In the category of fake news having nothing to do with Donald Trump, Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently released his list of victors in the city’s downtown development game.
OK, so it’s not fake news on the scale of, say, Trump swearing up and down that he’s got proof that Barack Obama was born in another country. At least what the mayor says is true.
But don’t be fooled: the booming development deals in and around downtown—including the North Branch of the Chicago River—are a by-product of planning strategies going back to the days of old man Daley. Rahm’s just following the playbook: move the poor out of the city center, subsidize the ensuing developments with public money, and let gentrification go to work.
Yes, it was Rahm’s predecessor, the second Mayor Daley, who demolished Cabrini. But Emanuel has accelerated the transformation by moving the city’s Fleet & Facilities Management headquarters—a complex where the city parks its garbage trucks, snowplows, police cars, firetrucks, and other vehicles—from an 18-acre site along the North Branch of the river to Englewood. Thus he opens up more north-side land for commercial and retail development.
“You know what they say—a rising tide lifts all boats,” Sawyer says. “Well, let’s make sure all the boats get lifted.”
