My first introduction to Chicago politics occurred during a huge snowstorm in 1979. To my bewilderment, none of the streets in our neighborhood, save one, got plowed by the city. It turned out that the district in which I lived had not voted “appropriately” in the last election. The retribution for this bad behavior was clear, but what explained the one plowed street? City trucks would come into our area with their plows raised, get to the street in question, lower their plows and clean that one street. It turned out that on that street lived a political ally of the mayor.
Heavy equipment is still used as an implement of raw power by the mayor of Chicago, judging from Richard Daley’s decision to send city machinery onto Meigs’ Field in the dark of night on March 31st to rip up the one runway and strand several general aviation aircraft. The mayor hid behind the hysterical veil of anti-terrorism as his excuse for the destruction of a city-owned airport.
