I'll Take Blago . . .
By Adam Platt
One evening last week, WCCO Radio's Don Shelby was doing his 5:30 p.m. chat-up with 'CCO-TV's Frank Vascellaro, promoting that evening's 6 p.m. TV newscast. They were clucking over the Blagojevich mess. Frank apparently used to work in Illinois, or implied as much, and they went into a routine about how you needed to have the fix in at City Hall to get your garbage picked up or something to that effect. Much chuckling ensued, followed by a hardy round of self-congratulation over how wonderful it is to live in a state where you can get your gas turned on without paying a bribe. Wonderful, love it here, so grateful . . . you betcha, Don.
Despite Garrison Keillor's recent column about the self-effacing nature of Minnesotans, it usually masks a hubris and sense of moral superiority that I find nigh to insufferable. See: Messrs. Shelby and Vascellaro (although the media does it largely to ingratiate themselves with the audience).
I lived for the first twenty-one years of my life in Illinois and return several times a year (Chicago area mostly). Blago is surely a sideshow, a more entertaining pol than you'd ever hope to find in these parts. But the truth about life in Illinois, Chicago really (when Minnesotans are talking about Illinois, that's what they mean), is that it's not at all like what the smug national and local commentators tsk-tsk about.
Chicago has evolved into a lovely and worldly city that the Twin Cities can only aspire to. Minneapolis can't keep its parks mowed or its flower boxes planted. In Chicago, they sparkle. Despite what Frank and Don tell you, it's no harder to get a phone line or your gas turned on than it is here. When downtown streets close for construction in Minneapolis, the city can't find a cop to keep the other intersections flowing at rush hour. In Chicago, there's one on every corner directing traffic. In fact, in my day, they'd issue you a driver's license while you waited--no hour-long queue followed by a month-long processing time.
Yes, there is endemic corruption in Chicago and Illinois
that doesn't exist here. But it's small potatoes stuff--getting a relative on
the payroll, greasing a city contract or business license. It's not stuff that
affects the quality of life or the functioning of the place. In fact, I'd argue
it sometimes enhances it. Illinois is like every place in that the haves have and the
have-nots don't, but these days, I don't think Minnesota can claim anymore that it is superior to everywhere else. Our government is gridlocked, our
infrastructure is decrepit, we can't find money to fund basic services, and
instead of entertaining us a la Blago and Mrs. Blago, we get T-Paw, the grim Puritan urging us to balance our checkbooks.
I don't know, Don and Frank. Methinks your somnolent radio show and bland newscasts might benefit from some Chicago-style hijinks to focus on. It doesn't appear to me that the absence of it is doing Minnesota much good anymore.
© 2008 MSP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved
It's about time someone stands up in favor of corruption! I'm also from a Chicago suburb, and I agree that the average person has no daily connection with that corruption. And the average person benefits from the government mentality in Illinois that the main purpose is to keep the streets paved and the trains running on time. It always seemed less ideological to me than things seem in Minnesota.
BUT, I think Chicago businesses have a different relationship with the corruption. To get a liquor license, you take care of your alderman. To get a zoning variance, you take care of someone else.
You pose a provocative question. But you're essentially arguing that the ends justify the means, and I'm not sure I can totally go there with you.
(Incidentally, to me the main difference between Chicago and Minneapolis is the difference between Millenium Park and Gold Medal Park. One city thinks BIG! Another too often thinks small.)
Posted by: Jason DeRusha on December 15, 2008 at 4:51 PM
How do your comments apply to the south and west sides of Chicago? Do their parks, besides Hyde and Garfield, sparkle?
Posted by: Alex on December 16, 2008 at 12:54 PM
I, too, spent a considerable amount of my life growing up in Chicago and have been fortunate enough to work in both Minnesota and Illinois politics. I also have family roots in both states. While Minnesota politics is not without its own warts (on both sides of the aisle), and, indeed, some Minnesotans have no qualms about tooting their state horn religiously, the degree to which organized crime, cronyism, and flagrant nepotism permeates Illinois politics has no measure. Too many of my Illinois relatives have been victimized by abuse of power in Illinois to make me thankful to permanently relocating to Minnesota. Picturesque boulevards adorned with planters are small consolation when having to pay off bureaucrats, their elected bosses, and their mob friends when simply trying to make an honest living and put food on the table for your family. Try running a bar, being shaken down for protection money and forced to book under threat of bodily harm to you or your family, and then seeing those same wise guys sharing a dinner table at a local restaurant with your elected officials. Sorry, but the ends do not justify the means; just ask fellow reporter John Kass. Some of the goons he reports on have threatened to harm his young children. Experience having family threatened or put in the hospital, have their business mysteriously burn down, permits denied for dubious reasons and then let me know if you still feel the same.
In closing, I want to touch on one of your other points. You lament Pawlenty's behavior of trying to maintain some semblance of a balanced budget. How about Illinois' governor, whose answer to fiscal stewardship entails raiding the teachers' pension fund? Instead, be thankful for a state government with some form of checks and balances. Look how well Republican control of both houses of Congress and the White House worked out with record deficits. Let's hope the next four years don't turn out more of the same (though I'm not optimistic).
Posted by: Juan on December 29, 2008 at 10:24 PM