- the city budgets and tax packages for 2008 and 2009, which relied on untested revenue streams and layoffs of front-line city workers;
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zoning approval to let the private Children’s Museum move into Grant Park;
and the repeal of the foie gras ban. (Some readers have questioned our logic for including this last one. Our argument is that the way it was done–by circumventing normal council proceedure–set a new low for the way the council works, or doesn’t, and may have set yet another precedent for mayoral domination of the legislative branch.)
“I can tell you very few people, especially in the South Side wards that have long been neglected and lack basic city services, give a good gol dang about that yardstick,” my friend “Maritza” writes at the excellent Marshfield Tattler blog, which documents her experiences in Back of the Yards.
And as I said to Maritza: isn’t it troubling that we can’t also have a legislative body that actually functions as a check and balance on the executive branch? The point here isn’t actually that aldermen should simply say “No” to Daley for the sake of it–it’s that they should say “No” to bad public policy. Taxpayers should be able to get their garbage picked up AND count on their council representatives to speak up or at least ask questions before the mayor sells off city assets, circumvents the democratic process, gives away public park space, and passes budgets that CUT front-line service delivery.
