Following the corruption convictions of four mayoral aides, Friday’s Tribune listed Mayor Richard M. Daley’s “five certifiable successes” to contrast with his failure to clean up city government. (I believe it was Don Rose who described Daley’s tenure as state’s attorney in the Reader–quoting from memory–to the effect that he promised to look for corruption in high places but wasn’t tall enough to find any.) At the Beachwood Reporter, Rhodes annihilates the Trib’s conventional wisdoms like a master chef filleting and dicing without seeming to move or breaking a sweat. One of the five:
Oh, but he fixed the Chicago Housing Authority, didn’t he?
“No one opposed tearing down the towers–if a workable plan for where those residents would go was in place. It wasn’t. Just as the critics predicted, most former CHA residents are not returning to affordable, mixed-income neighborhoods promised by the city. Instead, they have largely resegregated in worse conditions than where they started. The point of public housing reform wasn’t a beautification plan to remove the eyesores, but to provide a decent place for people in need to live.”
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