By Steve Rhodes
“Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says it is up to neighborhood residents to reclaim the corners on the city’s West Side where members of two street gangs were arrested for drug trafficking,” AP reports.
How? Build a fort?
“The real test isn’t just today. Does the community come outside the church, outside the family room reclaim those street corners as ours?” the mayor said.
So everyone should grab a lawn chair?
We’ve been hearing that kind of rhetoric for years; it gives politicians something to say. You know what’s harder? Turning the city’s budget upside down to give those street corners top priority instead of lavishing handouts on those who won’t help themselves.
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“The first line in protecting a neighborhood is a community. It is not the police department,” Rahm said.
Funny, no one blames the “community” for crime in his neighborhood.
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More jarring were statements made by police chief Garry McCarthy, who explained he is restructuring the department because “We weren’t set up the way that we needed to be set up to fight crime in the first place.”
What?! All this time?!
Someone please seek out Richard M. Daley for comment – and every reporter who lauded his reign.
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Even Jay Levine of CBS2 Chicago was skeptical of yesterday’s dog-and-pony show.
“[B]ased on the chart of those arrested, the implication that police took down two major street gangs might have been misleading,” Levine reported. “Many of the suspects arrested were charged with simple possession, and none of the suspects matched the Chicago Crime Commission’s roster of leaders of the two gangs targeted by police.”
Being Emanuel
“Emanuel Calls Ski Trip With His Kids A Great Success,” the Sun-Times reports.
Did he use charts to show how many goals were met?
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“Earlier this year, Chicago’s new first family took an exotic Christmas break trip to Chile and Argentina. They went on a 70-mile whitewater rafting trip down the Futaleufu River in Chile, went fly fishing and hiking in the Patagonian area, then spent New Year’s Eve in Buenos Aries.
“Every year, we try to take the kids to a different part of the world to see. When you . . . grow up again, you want to be an Emanuel child. It’s unbelievable,'” the mayor said.
You don’t even have to attend city schools!
ALTERNATE: It’s almost as good as growing up Romney!
Post Trauma Center Syndrome
“How to get another trauma care unit in the south suburbs was the subject of brainstorming by a panel that included Cook County and state officials, health care experts and first responders,” the SouthtownStar reports.
“When St. James Hospital in Olympia Fields closed its Level 1 trauma unit in 2008 because it could not afford the $10 million annual operating cost, it left Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn as the area’s only hospital with a Level 1 trauma care designation. While all hospitals have emergency rooms capable of treating seriously injured patients, Christ is the region’s only facility equipped to provide the most sophisticated level of trauma care.”
That means people in the south suburbs – and on the South Side – die of injuries that people in the north suburbs and on the North Side survive.
More Milk Madness
“Having made millions of dollars on government deals for milk and electrical and plumbing work, the McMahon family routinely gives back to politicians,” the Sun-Times and BGA report today in the second part of their investigation into the McMahon family’s city contracts. (Part one is discussed here.)
“In all, milk magnate Frank J. McMahon, five of his siblings, their immediate families, their businesses and their business partners have given more than $1 million in campaign contributions and loans to dozens of politicians since 1995.
“Tops on the list of politicians who’ve benefitted: Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), whose campaign funds have gotten a total of $164,100. That includes contributions from McMahon’s brother Anthony P. McMahon, a former Cook County government electrician who’s a member of Burke’s Democratic Party ward organization.”
Burke refused to comment, of course. Here’s who else benefited from the McMahon’s largesse:
* Joseph Birkett, the former DuPage County state’s attorney who’s now an Illinois Appellate Court judge. Birkett, a Republican, is a first cousin of the McMahons, who have contributed $94,900 to his campaign funds and given him another $250,000 in loans that he has since repaid.
* DuPage County Board member Michael McMahon, a Republican who’s a second cousin. He has gotten $57,500, including a $12,000 loan from McMahon Food that he has yet to repay.
* Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, a Democrat. She has gotten $36,900, which includes the value of food provided for a political fund-raising event that Frank McMahon hosted.
* [Former state’s attorney Dick] Devine, a Democrat who has gotten $24,000. “I have high regard for Frank,” Devine says. “I remember his daughter [Mary]. She came through the normal [hiring] process, and she’s done a great job.”
* Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer, a Democrat who has gotten $22,185, including food and wait staff for a 2009 political fund-raiser that Frank McMahon hosted.
* Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, a Democrat who has gotten $19,750.
* Cook County Judge Tom Allen, Chicago’s former 38th Ward alderman, who received $14,500.
* Chicago Ald. Tim Cullerton (38th), who replaced Allen, his brother-in-law, in the City Council last year and has gotten $13,000.
* Brian T. Sexton, a Democrat who is the $144,000-a-year chief of Alvarez’s narcotics bureau.
You’ll have to click through and read the whole thing to find out why these folks have been of particular interest to the McMahons.
Bottoms Up
“A closely watched index of local home prices fell in January for the fifth straight month, hitting its lowest level in 11 years, a sign that the Chicago-area residential market has yet to hit bottom,” Crain’s reports.
Mob Monsters
There’s a good one behind every Chicago Mob Wife.
Bob and the Monster
Bob Forrest’s long, strange trip.
Soccer Monsters
The Fire are back.
Chicago: City To See In ’63!
By the First Lady of Amateur Film.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Monstrous.
Posted on March 27, 2012