Enviable place, unenviable time

I know more than a few IU folks from the Chicago area. I use the term “area” because I wouldn’t want to spoil the racy feeling one gets by saying they’re from Chicago, when in truth they happen to be from Evanston, Arlington Heights or somewhere else on the unfashionable “outskirts” of the city.

I freely admit I’ve never really “been” to Chicago, despite having physically set foot on its storied sidewalks. I don’t really count the time in fifth grade I attended my brother’s graduation from boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. When a friend invited me to visit him this summer, I accepted, albeit with some reluctance.

My most enduring impression of the city, accurate or not, is the setting of the 1987 Brian De Palma film “The Untouchables.” Based on a 1950s TV series and inspired by the 1957 bestseller by legendary detective Eliot Ness, it hypes the hell out of the clash between Ness and Al Capone – the crime lord who corrupted and terrorized Prohibition-era Chicago for six years before his indictment and imprisonment in 1931 (for income-tax evasion).

While it’s by no means sensible to slight this celebrated cultural center of the Midwest for events more than 70 years in the past, since East Coast cities like New York (Capone’s birthplace) and Boston similarly upheld the reign of organized crime, gambling, prostitution and bootlegging, but the Windy City of today is by no means guiltless of failing to erase yesteryear’s stain of scandal and governmental corruption.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has produced the bulk of the disappointments tainting the historically brackish waters of Chicago politics today. He cited a $2 billion budget deficit (which his six-year administration couldn’t possibly have to do with) in his veto of HB5701, legislation enabling a critical boost to social service programs, hospitals, prisons and child-care centers.

This controversial rejection estranged him from fellow Democrats (particularly House Speaker Michael Madigan, one of the bill’s staunchest supporters), broadening the partisan divide that is stalling progress on Chicago’s crime control, which Blagojevich bombastically referred to as “out of control” recently.

This blithering remark did not sit well with Police Superintendent Jody Weis or Chicago’s mayor, Richard Daley, who is aiming to make the city a flashy candidate for the 2012 Summer Olympics and whose administration’s suggestions of youth-employment programs as crime prevention Blagojevich characteristically snubbed.

Yet perhaps most unsettling detail of these misadventures is the Governor’s ties to Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the Obama campaign fundraiser (and a known Blagojevich contributor) convicted earlier this year of fraud, money laundering, and aiding and abetting bribery. When reporters raised questions about it last week, Blagojevich blew his stack.

This news is not heartening. While Chicago’s vibrant arts community and sports teams make the city an enviable place to visit, enjoy and admire, it is an unenviable time to being doing so. At least Capone’s dead and Ness’ sensational biography can still enlighten us.