Wait a Second

Do we really want to be Chicago?

by Tom Namako

It took only 20 minutes.

This time, it was at a forum at the Academy of Natural Sciences, held two Sundays ago. Michael Nutter, responding to the first question about art programs worth copying, praised the way the Windy City promoted its arts and culture.

"Chicago has a great office of arts and culture that's being promoted and that that mayor supports," Nutter said. "They have a vast array of ways people get information and utilize different facilities and venues. I'd use the Chicago model."

Dwight Evans has also touted Chicago's green skylines initiative in his environmental policy paper. Chaka Fattah invoked Chicago's work force initiatives at the Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha-sponsored forum earlier this month. And Tom Knox repeatedly mentions that city's 311 program.

Now Chicago's done some good things, like reduce crime in certain areas of the city and bring some new revenue in by leasing a toll road.

But making a laundry list of Chicago's successes and using that to support new ideas in Philly, as some candidates are, is flawed. Chicago isn't some gold standard. If anything, this is a type of non-mudslinging campaign rhetoric new to the Philly mayor's race, one that lobbies voter support for ideas that right now exist only on paper and could very well remain on paper through the next administration.

When politicians constantly tout the accomplishments of a city twice the size of ours, it deserves a deeper look.

The slew of policy papers that are the fad of this election all ogle the Windy City. Chicago was mentioned 35 times total in missives from four of the five candidates (the exception being Bob Brady). Our next-mayors-to-be would emulate Chicago's hybrid cabs, zoning reform, bicycle policies, information systems and probably even their 76 years of one-party rule.

What you don't hear is that thousands of Chi-town residents protested cameras in several recreation areas, including Millennium Park. (The city removed them.)

"Anxiety over national security saw [cameras] installed atop one of Chicago's most visible public art installations," the Chicago Tribune wrote in December. "Uneasiness over their aesthetic impact has them removed."

There's also fury from small business owners. There was a proposal last year for all businesses open more than 12 hours to install security cameras on their property — at their own cost.

Again, in the Tribune, Gerald Roper, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, said they could cost owners about $5,000 to equip. "We think it's one more imposition on business," he said.

Take a look at what many consider the cornerstone of Chicago's success in reducing crime: surveillance cameras. Fattah wants to install "thousands." Nutter "about a thousand." And so on.

Then there are those who talk about how Chicago is setting the example for Philly by trying to lease their airport — an idea supported strongly by Fattah.

It is a creative idea, but a question remains: Is it possible to jump through the 3,000 hoops (including union support and acts of Congress) it will take to get done? As the Inquirer reported last Thursday, "The current program allows just one large hub airport to participate, and since Chicago's Midway Airport already received its preliminary approval, Philadelphia for now is locked out."

And two of Midway's largest airlines, Southwest and AirTran, are already grumbling about the proposed lease idea.

That's not as seamless a program as our mayoral hopefuls make it out to be.

There are other examples.Chicago still has strong poverty issues on its South side, and that under Mayor Richard Daley, who's been chief there for 18 years, City Hall is caught up in a federal corruption investigation. (Sound familiar?)

There's nothing wrong with Philly having another city as a role model. But voters should watch how it's being batted around during the mayor's race, and shouldn't take the comparison at face value.

Tom Namako is a City Paper staff writer.