Word: daleyisms
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This wouldn't have happened if Mayor Daley were still alive." So Chicagoans console themselves when things go wrong, and last week, it is true, the late Richard J. Daley would scarcely have recognized his beloved city. A transit workers' strike stranded a million commuters and temporarily disrupted the city's economy. A walkout by oil delivery truck drivers caused a gasoline shortage. For the first time, the city's firemen voted to authorize a strike. And the school system, the nation's third largest, was on the verge of bankruptcy and in danger...
...years as mayor, Daley faced strikes aplenty; yet he had a knack of finessing and postponing problems until, sooner or later, they went away. Combative Jane Byrne, however, makes the mistake of attacking labor unions and other groups rather than hunkering down with them in search of a compromise...
Part of the reason was that Mayor Byrne talked too much. She had threatened to bring in strikebreakers if the drivers walked out. She called in the parties to the dispute and announced a settlement before it was actually made. Says a former aide to Daley: "He never called people in. He waited until both sides asked him to act. Then he got to work." Daley also had clout and trust. A handshake was sufficient to seal an agreement. Because she is new to the scene, Byrne's handshake is not yet enough. With the help of management personnel...
...Daley is at least partly to blame for the crisis. He had a habit of agreeing to generous labor settlements for teachers without knowing how he was going to pay for them. To some extent, he mortgaged the future of the schools to buy short-term labor peace. But he also had the muscle to keep the city going by prying additional aid out of the state legislature. Byrne will have to relearn some of Daley's lessons if the city that works is going to start working again...
...sculpture of Bilandic and his socialite wife Heather, by John Setick, has created another blizzard, this one of controversy. Sefick's The Bilandics, which the sculptor describes as "a Chicago rendition of Grant Wood's American Gothic, "went on display in the city's Daley Center in mid-November. The work depicts the couple relaxing, with a taped voice coming from the former mayor's figure saying: "Put another log on the fire, Heather. I think it is beginning to snow again. My God, there must be eight feet out there now, Heather...