Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Roderick Sawyer at center of "Back to the Future" vibe at city hall...

Alex Garcia, Chicago Tribune / April 6, 2011
Well another article about our Alderman-elect of course I missed this one as this was published in the Tribune the day after the run offs:
When newly elected 6th Ward Ald. Roderick Sawyer sits down in the front row of the City Council chambers, he'll be taking over the spot his father held down for 16 years before becoming mayor.

Sawyer also will be carrying with him the advice the late Eugene Sawyer gave him for navigating the council, as well as lessons he picked up at his father's side during a childhood and young adulthood spent at City Hall during some of Chicago government's most tumultuous years.

The 47-year-old attorney is one of a handful of new aldermen who will bring a bit of a back-to-the-future vibe to the proceedings. Those connections to earlier editions of the council could help the aldermen as they seek footing at a time of political and economic upheaval in the city.
...
While he'll soon make his debut as an alderman, Sawyer said his years in the hall will spare him the feelings of awe and disorientation that sometimes prevent freshmen aldermen from hitting the ground running. Eugene Sawyer was 6th Ward alderman from 1971 to 1987. During the chaotic days following the late Mayor Harold Washington's death, Sawyer emerged as the council's choice for mayor, a post he held until after a loss to Daley in the 1989 Democratic primary.

"I know where all the bathrooms are," Sawyer said with a laugh. "I know where many of my colleagues' offices are, and I know where the various city departments are located and how they work."

But more important than the logistical know-how is the understanding of how to work in the council, knowledge his father imparted after determining Roderick was the one in the family who had caught the politics bug.

"My father told me: 'Always make friends. Enemies will come on their own,'" Sawyer said.
The photo above is Roderick Sawyer getting his hair cut at "Personal Touch" hair salon located at  2204 E. 75th St.

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