During the 2011 mayoral campaign, I kept hearing a refrain from voters, especially relatively well-to-do north-siders: a tough town needs a tough guy for its mayor.
He took away a promised teachers’ pay hike, lengthened the school day without providing much in the way of new resources, cussed out the head of the teachers’ union, instigated a teachers’ strike, all but eliminated teacher tenure, closed 50 schools, and then, having promised a fresh new start, implemented a new round of budget cuts that cut 1,500 jobs and left principals scrambling.
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Having done all that, the mayor went on vacation. And while he was wherever he was, he dispatched the bulldozers to Whittier school in Pilsen to raze the little field house—known as La Casita—that had become a symbol of resistance for many of the activists, parents, and teachers most upset by the aforementioned cuts, closings, and TIF deals.
Now they don’t have that. Once again Mayor Emanuel has outdone his predecessor.
But Fioretti joined an insurrection of South Loop residents that eventually forced Mayor Emanuel to save the old building.
I know—there aren’t enough F-bombs for that to sound like Rahm. And so the mayor didn’t try to make peace or sweet-talk Fioretti—he didn’t even invite the alderman to the event.
The alderman wound up getting an exclusive room-by-room tour led by the architect and Maria Guerra, the mayor’s liaison to the City Council. “It was hilarious,” Fioretti says. “It was like, ‘Isn’t this room lovely?’ and ‘Look at this view’ and ‘Here’s the storage room.’ I knew what they were doing—they were stalling for time until the mayor left.”
