Ward on Words

The real Rahm Emanuel met up the other day with the fake Rahm, Columbia College professor Dan Sinker, the man behind the @mayoremanuel twitter feed. According to the Trib , Real Rahm was in good humor and Fake Rahm was more than a bit nervous: "Hi, honey, I'm home," the mayor-elect said as he extended his hand to Dan Sinker, the 36-year-old Columbia College journalism assistant professor whose @MayorEmanuel Twitter account became an online sensation before its anonymous author sent his protagonist into the cosmos the day after Emanuel was elected mayor. "Relax, man." "I am so not relaxed," Sinker said with a laugh, the cheeks above his pointy salt-and-pepper beard having turned beet-red. "You have tenure," Emanuel quipped. "Don't worry about it. I already called it in." Real Rahm also suggested that he'd hook up Sinker with his brother, an agent at William Morris, "so I can get my $5,000 back." When the la...

As Richard M. Daley wraps up his reign, one thing is certain. The city's population shrank dramatically during his tenure. According to the 2010 census, Chicago's population is the lowest its been since 1920, the year Prohibition was enacted. A key factor in the decline: black flight. The next mayor of "the city that works" may want to think about investing outside of the Loop - in ways that revitalize the neighborhoods. Education and affordable housing are two key areas to explore. The population decline of Chicago is the most read story in the WSJ online edition today . The Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times also cover the story.

The Chi-rish are about to let loose. It's St. Patty's weekend in Chicago. Which means the Metra today let us know that there would be no glass objects or alcohol allowed on the trains this weekend. Yes, we love our St. Patty's day in Chicago - it's our way to let loose during Lent. Unlike New Orleans, we still feel compelled to party hard during the time of abstinence. We dye the river a bright, unnatural green. And we all add an O' or a Mac after our name, no matter where our ancestors came from. Everyone is Irish on St. Patty's Day! At least in Chicago. Not sure what it's like elsewhere. I've heard that until recently, St. Patty's day was a day to go to church in Ireland. That was until the Americans flooded the place wondering where the parade was. I had no idea that booze was allowed on trains on other days! Just thought the people surreptitiously drinking beer out of gigantic cans during non-festive days was their surreptitious way of ...

Richard J. Daley, the father, was known as "the kingmaker." As mayor and as head of Cook County Democratic Central Committee, he controlled the votes of one of the largest block of Democratic votes. Thus, back in the old days, when powerful Kennedys were plentiful, all Democrats seeking the highest political office in the land came to see Chicago's mayor, Richard J. Daley, the man from Bridgeport, hizzoner, the boss. The men who would be president would come to see to see this man who rose to prominence from very humble beginnings. Richard M. Daley, the son, is not a kingmaker. There's no one in America who thinks Daley is the reason Obama was elected president last year. The vast blocks of city voters have been chopped up, segmented into smaller chunks, often powered-up by single issues like abortion. In the third largest city in America, Daley is instead the king, ruling virtually unopposed in all areas. He came to power after a turbulent decade of non-...

I'm not sure when "pre-owned cars" replaced "used cars" as a commodity, but certainly, "pre-owned" was a fabulous way to rebrand something that had long been associated with getting ripped off. In Chicago, we have unleashed a new euphemism for getting fleeced - "replace the receipt." Here's the story from one of my Chicago spies who was in the city yesterday, trying to find some street parking at one of the highly controversial new parking meters.... The new meters not only have cost the city nearly a billion in future income (according to Chicago's Inspector General ), they don't work . My spy dutifully inserted his credit card into the new meter (they've recently installed credit-card loving meters - replacing the need to lug around a small bank filled with quarters - the private company was asking for 28 quarters for two hours of parking - it's a mess, I tell you, a mess!) The meter noted that payment had been r...

We live in a culture driven by the automobile (the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler, notwithstanding.) You'll find densely packed cities to be densely packed with cars, in addition to people. As a city dweller in Chicago, I'd perfected the art of parallel parking my tiny car into the tiniest spaces. Parking is a premium commodity in Chicago. And in the Loop, one has become accustomed to paying dearly for the privilege of parking. But in Chicago these days, finding a place to park your car has become embroiled in scandal. In his quest to fill up empty city coffers, Mayor Daley and his rubber-stamping city council have been trying to sell off city assets like there's no tomorrow; thus, with the gleam of gold in his eye, Daley leased the parking meter commodity for the next 75 years to a private firm (somehow, Morgan Stanley is involved in this deal, not sure how!) for the sum of $1.5 billion. The deal meant parking rates would go up dramatically, leaving Chicago wi...

Chicago. The City that Works. Urbs in Horto . City in a Garden. City of Broad Shoulders. A city with a complex relationship to race. A city that Martin Luther King, Jr. visited in 1966 in an attempt to bring the civil rights movement north. A city where, during that same visit, Dr. King was hit by a brick thrown by angry whites during a march through Marquette Park. "I've been in many demonstrations all across the South," said King after the march in Chicago. "But I can say that I have never seen – even in Mississippi and Alabama – mobs as hostile and hate-filled as I've seen in Chicago. I think the people from Mississippi ought to come to Chicago to learn how to hate." Last night, in a Chicago park that had been a key battlefield during the 1968 Democratic convention, an enormous crowd gathered to witness history. White people. Black people. People of all ethnicities came to Grant Park to see Barack Obama. They didn't come to hate....