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Originally Posted by dc_denizen
OT, but do Chicagoans view Immanuel as being a capable mayor? It doesn't seem like the guy has made the news nationally in the last few years, and he obviously has failed to solve the crime problem...
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I dunno. Depends who you ask. Emanuel is a master of the PR machine, so literally every little capital project and every corporate relocation or hiring move is trumpeted to the high heavens. I've caught myself feeling good about the Emanuel administration, but I'm not sure whether he's
actually doing any better than Daley, or whether I'm getting fooled. It's good to hear regular updates about every facet of governance, though - it creates optimism and builds support. There isn't a department so obscure that Emanuel hasn't praised it in a press release.
That said, Emanuel has made strong commitments to increase/upgrade the bike-lane network and to rehabilitate the L system. He's definitely an improvement over Daley when it comes to transportation. He realizes that wealthy urbanites care about decent transit, and it gives him a way to push an elite agenda AND give lip service to the poor at the same time.
Economically, he seems to be serving the corporate world far more than the people. There hasn't been a whole lot of industrial growth, or growth in other blue-collar sectors. Crime is obviously a huge issue that hasn't been tackled properly. It's unclear to me what would solve the problem - the only surefire solution is hiring more cops, which there's no money for. The recent swell of opinion for gun control has given Emanuel a scapegoat, and he can put political pressure on Washington lawmakers without spending any real money back in Chicago, and claim to be addressing the crime problem. As callous as it sounds, I think we need to simply ride out the crime wave.