The Chicago Facade
In May, President Obama hosted leaders from around the world in his hometown of Chicago. Leaders from 56 nations and their staff—observed by 2,000 journalists—descended upon the city for the Chicago Summit to hash out ways to bring peace and security to Afghanistan.
For the city, the meeting was a historic opportunity to showcase itself to the world. It was the first time any American city other than Washington had hosted a nato summit.
But despite all the photo ops, media flashbulbs missed the real Chicago.
On behalf of the people of Chicago, I am proud to welcome the world’s delegates to this great city, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, continuing:
Our iconic skyline and incredible lakefront invite you to explore all Chicago has to offer. …
Few cities can match our array of cultural options but it is the openness of our communities that makes Chicago the most American of all America’s cities. We are not just President Barack Obama’s home town, we are a city that welcomes and inspires hope in all who visit. Chicagoans are optimistic. We know how to turn challenges into opportunities. I hope we can share that faith in the future with all who attend the nato summit this week.
Hopefully people didn’t take Mayor Emanuel’s invitation to heart and go exploring. If they did, they might have been shocked.
Chicago is one of America’s great cities. At 2.7 million people, it is America’s third largest. It is an important city from an economic perspective too. Eleven Fortune 500 companies still call Chicago home. The Chicago Board of Trade is the world’s busiest futures exchange. The Sears Tower is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
But when you look closely at Chicago, you see a picture of a city whose greatest accomplishments seem to be mostly in the past. Chicago was home to America’s first steel railroad and the first elevated railroad. It was home to the world’s first skyscraper and the world’s first steel-framed buildings. In 1893, the world’s first Ferris wheel made its debut here—marking the city as a great center of entrepreneurship. A few years later, in 1900, Chicago completed one of the most astounding, innovative engineering projects in the country to this day. Engineers reversed the flow of the mighty Chicago River so it empties into the Mississippi instead of Lake Michigan. Chicago was also the origination point of Route 66 and multiple railroads upon which its manufactured goods spread throughout the country and world.
Today, Chicago is known for other things.
To see the real Chicago, the one lived in by everyday people, you need to look beyond the picturesque lakefront skyline and well-promoted tourist attractions. To explore Chicago, take a city bus—if you dare.
You can see the abandoned properties, and old vacant manufacturing centers. These are relics of a time almost forgotten, when factories were booming and jobs were so plentiful that people actually moved to Chicago to find work. At one time, 3.5 million people lived in the Windy City. Since then, the population has fallen by about a quarter. It is now back to its 1910 population of 2.7 million.
Meanwhile, Chicago’s Great Society leaders took the city on an epic spending binge, enriching some at the expense of others and making debt slaves of those who still believe in the fairness dream. At a stunning $63,525 liability per household—much of which is money promised to unionized city employees—residents of Chicago have been bequeathed a debt that will be almost impossible to pay. This debt burden is compounded by the equally large Illinois state debt.
Because of this debt, the cost of keeping government services running is rising, even though Chicago’s population is shrinking.
Consequently, the tax burden per resident is shooting up. In 2011, state income tax rates were raised by a whopping 67 percent to help keep the government solvent. In 2012, Chicago residents paid even more for water, sewer, hotel rooms, fines and city stickers. Water rates jumped by 25 percent and will double by 2015. Fines for traffic violations, drug offenses and playing loud music doubled or tripled. There are more fees for all kinds of government “services.” The tax to rent a hotel room is up. Taxes on booze and boats increased. Parking meters cost more. Vehicle stickers are now pricier, and pricier still if you are late purchasing one.
And what will Chicago residents get for all these new taxes? The status quo—and the knowledge that taxes will need to go up more next year. It is a painful reminder that it is costly for the city to provide armed guards to escort schoolchildren on cross-town library trips. But that is life in Chicago.
No wonder residents and businesses are fleeing.
But there is another, more disturbing reason people don’t want to live in this city.
Contrary to what Mayor Emanuel says, exploring Chicago’s diverse cultural communities is not something that welcomes or inspires hope to those who visit. In many neighborhoods, it is more like a walk through the alley of the shadow of death. There is a real chance you will get shot or mugged.
It is tragically ironic that the nato Chicago Summit emphasized the need for Afghanistan to build a sustainable, credible and accountable civilian police force capable of enforcing domestic security. It is ironic because these are the very things that Chicago has been unable to provide its own citizens.
On July 9, Mayor Emanuel embarrassingly pleaded with gangs to take their fights away from children. “We’ve got two gang-bangers, one standing next to a kid. Get away from that kid. Take your stuff away to the alley. Don’t touch the children of the city of Chicago. Don’t get near them. … Don’t come near the kids—don’t touch them,” said the former Obama chief of staff.
But the gangs don’t care. The children continue to die. There is a Trayvon Martin in Chicago almost every day—only here it is black-on-black crime.
We will demolish abandoned buildings that serve as safe houses and weapons stashes, says the mayor.
The gangs just find other abandoned structures—they have lots to choose from. And the killings continue.
On July 27, Iona basketball recruit Michael Haynes was killed. The Chicago Sun Times says he was shot three times trying to break up a fight. That followed the shooting death of 7-year-old Heaven Sutton, who was gunned down selling snow cones near her house. The bullets were meant for rival gang members loitering near the stand.
The more famous or horrendous deaths make the news, but the shootings and knifings that don’t end up killing anyone have lost their shock value.
Police say there are 100,000 gang members in the city. The police are outnumbered. And sometimes outgunned. Some people describe the gangs as private armies.
It resembles a war zone, says Sergeant Little. It is “tribal warfare.” Little, who is a decorated veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, says certain streets of Chicago are comparable to what he saw in combat.
But in some ways Chicago is actually worse than Afghanistan.
Seven months into 2012 and 294 people have been murdered in Chicago. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, where an actual declared war is ongoing, a comparatively meager 189 have been killed. Since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001, around 2,000 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives fighting for America. During that same span of time, there have been over 5,000 homicides in Chicago.
That is absolutely tragic. And condemning.
People lament and whine about the high cost in American lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. But more people died on the streets of just one U.S. city during that time period than died in combat in both wars combined.
A recent nbc News study found that Chicago is one of the deadliest cities in the world. Among alpha cities, it now has more murders per capita than Mexico City and São Paulo.
This is the city America showcased to the world for a summit about peace and security.
And sadly, Chicago is a harbinger of what the future holds for many American cities. The economic problems of Chicago are to various degrees replicated all across America. As more cities cut services and more millions continue to lose their jobs, America’s big cities will become untenable.
When the social security nets begin to fail, the Chicago facade will be revealed—and gangs will head out to the suburbs.
