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Ralf Seiffe writes, "There is a fundamental, genetic difference between Chicago and the old rust belt cities with which we are often compared. Since it was named for the stinking onions in the swamps next to the lake, our city has exhibited an inherent knack for reinventing itself."

Monday, August 8, 2005

By Ralf Seiffe

OPINION - Having left on a vacation trip the day Gary Skoien was fired, I may be behind events.

Nevertheless, the Republican county chairman’s bit of street theatre seems to have risen to Shakespearean levels if one judges it by the mayor’s reaction--he protests too much.

If I take the bard’s meaning, the mayor is worried about something. The steady flow of indictments may give some indication of what the trouble is...and where it might lead.

Our internal poll suggests that the mayor wasn’t the only one offended by the Chairman’s offer. Two out of five respondents of this liberty-loving publication thought firing Skoien was justified.

I prefer to think they approved the termination because Skoien didn’t offer enough; after all, ten grand probably wouldn’t pay for Blago’s new licensing fees, a city sticker and the insurance connected guys have to pay to get another hired truck lined up.

Perhaps the best reaction of all came from the man that used to employ Mr. Skoien; I gather he is dependent on indulgences from the city to run his business.

I’m sure he is an honorable man (they are all honorable men) but his appraisal of the mayor sounded just like the Manchurian Candidate on turning up the Queen of Hearts.

All this is pretty standard Chicago entertainment but the grand argument shaping up seems to be whether Chicago can stay the great city it is without the benefit of crooked hiring or idle trucks?

The worriers’ premise appears to be that corruption greases the ways of the city that “works”.

They seem to think that the Daley family uses corruption wisely and because of it, Chicago has not rusted into a Detroit or Cleveland.

I challenge that premise.

There is a fundamental, genetic difference between Chicago and the old rust belt cities with which we are often compared.

Since it was named for the stinking onions in the swamps next to the lake, our city has exhibited an inherent knack for reinventing itself.

Starting as a trading post, Chicago became the nation’s transportation hub and hog butcher to the world.

We once originated more radio programs than New York and still stage more theatre than the Big Apple. We hosted an impressive array of corporate headquarters and imaginative banking companies.

Most of these industries are now gone.

The stockyards have closed, the banks have sold themselves to outsiders and many corporations have been acquired by more aggressive managers or have moved to other states. Marshall Field’s is probably going to become Macy’s. The governor seems intent on driving the trucking industry out and even the phone company is owned by Texans.

Nevertheless, with lost industry, this month’s Southwest Airlines in-flight magazine ranks Chicago as America’s most underrated city. In an article that examines all sorts of underrated things--including the CBOT--Chicago appears as item number one.

The article’s authors quoted a former British ambassador’s observation that Chicago is “perhaps the most typically American Place in America” and went on to recommend the “Second City”.

Count me not a Babbitty booster but something is different, here.

My perception is that Gary, Cleveland and Detroit are towns whose time has past because they have not figured out how to move beyond that one industry that made them great.

In contrast, Chicago is, and always has been, an evolving identity.

This said, does Chicago benefit from some form of benign corruption?

Not in the least.

Corruption, in any form, is a tax politicians extract from their constituents without supporting legislation.

In its least complex form, corruption is political overhead, a parasitic cost businesses bear because politicians have coercive power.

In its larger and more complex and malignant forms, corruption will destroy a city as Detroit and Gary so clearly demonstrate.

Supporters of the status quo seem to think that the mayor and his retinue have deftly operated their trucks, hiring operations and inspectional services to extract their ill-gotten loot but haven’t been so greedy as to kill their victims.

For this, people like Gary Skoien’s ex-boss praise the mayor. One would think real estate developers would be among the first to realize the costs of having politicians as uninvited partners.

What these folks are apparently forgetting is that Chicago’s vitality comes not from the mayor but from the energy and imagination of its people.

Even hampered by an un-evadable political street tax, productive individuals have created the nation’s most underrated city. Just imagine what they could do unfettered.

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Ralf Seiffe advises business start-ups and product launches from Chicago, Illinois and is a political analyst and columnist for the Illinois Leader.