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I know what you're thinking: "But this Neil Junior" — I call him Sport — "is he any good?' Will he similarly hold us captive with his biting wit and hard-hitting journalism? It isn't as if writing well is a heritable trait, like my green eyes or wide feet.
OK, OK ... the above is untrue, mostly, except for the lack of a column-writing chromosome. I'm sticking around. And as pompous as I can be, I didn't name either of my sons after myself — Jews don't generally do that. Neither of my boys feels it worth his super-valuable, billable-by-the-1/10th-hour time to regularly read my column, never mind consider taking a pay cut to write it.
What inspired the above is Fran Spielman's Friday article on Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) wanting to bestow his City Council seat upon his 29-year-old namesake.
"Don't judge him based on him being my son," said Burnett, pere, as if there were any other reason the lad is being finessed into City Hall. "Judge him based on what he can bring to the table ..."
He went on at length to extol his son's many excellent qualities. I don't fault him for that. I'm a big fan of my kids, too. I just wouldn't have the chutzpah to try to hand one my job as if it were my wedding china. Not that he'd want that either.
You know who never says a peep in Fran's story? Despite being invited to do so by the dean of City Hall reporters.
That's right, Walter Redmond Burnett, the alderperson-in-waiting. The man can speak, correct?
I know he can because Block Club recently cornered him at a coffee shop, where he addressed such crucial matters as what he likes to be called — "Red" — and why this isn't yet another case of, in Block Club's words, "classic Chicago nepotism." The story also mentions, in the 14th paragraph, that Burnett the Younger spent "almost a decade in New York" as an investment banker.
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The last actually honest alderman Chicago had was Paul Douglas who went onto the US Senate. He resigned from the City Council in May, 1942 & joined the Marines & at 50, is still the oldest recruit ever at Parris Island.
ReplyDeleteThat's how pathetically corrupt the Chicago City Council is, not a single honest member in 83 years!
clark st . I love you
ReplyDeleteI reside in mr Burnetts ward over here in east Garfield park. didn't know he was stepping down. what did he get convicted of ?
ReplyDeleteHaha! What a great question!
DeleteAh well, add it to the political circus. On another note, cause I veer off. I'm still trying to figure out the visual ChatGPT. Have you ever used the story prompt for amusement?
ReplyDeleteCan't say I have. What exactly is "the story prompt"?
DeleteDarn it, an Alder is a kind of tree. Understandable confusion. A readily available non-gendered term for a member of a council is Councilor. Please consider.
ReplyDelete"Councilor"? What is this, Tudor England? Trees share their names with all sorts of non-tree material. Ever taste maple syrup? Ever tap a cigar ash? Complain about those, do you?
DeleteWould that it were.
DeleteMaybe it got lost in the editing, or maybe we all forgot because he was in City Council for so long, but you mentioned Ed Burke, and Ed also got into office by succeeding his father Joseph as committeeman and alderman after Joseph died.
ReplyDeleteWe don't want anyone picketing the Sun*Times, so comments about nepotism within the Stroger family are best left in the comments section. The birthright transfer of power in that instance was one of the saddest and most egregious in my memory. John was forced to actually campaign as an incumbent, due to the serious challenge by Forrest Claypool, and his health wasn't up to it. He had a stroke weeks before the primary, and the family hid him in an ICU, allowing no visitors, in order to maintain the facade that somehow Stroger was still capable of functioning. After the seriously incapacitated John Stroger eked out a win in the primary (and just after the filing date for 3rd party candidates in the race), the family finally acknowledged he would be unable to serve, and quickly pushed for the eminently unqualified Todd to replace him in November. This was total BS as the family thumbed their noses at the citizens of Cook Co and the election process. And BS was pretty much what we got. Including when he hired his equally unqualified cousin as CFO. More nepotism.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, please add Carrie Austin to the list of deplorable nepotists. She inherited her seat, not from a parent, but from her deceased husband. She is too ill to stand trial for her crimes, but definitely qualifies for Chicago's Hall of Shame.
Found a fairly recent Hall of Chicago Hall of Shame roster in the Tribune. Only goes back to 1972, but it still has more than three dozen aldermanic names on it. There are 38, to be exact. Two others had their charges dropped...one had cancer and other ailments, making her too sick to go to court, and one co-operated with the Feds. Several of the accused died while awaiting trial. Read it and weep:
Deletehttps://www.chicagotribune.com/2022/11/30/chicago-aldermen-convicted-of-corruption-and-others-facing-charges/
Not long after I lived in East Rogers Park (in the 49th Ward, in '70 and '71), my alderman was convicted of taking a bribe for a zoning change. He is one of the earliest felons on the Tribune's list. Should I feel proud...or ashamed? Maybe neither...more like just shrugging. Hey, I'm from Chicago.
Would enjoy seeing a complete list of convicted cheaters...a dossier of dishonesty that probably goes back to Chicago's earliest days. Gotta be a very, very long one.Think of all the shenanigans there had to have been after the ultimate urban renewal program...the fire of 1871. It's just the Chicago way, and it always has been.
That alderman was Paul Wigoda, who along with long time alderman 7 lifelong crook Tom Keane ran the City Council. I went to Kilmer with Wigoda's son, all of his kids got away with murder there, he lived maybe 200 feet from the school. Both were convicted for trying to rezone the Edgewater Golf Course along Pratt ave.
DeleteYeah, I know who he was. I lived at Pratt and Ashland, near my grandma's old block on Estes, and my cousin's upholstery shop on Glenwood. By the time Wigoda was convicted, it was 1974, and I was living in Gainesville, FL. Did not find out about it until I moved back up North, the following year.
DeleteNever knew that the rezoning bribe was connected to the golf course, either. Thanks for the heads-up. What's interesting is that in the early 70s, Edgewater wasn't even in Wigoda's 49th Ward, and it still isn't. In the mid-Eighties, I lived on the other side of what had been the golf course, at Artesian and Albion. Which was smack dab in the middle of the 50th Ward. Didn't Wigoda's son become a prominent surgeon in Fort Lauderdale?
Picture in the blog is great. Too bad that one didn't show up in the newspaper.
ReplyDeleteThanks for noticing — I thought it came out well. The AI is getting better — I wrote maybe 20 words of prompt, and it spat that out in 10 seconds.
Delete