American cities once had mayors who actually governed.
For twenty-two years, Richard M. Daley ran Chicago with the type of authority that is unthinkable today. He reshaped downtown, triggered a jobs boom, delivered the iconic Millennium Park, turned around troubled public schools, and slashed violent crime to 40-year lows. He outfoxed Republican legislators to retain control of O'Hare Airport and expand it into the nation's premier international aviation hub. Leveraging carefully built national political ties, he sidelined a powerful nemesis to tear down Chicago's infamous public housing projects.
Rebuilding parts of his father's legendary political machine through brazen (and illegal) patronage deals, he centralized power to a remarkable degree, cut deals behind closed doors, racked up piles of debt, and made long-term bets whose consequences are still unfolding.
This is not simply a biography. It is a challenge to contemporary urban orthodoxy:
Do cities thrive because of strong, decisive leaders—or despite them?
Through vivid storytelling, this book exposes how Daley consolidated power, aligned business and labor, navigated crises, survived damaging scandals, and imposed discipline on a sprawling city. It dares readers to reconsider what kind of leadership modern American cities truly need.
Foreword
Prologue
Ascent
Chapter 1. Tumult
Chapter 2. Alone
Chapter 3. Torture
First Term
Chapter 4. Campaign
Chapter 5. Wins
Chapter 6. Quality of Life
Second Term
Chapters 7. Downtown
Chapter 8. Black Swans
Chapter 9. Airport Wars
Chapter 10. Neighborhoods
Chapter 11. Ghost Towns
Chapter 12. Broken Windows
Third Term
Chapter 13. Go West
Chapter 14. Anchors
Chapter 15. Takeover
Chapter 16. Northerly Island
Chapter 17. Legend
Chapter 18. Gangs and Guns
Fourth Term
Chapter 19. Revolution Stalled
Chapter 20. Expansion
Chapter 21. Razing Hell
Chapter 22. Betrayal
Chapter 23. Millennium Park
Fifth Term
Chapter 24. Deadly Silos
Chapter 25. Scandal
Chapter 26. Hiring Fraud
Chapter 27. Renaissance 2010
Chapter 28. Empire's Edge
Chapter 29. Succession
Chapter 30. Cops on Dots
Sixth Term
Chapter 31. Two Systems
Chapter 32. Transformation
Chapter 33. Phenomenon
Chapter 34. Parking Meters
Chapter 35. Olympics
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Photographs and illustrations follow pages 104 and 190.
|"Claypool takes us behind the curtain at City Hall to show how and why so much actually got done during Rich Daley's twenty-two years in office. Not 'gets done,' for Daley-style coalition building and vote counting have become lost arts of late, too often replaced by virtue signaling and showoff crusading. Instead RMD cut subtle deals with GOP governors and presidents, with labor leaders and minority contractors, even tacitly with the Mob. Claypool's is a warts-and-all account, with duds like Daley's closing of Meigs Field or parking meter give-away getting as much attention as his triumphs. Consider a reborn Navy Pier, expanded airport and convention trade, street beautification, Millennium Park and, most impressive of all, his federally funded replacement of blighted and inhumane public housing high-rises. Rarely have we been guided so engagingly through a time and place when a major American city actually worked."—John McCarron, urban affairs columnist, Chicago Tribune"If...