By Paul Smith, Gapers BlockIt wasn’t long ago that the City Clerk could update his website with a copy-and-paste of a previous City Council meeting’s roll call, because everyone simply voted the same way. Now an emerging bloc of aldermen is making his job harder by defying the Mayor with regularity. Dubbing themselves the “Independent Caucus,” they’re championing liberal causes, and testing the limits of their own power and resolve. Progress Illinois looks back on year one.
i loved the quote someone anonymously posted the other day:
ReplyDelete"democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for dinner. liberty is a well armed lamb disputing the vote."
it will be interesting if this new group is just another wolf in sheeps clothing prepared to say "we side with helen on the wilson yard tiff. thanks for sitting on the hot seat for such a great cause."
There is a note on these alderman looking to create a paid position to review TIFs.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how "progressive" it is to be playing catch-up on an issue they've already casted their vote(s) for (to the tune of $51m for WY, no less); but, I'm down with anything that will upset Hizzoner.
Still ..., let's not overlook that some conservative ideas (mostly economic) aren't bad, and could use some representation in Council, as well.
Neither side of the aisle has a monopoly on truth, or justice.
Besides, isn't Helen an "independent"?
So this group of alderman is cautious about TIFs, pro-big box ordinance and happy to align with labor for working people's concerns? If so, then Helen Shiller won't be welcome in their club. For more information, see:
ReplyDeleteWilson Yard
Big Box Vote
Labor Ready
How sad for Alderman Helen Shiller.
ReplyDelete#1. She's no longer considered an Independent by the City Council Independents.
#2. She's so politically dead, Gaper's Block is memorializing her while she is still in office.
Ouch! That must hurt.
How much acid did this reporter drop?
ReplyDeletethe Gapers block headline is misleading, designed to hook a Uptown Update cross-post
ReplyDeletethe Gapers Block article makes no reference to Shiller
the Gapers Block note is a link to a blog post that makes no reference to Shiller
and if anything the "caucus" should be called The Leon Despres Memorial Caucus
"It wasn’t long ago that the City Clerk could update his website with a copy-and-paste of a previous City Council meeting’s roll call, because everyone simply voted the same way."
ReplyDeletethis is very misleading
the Clerk VERY occasionally posting a divided roll call vote merely highlights the fact that there are HUNDREDS of votes at every monthly Council meeting, and far & away they are STILL all voting the same way
the most rad "progressive" alderman mentioned in the linked blog post has differentiated themselves from the most die-hard machine loyalist in the thousands place
" ... the caucus is in talks with unspecified funders to hire at least one staffer who would conduct independent policy research modeled after the federal Government Accountability Office."
ReplyDeletethe self-appointed "progressives" have been jawing about this since the fall of 2007:
Progress for Progressives?
these pathetic dysfunctionals couldn't organize the proverbial piss-up in a brewery
if talk were all it took, they'd be all set
BTW, the "unspecified funders" are the unions who backed our recent property tax hike, and the reason this idea has not got off the ground is that they haven't figured out how to spin their "independent" analyst being sponsored by SEIU
"Now an emerging bloc of aldermen is making his job harder by defying the Mayor with regularity."
ReplyDeletethe rumors of "an emerging bloc" are greatly exaggerated
26-24 is the same as 50-0
yeah, Daley gets all red-faced at every dissent, but in terms of making his job harder, the impact is negligible
" ... they’re championing liberal causes, and testing the limits of their own power and resolve ... "
ReplyDeletethis is pure fantasy & utterly irresponsible from a website with journalistic pretensions
no evidence is presented to support this contention in the Gaper's Block post or the referenced blog post
“For the first time, we thought we had a critical mass in the city council that might be for a progressive agenda,” [Preckwinkle] says...
ReplyDelete"To find the last organized opposition bloc in the City Council, you have to reach back to the mid-1980s"
well, which is it? the 1st time or a return to yesteryear?
this is just bad writing
This was disappointing - the title led me to believe it had something to do with Uptown, but really it doesn't. Even though that's the author's title, it doesn't have to be the title of the UU blog thread...
ReplyDeleteMy bad. I have the news and blog "spider" that seeks word references to Uptown, Shiller, etal. I sent this to Uptown Update for posting. I will edit down my list of finds in the future to eliminate pure grabs for blog links.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the thing I found interesting about this article for posting was that it excluded all references to Shiller.
ReplyDeleteThere was a time not long ago that no one would write about Independents in the City Council without praising Helen Shiller. She was synonomous with the word Independent in Chicago.
Here, this article about the new progressive movement (whether you believe it is valid or not) doesn't even take her into consideration. That is what seemed significant to me about this piece.
Since this was titled by someone else to grab a UU link, and since interested persons have already read it, it could be retitled or eliminated since it is a bit misleading. UU is too good to have people trying to exploit it so soon.
ReplyDelete