Alderman Larry Bloom, the mayoral candidate who cannot win, came to Ed Weil’s third-floor Lakeview apartment for lunch on Super Bowl Sunday.
I get distressed about what is happening in this campaign, he told us. I get distressed by the voters who are making decisions based on dangerous reasons. To them, it doesn’t matter what the candidates have done, or what they stand for–if this guy’s black, they give him their vote.
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And he said: “Larry, I got elected mayor for two reasons. I’m black, and I stand for something.” In other words, being black–or being white–isn’t good enough to be elected mayor. You have to stand for something. The city cannot survive if all we do is vote on race.
That proposal, Bloom said, is a suggestion of last resort. If higher salaries for teachers and reform legislation fail, then I would want the city to have standby authority to put the schools into an educational receivership. We would select a receivership team–consisting of personnel managers, business executives, educators, and parents–to assume authority over personnel, budget, and curriculum. It would be similar to the process by which we selected a team of the best and brightest architects, planners, and developers to build a world-class library.
But Larry, the black man interjected, why cut health benefits? It’s a moral issue. All of us should have full coverage.
Bloom smiled. Let me tell you a story, he began. On the night the City Council elected a mayor, I got a call from Alderman Terry Gabinski, who said: “Larry, I thought I’d never make this call. If you want to be mayor, we’ve got the votes.”
I’ll tell you another story. When Harold Washington was mayor, he had a bond issue that some of the white aldermen wouldn’t pass. So Washington went to Cicero Avenue on the southwest side, and he walked down the street, and the shop owners came out, and they said: “Mr. Mayor, what are you doing here?” And Mayor Washington said: “I’m just looking at your crumbled streets, which I would have repaved if your alderman would vote for it.”
