The first woman to be elected mayor of a major American city has died. When I hear her name my first thought is Chicago Fest. She turned a city which was dull and gray most of the year into FUN. In fact the street my parents built their house on had an ugly spur rail line going straight down the middle and was used to dump everything imaginable (you know it had to be ugly because I love trains and railroad tracks). Mayor Byrne did one of her famous neighborhood drive-throughs in the West Chatham Community, and Alderman Charles Chew informed us that she was appalled that such beautiful houses were built facing such blight and directed him to submit a plan to remedy the situation immediately. The track was removed and a beautiful parkway installed, complete with evergreen trees, shrubs and sod (grass for non-Chicagoans). Today Wentworth Avenue is a scenic drive all the way to the small but beautiful West Chatham Park, bordered by the new Neal F. Simeon Academy (Simeon was a Black educator in Chicago). This increased the value of all of the homes by about 30% The second memory is of her moving into the Cabrini Green Community of the Chicago Housing Authority. Appalled at the conditions she found while living there for several months, she secured bonds and overhauled most of Chicago Public Housing. Of course she was fought all the way and when she made the slightest misstep---Most of the time it was just because she was a woman and for white male supremacist chauvinist America this was hard--and her name was Jane and she was Irish-American and didnt take no . . . . from anyone. Imagine that in a city as corrupt as Chicago, where you are not even considered a veteran public figure until you have been indicted and/or served time, she was called Calamity Jane. Rest in peace Mayor Jane Byrne. You were a high point in Chicago history--one sorely needing repetition given the thuggery of its present leadership.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 19:00:51 +0000
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