Other American cities have been rallying economically, too, and often at a faster rate. Chicago’s economic turnaround was part of a national boom. The behavior of some Chicago locals in trying to explain away the killing-such as comparing the city’s murder rate with that of Memphis and Detroit, two cities that Chicagoans would never otherwise want to be lumped in with-is a civic disgrace.Įmanuel’s successes are also less impressive than they might first appear. Chicago’s crime story is complex, but public safety is the most important job of any mayor, and Emanuel clearly failed to keep Chicago safe. The city has also seen a wave of car-jackings, which have plagued even the most prosperous neighborhoods. The city made national news for multiple weekends this past summer, with stunning numbers of shootings-such as the first weekend in August, in which 66 people were shot, 12 fatally. In 2017, the city continued to rack up more than double the combined number of murders in Los Angeles and New York, both larger cities than Chicago. The mayor recently floated a proposal for a pension-obligation bond, generally a move suggesting desperation.Įmanuel also never got a handle on crime, as Chicago became a national byword for homicide. What mayor wants to preside over years of tax increases that produce no public benefit, going only to pay for yesterday’s mistakes? This looming future perhaps helps explain Emanuel’s decision to step down. Now, at the end of Emanuel’s second term, Chicago faces the prospect of many years of tax increases to close the pension-funding gap, with city contributions to the system almost set to double by 2023. But while pursuing these efforts, Emanuel neglected to increase funding for the pension system, a costly decision during one of the all-time-great bull markets. Emanuel first attempted to negotiate a solution with public-sector unions-the right move to make, though it proved futile in the face of Illinois Supreme Court rulings that effectively invalidated any form of pension reform. The city was largely in the dark about the woeful state of its ledgers until a Crain’s Chicago Business report appeared in 2010, followed soon after by investigative reporting that revealed deep-seated problems: severely underfunded pensions, high levels of bonded debt, constant refinancing to extend payments (termed “scoop and toss”), and the use of debt to pay operational expenses, including millions of dollars in settlements for police misconduct.Īfter eight years, Chicago is only beginning to address these challenges. ![]() And he couldn’t bring Chicago to parity with the elite global cities on the coasts.Įmanuel inherited the city’s grievous financial crisis, created by his predecessor Richard M. ![]() The mayor surely wants this significant turnaround to mark his legacy.īut while Chicago is better in many ways for his time in the mayor’s office, Emanuel largely failed at grappling with the city’s biggest problems: finances and violent crime. Today, after seven years of Emanuel’s leadership, the Loop enjoys record employment, vast tracts of the city are booming, the tech sector is gaining momentum, a sparkling new downtown river walk is drawing huge crowds, and the city can justly boast that its transit system is not suffering from the critical breakdowns slamming New York and Washington. The Chicagoland region had lost jobs, and the city was staggering under the weight of civic debacles, ranging from the 75-year lease of its parking-meter system to a humiliating rejection of its bid to host the 2016 Olympics. Rahm Emanuel became mayor of Chicago in 2011, just as the city was coming out of a lost decade.
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