Contents
List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
Preface: The Field
Introduction: The Cost of One-Man Rule
The City and Its Problems
What This Book Is About
The Chicago Way
Chapter 1. Cutting the Mayor Down to Size
A Bad Deal
A Pattern, Not an Isolated Incident
How the City Works: Strong Mayor, Weak City Council
The Alderman and the Ward
Too Many Aldermen
Filling Vacancies
Redistricting
Hollow Committees and Committee Chairs
Other Elected Offices
What about Other Cities?
New York
Los Angeles
Solving Problems: A Better Governance Structure for Chicago
Chapter 2: Discouraging Democracy
Chicago Municipal Elections
Other Major Cities
The Literature on Turnout
Partisan Elections
Encouraging Democracy in Chicago
Chapter 3 . Governing the Schools and the City
Chicago’s School Problems
The Immediacy and Imperative of Fiscal Improvement
Other Cities and the Largest School Districts
Scholarship on Mayoral Control of Public Schools
What Should Chicago Do?
Disruption
Disaggregation
The Urban School System of the Future
A Homework Assignment for Chicago Public Schools
Chapter 4. Chicago’s Fiscal Ruin
Chicago’s Fiscal Problems: Seen and Unseen
How City Finance Is Supposed to Work
How Chicago Has Worked
How Other Cities Work
Institutional Safeguards
Additional Measures
The Problem of Legacy Costs
Conclusion
Chapter 5 . Pension Apocalypse Now, Not Later
The Holiday Habit
A Chicago Pension Snapshot
How Are These Pensions Supposed to Work?
How Have Pensions Worked in Chicago?
The Unfairness of Pension Debt
Solving the Pension Problem: Pain, Suffering, and Riddance
Freezing and Discontinuing the Plans
Alternative Pension Solutions
Apocalypse Now
Chapter 6. Overdue Oversight and the Reality of Corruption
Corruption Capital?
How Chicago Government Polices Itself
What Other Cities Do
New York City
Los Angeles
Houston
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Recommendations
Chapter 7. Public Support for Private Enterprise at the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority
The Black Box by the Lake
The Anatomy of the MPEA
McCormick Place
Navy Pier
Hotels
The Arena
The Mayor’s Road
What Do Other Cities Do?
Orlando
Las Vegas
Atlanta
ommonality
What to Do
Chapter 8. Policing in Chicago
Crime, Public Safety, and Policing in Chicago
What about Other Cities?
New York
Los Angeles
Philadelphia
Houston
A Note on Dallas
Settlements
Chicago’s Governance Structure and Public Safety
Chapter 9. Creations of the State
Th e Legal Foundation for City Law
City Charters
Two Choices for Illinois and Chicago
Entities Not Subject to Home Rule
Political Obstacles
The Possibility of Change
Chapter 10 . The Audacity of Hope?
About This Book Again
About Chicago
About Government
About Change
The Audacity of Hope
Appendixes
A. Proposed Governance Changes, Policies, and Actions
B. Survey of Governance Characteristics of the Fifteen Largest US Cities by Population
C. Survey of the Fiscal History and Characteristics of the Fifteen Largest US Cities, Excluding Chicago
Notes
Bibliography
Index