Nitty-Gritty Midterm Exam for Local Aldermen

I'm so glad I found this site through here.

The gist: A resident of the back of yards neighborhood takes a look at the Chicago Reader's recent piece grading the freshmen aldermen in the city council. While Dumke and Joravsky gave them all low marks for failing to bring true independence into the city council, she offers another perspective:

I'm not surprised that that's what Ben and Mick care about, but 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. In fact, I suspect most voters here would prefer their aldermen have a good relationship with City Hall (even a bootlicking one), if it means they can get city services to work and get access to dollars for ward improvements. They also care about whether they ever see their aldermen and whether they feel like their aldermen are paying any attention to local needs. It all comes down to "who will get me a garbage can?"

The point she's making is essentially this: "A lot of people don't have the luxury of taking a principled stance against the Mayor, his TIF programs and the like. They are wrapped up in day-to-day concerns and are more worried about getting their CTA station cleaned up than achieving a proper political climate in the city council."

I was glad to read this because its very easy for people on a web site to bash the Mayor and criticize city councilmen who don't defy his orders. But maybe the city councilmen are just doing what their community members elected them to do, to make things a little better, make a few things a lot better, and above all, don't make things worse.