The Jungle

 

 

"The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo."

Desmond Morris

 

Back "in the day", when I was in High School (and they taught real literature), one of the most profound yet depressing books I read was Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. The book, which took place at the turn of the 20th century, was centered in the city of Chicago. It was dour and depressing and was written to be so. Not knowing much about Chicago when I was that young, the book painted a picture which stuck with me for years.

As the years went after the venue of The Jungle, Chicago's reputation did not improve. Whereas Sinclair pointed out the dire condition of the meat packing industry as well as the low value of human life for those working in it, Chicago in the 30's and 40's were notorious for prohibition, crime and most of all, corruption. Elliot Ness, Al Capone and Frank Nitti are names from that era which have become part of our lexicon.

However in the 60's is when the Chicago legend of corruption really came to light. The phrase "vote early and vote often" goes back to the 1800's and was first spoken in Europe. However, it has become synonymous with voting in Chicago under then Mayor Richard Daley. The slogan "the city that works", even though its origin is unknown, nevertheless has also been tied to Chicago. The picture was painted - tough mayor, tough political machine, and virtually a one party rule.

Today, we might wonder how the "city that works" is really working. In October of this year, the Weekly Standard had this to say about our "Windy City":

 

"The pathology of gang violence is not the only crisis facing Chicago and its mayor, Rahm Emanuel. There is also the matter of how to meet pension obligations which “could reach $1.2 billion by 2015, the mayor's office says. That's equal to 22 percent of the city's annual budget, or about the amount spent each year on salaries for the entire police department. To cover that bill without cutting basic city services, taxpayers would have to pay 150 percent more in property taxes — an option Emanuel has called ‘unpalatable’ and ‘absolutely unacceptable.’”

Mayor Emanuel recently settled a strike by the city's teachers by giving them a nice raise. This, in spite of the demonstrable failure of the teacher's to do what they were already being paid very handsomely to do, namely educate the city's children.

So: Unsafe streets. Uneducated children. Unpayable bills. Still, one feels a certain amount of sympathy for Mayor Emanuel who has inherited a city where, for as long as anyone can remember, one-party rule has been in place with the public sector unions and the ruling political machine joined happily at the hip."

 

Wow! That was harsh. Lets do some more fact checking. This month, Chicago recorded its 400th homicide this year - up 25 percent from the same time last year. An OpEd earlier from Chicago earlier this year said the following: "Among what are considered Alpha world cities, Chicago has the highest murder rate -- higher even than the Third World metropolises of Mexico City and Sao Paolo." Yikes! I think I know what the problem might be - gun control. Obviously Chicago is the wild, wild west with people buying guns on every corner. Lets get some stronger gun control and the problem will go away.

Listen to this from the Encyclopedia of Chicago: "Since the early 1970s, Chicago and its suburban municipalities have taken a national lead in enacting firearms control legislation."  It is not just the city of Chicago, but also the surrounding suburbs. My feeling is as follows - no other place on this planet demonstrates better the negative correlation of gun violence and gun control than Chicago.

Last season one of the cable channels put on a mini series called Boss. It is the story of a modern day mayor in Chicago. It will filled with cronyism, corruption and betrayal. Even though it is on again this season, I had to quit watching as it is the most depressing story of Chicago since The Jungle. Some things, some cities, never change...