The Rusty Lamppost Theory

Another piece about Ald. Fioretti of the 2nd ward courtesy of the Reader with a hat-tip to The Uptown Update.

Still, there were troubles all over the place. On South Calumet Fioretti launched into a home-by-home analysis: “We’ve got one drug house on this block. Right here. There are always people going in and going out. . . . Now you see we’ve replaced all these street signs here for the first time in probably 20 years. . . . Now this is where Bobby Rush lives. . . . We have a bunch of people registered at this address, and I’m still trying to figure out why. It’s a Park District property. . . . Now this is Howard Brookins’s cousin who runs this church. He’s probably in there; we don’t need to go in there or we’ll be there for 25 minutes. He’s a good guy.”

Fioretti slowed the car and shook his head as he approached several low-rise public housing apartment buildings. The properties were run-down and litter was strewn across their dirt yards. A boy shot baskets at a leaning hoop set up on the concrete open space in the courtyard. When Fioretti jumped out of the car, several young men nearby watched him skeptically.

“I mean, look at this,” Fioretti said. “Who ultimately wants to live here? I just sat down with Lewis Jordan”—CEO of the Chicago Housing Authority—“and I told him, ‘You’ve got to do something.’ The congressman lives right next to this—does he tolerate this? He must. All these years. They’ve got to clean up this—oh god. I’m calling him right now.” He pulled out his cell phone. “You know, the people here have been pushed around so long, they accept it. I’m going to leave a message. But if people don’t know another mind-set and don’t know what’s best, they’ll always accept another level. . . . Lewis, it’s the alderman of the Second Ward. I’m over here at 35th and Giles, and they’ve got all sorts of trash over here. The overflowing trash cans in the back here, if you can have your folks pick it up, thank you. Bye.”
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Fioretti drove through parts of the 3rd and 25th Wards before reentering his own on the west side. At 15th and Loomis he noted proudly that despite a wave of thefts citywide, the nearby fire hydrant wasn’t missing any of the brass rings covering its water valves. “The fire department arrives and sees the brass ring is gone—it takes ten minutes for them to hook up the hose,” he said. “Ten minutes! People can die in that time. The fire hydrant problem is so big in the city that they don’t have a handle on it. But they respond within 24 hours in the Second Ward because they know I’m furious about it.”

Read the whole thing!

I forgot to mention in the earlier post. Since 1915 the 2nd ward was home to a black alderman and that changed last year. It appears Fioretti is doing a bang up job looking at the articles from the Reader and Defender.