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chinese needing money troubles labor troubles political troubles there are the familiar victory in what has become a familiar story of the large american city laid out most dramatically in new york city and played now a seven run in chicago so we were all that wasn't supposed to happen in chicago the story has some special juice supplied by the words and actions of the new nie or critics called calamity jane tonight with robert mcneill in chicago a publication that huge at that yet what's happening to the nation's largest city and walk around yet in the days when richard daley rahm things the hoary of cliche about chicago was that this was the city that works now every story about your camera seems to begin with words like the city that works doesn't but it is certainly true that in daily today chicago seem magically a new instant familiar urban problems is labor strife and fiscal crisis
that image began to change last year after a series of wizards drop a record ninety inches of snow in the city city officials couldn't clear the streets by the time the snows have melted the other newer greenberg yeah <unk> ran against the daley machine in a democratic primary and won her campaign means a breakdown in city services and a more open city government on the national scene mayor byrne made news when she flip flopped her support from harvard kennedy if that convention where tonight i would vote in a party caucus without having to re nominate the president later or another chicago the mayor makes news just about every day at the
end of last year when the city transit workers to strike over their traditional cost of living increase the mayor said know hundreds of thousands of commuters and christmas shoppers were left stranded during the three day walkout strike was ended by a federal court order because of a dispute between the mayor and the union over a contract that the most serious problem in chicago's schools the school system is broke the chance to solve the financial crisis a failure nine weeks ago is now the teacher's avoiding layoffs that plane quietly they're going through psychologically speaking jane byrne setting all these days seems a little like a beleaguered fortress the mayor's new press secretary or her husband says there is a press conspiracy to turn them air into a punching that neither the northern ireland self wish to appear tonight we have heard that the defense secretary and they were just they were just the people in the rest of the country
reading papers and watching television seem to have the perception of chicago used to work under daily and it doesn't work anymore is that a fair perception well as the vault perceptions of the commonly held ones about chicago i think it's a little out of date in the last few years of government the current administration really the problems were being faced up to and there's been a cumulative deficit and the cumulative problems and nothing's been done to solve them though are you saying that the imagery daley chicago working was a sham image of wholesome and over the last few years really chicago's economy remains at about a level area up until a few years ago made level from a few years ago and since then the costs of kept going up and there's been no provision to cut costs increases tax base intact is people worrying liberal administration have used words
like barely ever resorting to budgetary magic meaning budgetary magic was he cooking the books well chicago had internal bookkeeping know that was done by a year having revolving funds for instance from the department of city government that would provide a service and then bill another department well another department would then pay that a lot of the next year of revenues so that in effect you're getting to have a thirteen month budget year for money coming into the working in reality on the same call one years the rest of the world has to work was always a big surprise to james were murdered you know one of those things ring when she took over whether she suspected what it was but i think anybody had an idea quite how bad it was after the primary in fact the year best advice using the gap whole point for the idea of what's going on it's going to find out what the reality is here in chicago rather than the current cover up and we've been doing that mccain pete marra record company didn't do that on that was a first in chicago's ever had him on
the first time the first time maybe sometime in the early twentieth century it might have been certain that the last thirty years on people here who seem to concede lot of mergers a lot of these bombs were inherited problems nevertheless say that they've been exacerbated by the abrasive and combative personality on when they're letting their herself well that's of course a judgment that the people are free to make i don't think that's a really true the reality of it is is the gain is a very straightforward the person who talks very much like everybody else are like most people in chicago do rather than traditional political terms and sometimes that's what is being abrasive well would she be faced with a threat and firemen strike right now if she had not promised during her campaign for example to give the farm and for the first time a written contract and then to say no when it came to the point now when they demanded well when it cracked a feature on that first or she did promise contract and we have gone through with that
and even the fire union leader the other day said that yeah that's acceptable but now is talking about is an increase in pay different working conditions are different manning things like that it's no longer an issue whether or not they will have a contract because they will and they believe that they know that you blacks make up more than forty percent of chicago's population and they voted strongly for jane byrne now some black political leaders are upset not only over their city's labor and fiscal problems but with the myers well one of the most outspoken of then state senator darrel washington from chicago's southside senator what you think has gotten chicago's fiscal and labor situation unravel rubio the problem for david or you may have gone into one unfairness could attribute the fiscal situation for her station but what has happened is she has exacerbated the problems in the end up in somewhat of recent renovations of posters solution and not only that but it goes much deeper than that of the promises made by the mayor and she
was kernel a spirited campaign against incumbent made it very clear to our community that she had planned to open up maybe she was using that to entice our support and we accepted that partly because we were mainly because pu pu the vision of america land she came into office and clearly she followed have a systematic exclusion of black film from her cabin from other important poems it was a crucial partner that when she bought that number two man in police departments i am going to have a number two on two for more than forty five million dollars in the first job and shortly after that he puts him on the skins and both were pleased ford who have selected three and as widely expected she clips like the one white of the three of the holyoke to have solid credentials and one was from outside the city which she claimed her and she wanted not only that the
superintendent of schools when he resigned under fire as she threw her machinations reached down and that one of his subordinates place in control of the department this will be out with clippings of a pattern which disturbed very much like it was not just black leaders were disturbed by what has happened here with this disturbance goes right through the whole grain of the cell site a number that for example the chicago defender in the reporter's untenable and to disclose that of the sixty some odd percent thousand for the mayor only nine percent support of the day that doesn't begin of the disenchantment with the override that they support irascible injured this has happened to them do you see any connection between what you say she has not gone in terms of love love me in her commitment she knew she made to the black community out there in the campaign and the troubled chicago is having now yes it is the decrease of george gershwin's an attitude which rates for the black and he appears to be one of exclusion yet approved for the
jury one of the reasons for example i dare say that had should have all the amalgamated transit for now she would not have eradicating those government of oil strike she could not expect to go into a conference with these men and talk about the issues of collective bargaining the modern lambaste the local voices to method that's been her style and not only reflect its overhead compartment with love as a citizen the state of unrest of offer her this temper and an indian dishes to them have you another of black political leaders gone to her and say hello he reneged on a promise and a number of us for example i sent in a meeting with the mayor and try to impress upon her that her position on the transportation package would be debilitating for my community wish that you know we couldn't afford it she looked at the edges of what i've been through unity and i know that your people my city agrees with ludicrous it's crazy as she visits marc have the i live there and she
did not have the greatest to at least listen to what we felt was constructive suggestions we wish her well we're not about to arrest the snare wanted to succeed which is indicated no way if you want to win i guess well another near chicago from an academic who once observed this system and firsthand is the precinct worker is no food reco political science professor at the university of illinois and the author of two books on chicago politics you agree our first record that the fiscal less is largely mayor daley's left or reynosa not jane burns no i don't prove they're all i think very was two things i think of you and he loses at ripple effects as well he was a great man of numbers he understood finances and how they would finance very well there's no evidence and we still like and soul of the city was a real financial trouble and the blues roll it's where there were signs that the elevators and they
said where in the last couple of years every of throw things are beginning to feature a little bit there but even members of the city's budget wasn't balanced the winds were selling very while the solution but they only buy and the reality under the surface support a new reality on the surface that i think the city was in the senate say financially in that sense it was not in it was a prisoner of many of the trends which were taking place in the brain was the role of a man a great migration of people from the south and from mexico puerto ricans grumble great migration of middle class whites in this area in the suburbs which changed the whole tax base of the city an essential part of the city and it was a prisoner of that kind of thing and iowa for so think at every came to france or belgium that they either i think the fbi afghanistan the way early days mine workers for reference i think they really believe that if you provided good city services to pick up the garbage and clean the streets and we still educate the taxes will take care
of the people personally that you would then not have to build a soulful from the city i think they believe that most people with severe even care about the soldier probably that they cared about these basic things as you did that well and he didn't want to run the city in what sense were good chicago working really workers realize the country thought were very well and that set seed in terms of how you wanted to work if you want the work to be all of the major social problem and you mean no it didn't work that way if you wanted to do it to work in terms of keeping the place under control of keeping people in a sense very clear some happy and keeping the fact is very recent of keeping assets of managing conflict rather than solving social problems the city work very well that way it didn't work in front of men to the social problems that i think you might say it's possible that nobody could have dealt with the social from that very very effectively outbid at every tribe given all this work and i think there's been a significant
deterioration of the quality of the city's government since mayor brown came into office there was these things that they needed was to me he took the actions of the city government away from a politician from the ward committeeman and hired a professional bureaucracy around the city and was what mayor byrne then when she came in she wiped out that bureaucracies or herself what will mayor byrne's she's destroyed the bases and chicago without replacing it with anything over all of a necessity the problems were controlled under the once solid think of having now is that the problems are not being controlled thank you finally the view of chicago's best known newspaper mad mike royko a columnist for the chicago sun times and author of loss a very an authorized biography the only fired at first with reichl do you think that chicago deserved his reputation for me in the city that for years
first of all i mean by city that works for me is that it works is one in which somebody of moderate means and live on an apartment have a home send their kids it was more than a community with some stability and here we are two years an awful school system owes study was not one point they showed when they came when the charter schools like you went down by the ideology housing was in the mess that the approach the housing has been pared down ripped down on middleclass thousand help renovate the one inning there were people we had of building high rise on the lakefront for the upper middle class or the ideological war the phrase i think all was created by one of the news magazines had ordered new york and everyone has that came
from because new yorkers were so hysterical about their problems over the years at louisiana portal would write in through the northwest of the city which probably the most stable part of the city state a downtown hotel not get mugged i'm not the rabbi of water is a human embryo on a wild sheep farmer a worse if they wanted to run a neighbor was a finance in the us and as far as picking up the garbage my garbage eyes were all white neighborhood and show a big upset over washington's constituents and so there was a big moment that the city work we're you know we met with it just right now service as reporters were working for teacher strikes in the prior nine years of chambers ago before jan rivkin office you just words are nothing new here in law we had a cpa strike a lot less than three days the
choice is either give the city a driver is about ray just raised under fourteen or fifteen percent are already earning more than fireman or a policeman or anyone else or breakfast right and they can go to arbitration she was a triumph over how much of these other problems at chicago's having now you think again or so i think only the cosmetic around her personality he's too accessible to her as she she she thinks out loud all she says things that that you should have been thinking about why it means and she makes a decision and that gives her view the years the impression that he's just extremely erratic but as far as the general problems now on chicago's tax base isn't matt daley daley did nothing to keep industry from going to the sober businesses business news will meet with and let's do something about this daily took one of those is going to the suburbs they took it as a personal
rejection of himself it offended him on it so i don't know father was nothing done over the years to keep business in the street near where the sun belt going to the suburbs as a result chicago's tax revenue in nineteen seventy dollars off his hands of today of what it was in the nineteen seventies all with the proliferation we've had over the last ten years chicago that says well you know all of those victories following the school issue in nineteen seventy five when they were there the superintendent school said look if you give in and teachers and given this enormous raise we are gonna have to pass through the warren beatty de leon ruled the school superintendant david leach eleven they want in order to get that that piece with teachers or pay for allah yes sir stern
john street grid a few things here in central washington says first of all of that mayor byrne has been systematically excluding blacks from her administration after having promised during the campaign and getting an overwhelming workload has resolved through an open it up that's just the vatican this administration's need more blacks more policy level positions than any other four commissioners that the commissioners directors of executive agencies it just doesn't hold true victims executive a desire to see the commissioners and that is perhaps so we say that we've been talking about how cool you're talking about the white cat and she head i hope you're going to have your car get into separate federal comfort for money we're talking about systematically excluding avid daily as vigilante minorities from decision making pull apart in this study there was one significant one and i won't do that and that was the ct director in eugene volokh sure of that has
been their path was wrong with me was wrong with if i was wrong was the facilitator was wrong with giving qualified whether they'll file in this city we're here for the black vote what she has heralded as a continuum and i must say i'm fortunate over races haven't been so far that ruling including blacks into the fabric of our fabric of the city that's our invite not that she really is racism pretty loosely well i think if you're the executive director of the chicago transit authority eugene barnes who brought into it is the guy who advocated not giving in on the years the demands of the transit worker's is that there's just no way the seeking they've won that this happens if you're unemployable and the people who are going to suffer from that are primarily blacks are low income people if the cpa does not survive that was his position and his advice is what the mayor
hall well it's just that's another point here that can we have to a pro wrestling coach in charge that the mayor hasn't fired all experienced workers well that's really not true if that if that was the case sir you know then i mean we had people running departments like of public works for instance or the water department for the cpa or any other who are all very experienced people as an example for a barrel although eugene barnes had not won a transit agency before he was a state legislator who work on the transportation committee ten years ago he had been a bus driver the public works department is run by the former city architect who's been with the city for twenty years the water department run by colonel quarry who was with the department for twenty years before that and public works we have had in ten months to serve them for police three
witnesses the streets and sanitation with free press secretary so far has been a revolving door policy in a number of agencies and nineties people who were in calcutta and a classic example that the mayors off the senior citizens are above where it was a nationally known than interfere with replays way a completely experimental and nothing really mobile so and when the revolving door of there and there've been a couple of good people like that only in brazil and in all three of the people but on the whole i would say seventy five percent of people coming at seventy five percent of all commissioners and city agencies are inexperienced and very inexperienced units were at the numbers just don't care about well how do these really what you think of this controversy over whether the bureaucracies
efficient for more efficient bureaucracy and replace the route and this was serious sheryl allen opens and the city was won by politicians it was wrong but much a very efficient bureaucrats of long island all my side laughing inside the city has been run by politicians were guys went to jail during david's administration they were just sitting by and watching what was going on they were stealing the city of bahrain iran would barely had guys who were administrators were good administrator all i did was do exactly what they told you you know they're there were people in their view some of the private industry and they've never make it there is now that she's achieved in iran and then burned should know a wacky things some reforms have been that of chaotic but the retirement someone was the mayor for less than a year and didn't it's a very different police commissioner that that it
hasn't won one murder committed in chicago really doesn't matter if you get through these commissions the catalyst of the capital the recovery has lived in conclusions are just a couple questions what is how is all this actually hurting chicago army without schools for the moment but we'll be settled has any of this begun to affect chicago's reputation as a place for business investment as a place to move to another words it's a mecca for financial investments well mr lutz into the body part of the fabric not to be demoralizing that we are entitled to it we pay for a stable government we are intelligent and we pay for fans we are and we have to pay for all of this irascible this this is indian dishes and if you have got to get below whole body politic this rate it will also infect influencers of the reason for it is there any evidence of that well they are because the financial condition of our financial rating has dropped
down a peg but there's no reason why that cant be river it's the chicago has always been a very strong city economically despite the neglect that wandering daily years and i don't think that we're going to become the white new worker one portugal or so i think that if if you dont replace the ferry becket fund to a basis for fears of them fell below farmington city you don't replace that with another kind of system that playing the city's illegal animal family as well on the way to going or worse yet their beloved north of that they are getting along with bombings and the whites worked in the last few months and the end though all happen unless you know all that money has disappeared unless you're well i would say one in one in nineteen seventy eight there was a surplus in
those in that surplus and i know you do things like how big thing we have just a few seconds are close cousins jessica jones disturbing for lovers know i think what we've had now is regrouping of the city's assets and liabilities and a government that is determined to change the face of the problems and they're handled properly and that's what's happening now we've increased revenues or cutting costs you agree with the city's problems in one sense yet again facing of the summer a problem with much of the major things is that we are facing a permissive parents and our way we have to leave it there this gentleman now thank you all former an option cannot run was a one eyed and jim wired thank you and good luck the
company's become for a transcript and two dollars to the macneil lehrer report about three four five new york new york one oh oh one nineteen sixteen eighteen mcneil lehrer report was produced by wnet nw eta they are solely responsible for its content the funding for this program has been provided by the station and other public television stations and by grants from exelon corporation allied chemical corporation and the corporation for public broadcasting's anna you're alone noon
