My Blog

Tag: Rahm

  • Gov. Red Tape Kills Another Biz, Jobs

    Last month when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced his streamlining of city business licensing procedures, he chose Logan Square Kitchen as the location to herald this new day in better relations between the city and small businesses.

    And so it’s more than a little ironic that today LSK owner Zina Murray annouced on her website that her shared kitchen is closing at the end of June due to continued red tape from the city. The city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

    Here’s an excerpt from and link to her full post:

    It’s a sad time when our government kills the very things that can heal our City. Logan Square Kitchen was designed to heal the local economy, environment and food system all at once. It was an innovative, bold idea that never had its chance. The Dept of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) began hammering nails in its coffin before we even opened our doors in 2009 and hasn’t stopped. Unfortunately, we see no end to regulatory burdens, which will continue to block our ability to grow a healthy business.

    Murray says that the 20 businesses operating in her shared kitchen–which rents hourly cooking space to artisanal food entrepreneurs–will have to find new kithens by June 28.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Very sad.

    A government overrun with power.  Harassing the very people who create jobs and pay the bills.  This is why Illinois is doing poorly and other states (Wisconsin, Indiana) are recovering.

  • Tale of Two Missions

    Absolutely amazing piece of work about Chicago’s failing schools.

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmnFQkD0Eg0]

    I have considerable new found respect for Mr. Williams after seeing this.  I always thought we was railroaded out of NPR unfairly.  But I also thought he was a little light intellectually.  Whatever his faults (and we all have faults) it’s clear he cares about the children and wants to make things better.  Kudos.

  • ‘Why Didn’t White Folks Keep Them for Themselves?’

    The Chicago Teachers Union, and school employee unions in general, are pulling out all the stops to slow down a school choice and education reform movement that is bowling them over in numerous states and cities.

    Bold reform efforts are being pushed by the likes of Republicans like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Democrats like Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It’s a bipartisan effort that has Big Labor on its heels.

    In Chicago in particular, the teachers union is flailing to stop any meaningful reform it possibly can. In response to the move for a slightly longer school day, the union has demanded an astonishing  30% raise. For weeks, union leaders have been beating the war drums for a teachers’ strike, which could cripple the city.  …

    But perhaps the most remarkable accusation came when she said, “If charter schools were so good, why didn’t the white folks keep them for themselves?”

    via Breitbart.

    Just plain amazing.  This is what CPS has teaching our children.

    This is how brainwashed some people have become by CTU and it’s tactics.  A sorry state of society where race politics superceeds student and parent choice.  Troubling days ahead.

  • Fioretti: Not So Fast Rahm

    Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to have five financing giants bankroll $1.7 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects ran into opposition Monday from aldermen concerned about “hidden fees” and long-term leasing of city assets.

    During closed-door briefings with aldermen, sources said Chief Financial Officer Lois Scott stuck to the script and talked only about the $225 million in energy retrofits to government buildings expected to generate $20 million in energy savings used to repay investors.

    That wasn’t good enough for Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd). He’s demanding to know what other projects Emanuel wants to finance with the Infrastructure Trust, how those projects will be chosen and what, if any, user fees may be imposed to make certain that investors get their money back with interest.

    via Chicago Sun-Times.

    Two things about this little power play:

    1. Ald. Fioretti is exactly right.  I’ve written in the past about how no one at City Hall can calculate a ROI or time value of money.  Sad that not one elected official seems to every taken a single semester of economics or finance.
    2. Rahm brought this on himself.  Ald. Fioretti would have been pretty happy just being alderman of the 2nd Ward for some time.  But Rahm wasn’t happy about Bob wanting to run for Mayor and therefore had to be punished.  So if you take a look at the new ward maps, Fioretti’s house is placed all by itself in a ward the bulk of which is miles away.  It’s a joke.

    The Machine is at it again.   Trying to grind it’s way into your pocket with back-room deals between the city and undisclosed entities.

    We get exactly what we vote for.  We voted for this, we deserve it.

  • McCarthy (Rahm) Shakes-up Police Brass (Not Really)

    This past week Rahm launched an ambitious plan to revitalize the city.  However in order to make that work, he must first prevent Chicago from becoming Gotham.  The post below talks about how the lack of enough police officers is causing a false reduction in the number of crimes being reported.  I personally think that Rahm and McCarthy know this. But while money’s so tight, they just have to make due until sunnier days come along.

    Nevertheless, they have to maintain the appearance of doing something to stay on top of criminal element.

    So along comes this story about McCarthy moving some top folks around at CPD:

    With Chicago suffering a 35 percent spike in murders this year, police Supt. Garry McCarthy announced a reshuffling of his command staff Friday, replacing commanders in five of the city’s 23 districts.

    McCarthy also promoted three supervisors to deputy chief positions. He said the changes were made to “strengthen the department’s ongoing efforts to reduce violence” and create a “more efficient departmental structure.”  …

    A police spokeswoman said no district commanders were demoted to make way for the changes in those five districts. They replaced commanders who were promoted to other positions or retired, she said.  …

    As of Thursday, there have been 114 murders this year in Chicago — up 35 percent compared with the same period last year.But department records also show that, through March 18, overall crime has dropped 10 percent throughout the city compared with the same period in 2011.

    via Chicago Sun-Times.

    This is not a shake-up.  A shake-up is where people are shown the door for poor performance.  People are held accountable.  …

    Rahm and McCarthy know that it’s not really these folks fault.  Everyone knows that the real problem is that there’s not enough officers to go around.  This is just a PR stunt — feeding something, anything to the masses — to create the illusion that Rahm and McCarthy are taking this seriously.

  • Crime? What Crime?

    Crime is out of control.  It’s not reported because in this town No Report = No Crime.  And because we have so few police — who are constantly running from call to call — a LOT of crime is going unreported.  Sometimes you can call 911 and wait 30-40 seconds before someone answers the phone.  But when it takes 40, or 50 minutes for CPD to arrive you get tired and get on with your life.  So many “petty” crimes simply go unreported.  e.g.

    A gang member tags your garage and you just want to repaint and don’t report it… No Crime.

    You get your wallet stolen on the Crime Red Line need to get to work and don’t report it… No Crime.

    Your car has a smashed window and you get it fixed without reporting it… No Crime.

    Dude gets stabbed and take himself to the hospital, says he cut himself shaving… No Crime.

    Because of the No Report = No Crime policy of CPD, if there were no police officers there would be… No Crime.

    But we know that crimes are being committed.  How?  Because we have record call volume at the 911 center.  So much so that it makes the news:

    Overtime at Chicago’s 911 emergency center more than doubled during the first two months of this year, thanks to a 13.2 percent increase in call volume and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to reduce the ranks of police and fire dispatchers, records show.

    Police dispatchers wracked up 10,024 hours of overtime in January and February, at a cost of $516,642, compared to 5,247 hours with a $247,662 price tag during the same period a year ago, records show.

    via Chicago Sun-Times.

    The wheels are falling off the bus.  Hopefully soon someone in the media will wake-up and begin really looking into this.  There’s a massive story here.

     

  • Building a New Chicago

    I was skeptical of Rahm coming in as mayor.  But as time goes by I’m getting more and more impressed by his ability to take on the unions, manipulate the media, get things done, outmaneuver worthless alderman, and most importantly develop and articulate his vision for the city.  (It appears that) He gets it.   You can say a great number of things about Rahm Emanuel; but you can’t say that he doesn’t think big.

    There are several stories out this week about Rahm’s Building a New Chicago plan.

    Unveiling a plan for “Building a New Chicago,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday promoted a package of infrastructure initiatives that included very little that was new — except for its $7 billion price tag and its ambitious framing as a mission comparable to the city’s rebuilding after the Great Chicago Fire.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    The Tribune’s piece quotes local hacks:

    “It was a State of the Union speech in Chicago.  I think it was a good blueprint for Chicago’s future.”
    — Alderman Richard Mell (33rd Ward)

    … and the not so hacky:

    “I think this speech was aimed toward Chicagoans in general, and aimed toward business, because actually, these types of pronouncements are out there to encourage businesses to say, ‘I’m thinking of coming to Chicago, I want to open a place in Chicago, I want to do business in or with Chicago.’  These are all speeches geared toward making us an attractive option in a very global economy.”
    — Alderman Patrick O’Conner (40th Ward)

    This is where the Sun-Times nails it:

    Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday urged major airlines squeezed by skyrocketing fuel prices to come to the table a year early and negotiate a fourth new runway at O’Hare Airport as part of a $7.3 billion plan to rebuild Chicago’s infrastructure and create 30,000 jobs.

    via Chicago Sun-Times.

    O’Hare.

    It’s almost as an afterthought it mentions some of the other projects, the story’s nearly last paragraph:

    Other projects include: fixing 26 miles of CTA slow zones and renovating, repairing or rebuilding 100 CTA stations over the next ten years; building a new Green Line station at 22nd and Cermak; acquiring 180 acres of park land over five years and building 12 new parks, 20 new playgrounds, and eight artificial turf fields; building a new Malcolm X College and a new classroom building at Olive-Harvey College.

    Companies will come to Chicago because of O’Hare.  People will want to live here because of O’Hare.

    Rahm’s not wrong to make the comparisons to rebuilding after the Chicago Fire.  The Chicago Fire permitted the city to change the entire layout of the downtown area, build Grant Park, move the stockyards, and become a the Midwest rail transportation center for the country.  St. Louis could have easily bested Chicago due to it’s Mississippi River and centralized rail center location.  It was the Chicago Fire that really permitted Chicago to become what it was… not St. Louis.

    Airplanes are today’s rail cars.

    Miami International put together an interesting document which ranks airports for 2010:

    NATIONALLY

    • Total Passengers  –  O’Hare  is 2nd
    • International Passengers  –  O’Hare is 5th
    • Total Cargo  –  O’Hare is 5th
    • Total Freight  –  O’Hare is 5th
    • International Freight  –  O’Hare is 4th
    • Total Aircraft Movements  –  O’Hare is 2nd

    O’Hare is the lifeline we need to dig out of the hole we’ve (Daley’s) made for ourselves.  It’s right to prepare O’Hare for the next 50 years of service when we’re going to ask more of it.

    The plan’s not perfect.  But perfect if the enemy of good.

  • Chicago: 1 Night, 8 Shot, 2 Dead

    A 22-year-old man was fatally shot in a Far South Side liquor store Saturday evening, police said, and a 46-year-old man was killed about 45 minutes later.

    At least six others were shot on the South and West sides overnight.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    While notable, not a record.

    At the time of the story, 36 hours ago, there was no word from the mayor about how he was going to stop the carnage.  Today there was news on that:

    One week after dozens of people were shot in a deadly outburst of street violence, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police Superintendent Garry McCarthy sought Monday to assure the public they are focused on combating gang crime.

    The announcement of a gang crackdown on the West Side was the first joint appearance by Emanuel and McCarthy since news broke that 10 people were fatally shot over the March 17-18 weekend, including a 6-year-old girl. Police say gangs are largely responsible for the violent start to 2012 in Chicago, which has seen fatal and nonfatal shootings on the rise.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Good luck.  My guess is that you’re going to have to get about 1,500 new kids into the police academy.  That would really put more cops on the street.  All the cops I know can’t get too wrapped-up in gang matters because they spend every shift running from call to call to call to call.  Cops on the street need to have a little down time to work the issue on the streets, cultivate contacts, bring in informants, and keep the little kids out of trouble.  Right now there’s just no time for any of that.

    And then we have to look at Anita Alvarez, and the elected judges of Cook County.  The message needs to be sent that if you’re a gang-banger and get caught you’re going to do serious time.  Every weapons possession by a felon needs to be referred to the U.S. Attorney’s office for federal prosecution.

    Eventually the gang will get the message… but you can’t send this message when you’re short 1,500 people.

  • Chicago State Missing $3.8M in Equipment

    Chicago State University has been unable to locate $3.8 million worth of equipment, including 950 computers that could contain confidential information, according to a state audit.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Doh!

    The story reflects that most of the equipment was actually purchased, and pilfered, during the Daley administration.

    I hope that this was discovered as a result of Rahm and Gerry Chico looking into the misadventures of Elnora Daniel the former CSU president who belongs in jail.

  • Chicago Police Supt. Promises To Curb Gang Violence

    Garry McCarthy says the intelligence is there. It’s just a matter of getting the information to beat officers so they can anticipate a retaliatory gang shooting.

    “We’re going to get our head around this thing and we’re going to turn it around is what it boils down to,” McCarthy told reporters on Monday. “If we were sitting here saying we don’t know what’s going on, we don’t know what to do, that would be a different situation. We know what’s going on. We’re putting pieces in place to make sure we can stem this tide.”

    via CBS Chicago.

    So if I understand this correctly, McCarthy is saying that he believes beat officers are supposed to be able to “anticipate a retaliatory gang shooting”?  The problem thus far has been that “It’s just a matter of getting the information to beat officers.”

    This is a most amazing pile of tripe.  I can’t believe CBS published this without any follow-up comments.  I guess they’re the new PR dept. for City Hall and McCarthy.

    1. It’s the beat officers who do predict when a retaliatory gang shooting is going to happen; soon after a previous gang hit.
    2. The beat officers are so busy going from call to call that there is no time to be “policing” the gang members until something bad happens at which time they get the call.
    3. All the special units which used to handle these gang matters were dissolved by Rahm in order to “put 1,000 25 new cops on the street.

    Manpower is an issue:

    [FOP talking head Pat] Camden says the department loses 50 officers a month to attrition, leaving police short-handed on the street.

    “I don’t think they’ve hired 600 officers in the past five years,” he said.

    Worse, Rahm (and Alderman Beale) have specifically planned to reduce the number of police on the street.

    Police Supt. Garry McCarthy told the Chicago Sun-Times earlier week that he’s been asked to cut $190 million from the Police Department’s $1.3 billion-a-year budget and would only get halfway there by eliminating 1,400 police vacancies.

    via Chicago Sun-Times Sept. 02, 2011.

    And for those who don’t remember, these were not police who were working, these were vacancies.  Open budgeted spots where Daley was too busy with flower boxes to bring on new officers.

    CPD is short manpower & we’re all suffering because of it.