The usual story line is that the son wants to redeem the reputation of ““Boss Daley,’’ mayor of ““The City That Works’’ from 1955 until his death in 1976. But to the younger Daley – impatient, guileless, demanding – a smooth convention is just part of a larger plan to show that big cities can come back. In fact, it is the son’s city that works even better.
The elder Daley came to power as a New Deal progressive. But ““Hizzoner’’ relished politicking even more; he enjoyed his reputation for making presidents. Yet he stayed too long in turbulent times. Behind his city’s sleek skyscrapers, problems piled up: squalid public housing, high infant mortality, lousy schools.
The younger Daley had to confront those problems – and more – when he became mayor in 1989. He’d been a tough prosecutor, but many still thought of him as ““Dirty Little Richie,’’ a smart-aleck state senator from the 1970s. Daley, though, had matured, especially during the illness of his son Kevin, who was born with spina bifida and died in 1981 when he was almost 3. Daley often commuted by air, working days at the statehouse in Springfield and sleeping nights at his child’s bedside in Chicago.
He doesn’t, however, have his father’s Machine. In the old days, Democratic hacks carried their vote totals to the elder Daley on election night to accept warm handshakes or bitter tongue lashings. But court decrees crippled the patronage system; unlike his father, who vetted every hiring, Daley personally controls only 850 of the city’s 41,000 jobs. Instead he projects a pro-business image that earns him fat campaign contributions.
Daley governs even more obsessively than his father. At 54, he’s a fastidious micro-manager who cruises neighborhoods, cataloging potholes and stray garbage bags. He once ordered his security officers to abandon him and drive back to arrest a vandal he’d seen spraying graffiti. Even when he relaxes, he has trouble stepping out of character. In June, when he took over as head of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Cleveland, Daley spent part of a noisy, kick-back party lecturing guests on why a nearby railroad bridge should be removed.
Once the Democrats leave town, Daley still faces a tougher test than just running a boffo convention. Last year he seized dictatorial control of the city schools, long considered the nation’s worst. No big-city mayor – his father included – has ever taken such a risk. Erasing the memory of 1968 is one thing. Saving the futures of 410,000 students is another.
