CHICAGO (AP) — Richard M. Daley is no longer mayor of Chicago — just don't look too closely at the hundreds of park benches, sidewalks, bridges and buildings adorned with his name.
Perhaps more than any other major American
metropolis, Chicago bears the imprint of its longtime leader, who spent 22
years building up a city where he won't soon be forgotten.
"It's a way to stay in power, remind people,
'This was done for you. It's a favor, and you should remember,'" said
historian Dominic Pacyga, author of "Chicago: A Biography," who added
that he hasn't seen such pervasive mayoral name-dropping elsewhere.
It's a good thing new mayor Rahm Emanuel, facing a
projected city budget deficit of between $500 million and $700 million, said
that he's in no rush to swap it all out.
"I actually did send a message out, I don't
want time wasted changing a bunch of signs and wasting taxpayers'
dollars," Emanuel said.
About the only prominent places where Emanuel's
name already appears, besides his City Hall office, are Chicago's two major
airports and above major roadway that welcomes motorists from the south.
Elsewhere, Daley endures, including the city's fleet management office where
the front wall may as well be a theater marquee bearing his moniker in big
block letters.
Some say it's just the Chicago Way.
In New York, nobody would accuse Mayor Michael
Bloomberg of being publicity shy, but he hasn't bothered staking his claim on
public buildings. He already has his media company headquarters and
philanthropic organization after all.
"The name 'Bloomberg' is everywhere,"
said Suzanne Wasserman, director of the Gotham Center for New York City History
at the City University of New York. "I don't know if he needs to put his
name on everything."
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, already revered for his
Hall of Fame basketball career with the Pistons, has made clear he won't be
plastering his name on everything, either — though he has been erasing reminders
of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who's now in prison after pleading guilty to
obstruction of justice when he admitted to lying during a trial to cover up an
affair with his top aide.
"From the water tower at the zoo to most
development projects, his name has been taken down," said Karen Dumas,
Bing's spokeswoman.
Look at photographs of the 1968 Democratic National
Convention, said Peter Alter, a Chicago History Museum archivist. Through the
haze of tear gas and behind the clashes between police and protesters,
"You'll see his name everywhere," Alter said.
Still, tradition may soon give way fiscal caution
in Chicago and beyond.
After former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich — who
some said would have put his name on moving cars if he could pull it off — was
impeached and kicked out of office on corruption charges, new Gov. Pat Quinn
dispatched crews to pull down or cover up Blagojevich's name on nearly three
dozen signs. Each effort cost about $15,000.
But Quinn hasn't replaced them with his own name.
"He believes the state's financial resources
are best spent in other areas, and his preference is that his name not be
promoted on state signage," his office said in a prepared statement.
Emanuel agrees, but could soon see his name in huge
letters on Chicago's South Side whether he pushes for it or not.
A sign near the top of a 41-story grain elevator at
the state's International Port District that still proclaims Blagojevich the
governor — and Daley the mayor — has long bothered officials there. But they
haven't done anything because it costs thousands of dollars to repaint.
"If it were up to me, we'd go up there with
spray paint and spray paint his (Blagojevich's) name out," said Susan
Kiley, assistant to the district's executive director.
Now that two names must be changed, Kiley said
there's no need to wait any longer.
"We are trying to get bids from
painters," she said.
Associated Press writers Deanna Bellandi in Chicago
and Samantha Gross in New York contributed to this report.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/M. Spencer Green)
