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Presents the life of former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, making use of access to key players in his administration, as well as to Chicago's business and cultural leaders, to chronicle his political and personal evolution.
"Mayor Richard M. Daley dropped the bomb at a routine news conference at City Hall on Tuesday. With no prelude or fanfare, Mr. Daley announced that he would not seek re-election when his term expires next year. 'Simply put, it's time,' he said." New York Times, September 7, 2010 With those four words, an era ended. After twenty-two years, the longest-serving and most powerful mayor in the history of Chicago—and, arguably, America—stepped down, leaving behind a city that was utterly transformed, and a complicated legacy we are only beginning to evaluate. In First Son, Keith Koeneman chronicles the sometimes Shakespearean, sometimes Machiavellian life of an American political legend. Makin...
It is a federal and state felony to buy or sell votes, or to offer to buy or sell votes, yet “Just Buy My Vote”: African American Voting Rights, and the Chicago Condition is a unique story that must be told. It is a story where I attempt to summarize without excruciating detail the relevant portions of nearly three centuries. “Just Buy My Vote” is also unique in that it covers race relations, black history and urban history; written from the perspective of the Southside of Chicago. “Just Buy My Vote” is intended to inform the reader about the significance of voting, by explaining voting rights in layman terms, with the use of the voting rights laws, history, philosophy, and socio...
"Chicago is confronting a racial reckoning that we explain with an exclusion-containment theory of legal cynicism. Mayors RJ and RM Daley used public and private funds to exclude and contain South and West side predominantly Black neighborhoods where police Detective Jon Burge supervised torture of over 100 Black men. A 1982 case involved Andrew Wilson's tortured confession to two police killings. This case coincided with RM Daley's pursuit of White votes in an early and unsuccessful primary campaign for mayor. Suspicions about Daley's connection to Wilson's confession lasted throughout his career. As State's Attorney, Daley mobilized a massive assault on "gangs, guns, and drugs" by tighteni...
Promoted as a prestigious economic opportunity and often aggressively sought by local leaders, hosting a modern Olympics can in fact be a “city-killer” that racks up billions of dollars in over-budget expenses, degrades the environment, and shreds civil liberties. This book recounts the successful efforts of grassroots organization No Games Chicago to derail Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics in an entertaining case study of local activism with international reach. The group’s detailed strategies and tactics provide a much-needed playbook for scholars, journalists, and activists seeking people-powered alternatives to megaprojects and other tourism-centric economic development s...
An unprecedented historical, sociological, and geographic look at how property markets change and fail—and how that affects cities. In From Boom to Bubble, Rachel Weber debunks the idea that booms occur only when cities are growing and innovating. Instead, she argues, even in cities experiencing employment and population decline, developers rush to erect new office towers and apartment buildings when they have financial incentives to do so. Focusing on the main causes of overbuilding during the early 2000s, Weber documents the case of Chicago’s “Millennial Boom,” showing that the Loop’s expansion was a response to global and local pressures to produce new assets. An influx of cheap cash, made available through the use of complex financial instruments, helped transform what started as a boom grounded in modest occupant demand into a speculative bubble, where pricing and supply had only tenuous connections to the market. From Boom to Bubble is an innovative look at how property markets change and fail—and how that affects cities.
We face two global threats: the climate crisis and a crisis of democracy. Located at the crux of these crises, sustainable cities build on the foundations and resources of democracy to make our increasingly urban world more resilient and just. Sustainable Cities in American Democracy focuses on this effort as it emerged and developed over the past decades in the institutional field of sustainable cities—a vital response to environmental degradation and climate change that is shaped by civic and democratic action. Carmen Sirianni shows how various kinds of civic associations and grassroots mobilizing figure in this story, especially as they began to explicitly link conservation to the futur...
Examines the continuing ethnic diversification of black America and its impact on black political empowerment. In The Caribbeanization of Black Politics, Sharon D. Wright Austin explores the impact of ethnic diversification of African American communities on the prospects for black political empowerment. Focusing on Boston, Chicago, Miami, and New York Citycities that for the last several years have experienced an influx of black immigrantsshe surveyed more than two thousand African Americans, Cape Verdeans, Haitians, and West Indians. Although many studies conclude that African American group consciousness causes them to participate in politics at higher rates when socioeconomic status ...
Some of the most populated and storied American cities had mayoral elections in 2013. Open contests in New York City, Los Angeles and Boston, for example, offer laboratories to examine electoral trends in urban politics. Cities are facing varied predicaments. Boston was rocked by the bombing of the marathon on April 15. Detroit is roiled by being the largest U.S. city to declare bankruptcy, and Chicago, which had an open, competitive election in 2011, is dealing with significant gun violence. San Diego’s mayor resigned in August 2013 due to sexual harassment charges and other mayors are surrounded by corruption scandals. Houston and St. Louis had non-competitive elections recently but thei...
Whether focused on flower gardens, street crime, or aesthetic conformity, urban block clubs are unusual quasi-institutions that can establish or maintain a neighborhood s appearance, social dynamics, and quality of life. But what is a block club? And how does it function? Is it a definable institution, with codifiable practices and expectations, or is it merely an assemblage of like-minded citizens who happen to live near one another? What makes one such group effective and long-lasting, while most evaporate after a few years of communal activity? These are some of the questions that Amanda Seligman addresses in her deeply researched study."