly we were nowhere near the stage at the just concluded Republican National Convention in Tampa. Still, there were some key attendees—and a few interesting no-shows—at the GOP fest.
The Vice Presidential candidate was heavily criticized for playing fast and loose with the facts, but a moment of dissonant rhetoric revealed a moment of real truth.
