Common Senses Invades Chicago Politics

Common Senses Invades Chicago Politics A few weeks ago, Alderman Robert Fioretti (2nd Ward) was a guest of mine on the TV show Political Forum. While discussing the upcoming census and redistricting we talked about the weird geographic configuration of the ward boundaries. He pointed out that because of the oddly-shaped areas, city services could not be efficiently dispensed. He spoke of changing to a grid system for street cleaning pointing out how much sense that would make. That type of arrangement would save money and be more competent. He said he had been lobbying for it for years. Now, with Alderman Fioretti being the only proponent, Mayor Daley has announced a cost-cutting plan to change street sweeping from a ward-by-ward pattern to a grid system. "If this side is one ward -- of the street -- and that's the other side, we can only street clean one side one day and the other the other day.”It's called efficiency, saving money," Daley said.

What? Has common sense invaded Chicago politics for the first time? Could reform be next?

With 50 wards, 50 sweepers are needed. With the new grid system only 33 would be needed because of a smarter deployment of the equipment. Why would Alderman be so upset about a new arrangement that will employ 17 fewer sweeping machines and yet still provide the same level of service?

Fran Spielman’s story in the Sun Times quoted various Aldermen who don’t want to see a change.

“It is taking control away from me. ... I want to keep control of that sweeper. I want to be able to keep control of the criticism that may come to me when they say that the streets are not clean,” said Ald. Willie Cochran (20th). “We have a lot of leaves. We have a lot of debris that has blown out of a garbage can. ... As I’m driving down the street and I see [trash] that needs to be taken care of, I can get on the phone and say, ‘Send a sweeper to this location.’ Under this proposal, we won’t have that luxury.”

Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) is equally concerned. “Sometimes you have a certain area that’s a lot dirtier than other areas. So, you ask the street sweeper to go back a couple times. Sometimes, you don’t have all the cars off that street and you send your guy out there to ring doorbells and get everybody off the street so the street sweeper can go back. Once they start on that grid system, you’re never gonna have control over it anymore,” Mell said.

Ald. Ed Smith (28th) added, “If you decrease the number of sweepers, you’re gonna have some problems with trying to get everything done, especially with us who’ve got these huge wards.”

In response to the Aldermen worried about the cleanliness of their particular ward, Daley said that ward-level street department superintendents will insure street sweepers remain responsive to local calls for cleaning.

To the Aldermen it’s not just a matter of who has control of the sweeper; it’s that some of their power is being taken away. What’s next? Garbage pick-up in grids? Sidewalk repair requests going straight to Streets & Sanitation? Parking permits and street closure application disseminated by the Department of Transportation? The Office of Special Events assigning use of the Jumping Jacks? The need for city services being assigned by the actual office that will fulfill the request?

If the city can be divided into 33 perfect grids for disbursement of city services; then it could be divided into 33 wards. So we are not talking about the loss of 17 sweepers, but the elimination of 17 Aldermen’s jobs. I think that is the real fear.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” I am not worried about the job the street sweepers do—they do it well-but how well do Aldermen perform? Since, according to data collected by Dick Simpson, Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois, more than 30 Aldermen since 1971 have been convicted in political corruption cases (about 20% of those elected to City Council during that period); the job they are doing enriches themselves, not the people of Chicago. I guess the hosts of heaven and earth won’t pause to say Aldermen did their job well.