
<p>I was born in Chicago. ; Spent most of my life in the Windy City. ; I grew up in a gritty neighborhood on the northwest side. ; I spent time in every neighborhood in-depth with every conceivable ethnic group. ;</p>



<p> ;I fought against the Democrat’s racist and corrupt political machine. ; My civic activism coincidentally started as Executive Director of the City Club of Chicago about the time Mayor Richard M. Daley died. ; That is significant because the City was freed from the iron-fisted rule of “Da Boss.” ; ;</p>



<p>It was not a complete reversal, but under a succession of later mayors, there was a vacuum to be filled by the civic community. ; Political edicts were replaced by negotiations. ; You could fight City Hall and occasionally win. ; In the post-Boss days, Chicago had a woman mayor and two black mayors.</p>



<p>During those years, Chicago was a great place to live and bring up children. ; The neighborhoods were safe – with the notable exception of the segregated minority communities. But progress was being made.</p>



<p>Circumstances brought me to South Florida – not disdain for Chicago. ; Naturally, I maintained an interest in Chicago – and occasionally wrote about some of the latest events. ; In the eleven years since my departure, I watched my hometown change into a city I had never known.</p>



<p>Places where we safely walked the streets – and the children would play outside without supervision – turned into places of violence and death. ; Those places included the heart of downtown Chicago. ; My youngest son was raised in a Michigan Avenue high-rise with Grant Park as his playground. ; Today that section of Chicago is terrorized by marauding mobs.</p>



<p>My son attended elementary school at Holy Name Cathedral. ; He could play outside or walk across the street for a Mcdonald&#8217;s burger. ; That was recently the site of a gang-related mass shooting that killed two people.</p>



<p>We would often walk to the Magnificent Mile to shop and enjoy a soda fountain treat at the Godiva Chocolate shop. ; That has become the scene of crash-and-snatch looting. ; Chicago was famous for its parks and beaches. ; </p>



<p>Many of those have been taken over by the homeless and drug addicts. ; It is not uncommon to see needles and other drug paraphernalia on the ground.</p>



<p>Over the years, I have given hundreds of speeches at churches and civic meetings in the inner city. ; Not much changed for those trapped in the segregated neighborhoods, with the notable exception of crime – deadly crime. ; </p>



<p>Chicago’s segregated community always had a deprivation of education, jobs, quality housing, and maintained infrastructure – but one aspect of ghetto life got a lot worse. ; Crime.</p>



<p>My son recently got married and is living in a home on Chicago’s far north side. ; One of those invigorating diverse neighborhoods with interesting shops and restaurants. ; The other day, a person was shot outside his front door. ; At about the same time, a friend was found floating in the Chicago River.</p>



<p>As I see it, the decline of Chicago came about the time the infamous Chicago Democrat political machine was re-established by the second Mayor Daley – Richard M. – the son of Da Boss. ; In terms of government and civic corruption, young Richard was a lot like his father. ; </p>



<p>Unlike his father, young Richard was woke before the term achieved widespread usage. ; The combination has been disastrous for the Windy City – and it continued to get worse under the leadership of the mayors who succeeded Daley – Rahm Emanuel, Lori Lightfoot, and now in-coming Mayor Brandon Johnson. ; Under their leadership of the first two, Chicago has been devastated by financial mismanagement (corruption) … ; soaring crime rates due to ineffective law enforcement … an unprecedented drug crisis … and, to add insult to injury, taxes are soaring.  ; Mayor-elect Johnson may be even worse than his predecessors.</p>



<p>There is a sad, ironic twist to my Chicago story.  ; As the head of the City Club of Chicago, I launched a range of civic projects – including two investigations of police corruption … a civic investigation that forced a corrupt official off the Library Board … fighting city hall’s efforts to shut down Marva Collins’ private school serving the Black community … ; a similar effort to stop the shutdown of Probation Challenge, an operation fighting recidivism. ; I led the successful fight to save the historic Chicago Theatre. ; ;</p>



<p>Shorty after my departure from Chicago, the City Club was taken over by a political hack named Jay Doherty, who used the Club as his personal lobbying operation and as an adjunct to the Democrat political machine. ; All the reform work was shut down. ; The 100-year history of civic reform was cancelled.</p>



<p>But justice caught up with Doherty. ; He was ousted from the City Club and has been fined $75,000 for failing to disclose his lobbying activities. ; He is currently standing trial for bribery and conspiracy for funneling money to then House Speaker Michael Madigan for the benefit of clients.</p>



<p>Chicago is now an exodus city – with both residents and businesses leaving in record numbers. ; A lot of those folks are taking up residency near me in southern Florida.</p>



<p>We have seen this movie before. ; Its title is “Detroit.” ; In those better times, I used to use Detroit and Chicago as the opposite edges of the municipal continuum. ; Despite several eras of “renaissance” in Detroit, it still remains a forlorn political and civic environment. ; </p>



<p>Unfortunately, Chicago has slipped to the Motor City side of that continuum. ; It is a City I no longer recognize.</p>



<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>

Horist: Chicago No Longer My Kind of Town
