An Inside Job: A Frank Recollection of 48th Ward Happenings

By David Patt

Share the perspective of neighborhood happenings from the inside of city government when Marion Volini served as 48th ward Alderman. Find out why important decisions affecting community events were made the way they were. Uncover details about City Council actions, Housing Court procedures, local development issues, city service delivery, and political doings. Hear stories involving the Mayor, other Aldermen, political party officials, and neighborhood leaders. See how gender and religion influenced people's attitudes and observe behind-the-scenes actions that were known only to those on the inside.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Patt
• Release date: Nov 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463447352

David Patt

David M. Patt grew up on Chicago's far north side, graduated from Boone Elementary School and Mather High School, and served as President of the North Town Community Council and of the Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park.He served as an aide to Chicago Alderman Marion Kennedy Volini, working on legislative, zoning, and neighborhood development issues. He held leadership positions in political organizations and was the Independent candidate for 50th ward Alderman in 1983.As the Executive Director of not-for-profit organizations he represented community groups, runners, and nursing home residents and earned the CAE (Certified Association Executive) designation in the association management profession where he headed groups of event directors, appraisers, doctors, and others.

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An Inside Job:

A frank recollection of 48th ward happenings

By David M. Patt

Copyright 2019 David M. Patt

Some of this material has appeared in the newsletter of the Edgewater Historical Society.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever including Internet usage, without written permission of the author.

E-book formatting by www.gopublished.com

Table of Contents

Preface

1. The Lay of the Land

2. Getting Ready

3. The Campaign

4. The Beginning

5. The Real World

6. Housing Court

7. City Council

8. Development

9. Taking Care of Business

10. Politics

11. Gender

12. Ada Mae

13. Kathy O.

14. Silly Politicians

15. Later On

About the Author

Preface

The perspective from the inside was very different.

I no longer had to peek behind a curtain to see what was going on or eavesdrop on conversations meant for others or innocently wander into gatherings and witness doings not meant for my eyes or ears.

I didn’t have to try to piece together glimpses of hidden happenings from random access to private events or clandestine activities.

I was inside city government now, the once private preserve of Machine politicians who considered it THEIR place, and who treated others – like me – as interlopers.

I was able to unearth all kinds of secrets that lurked in hidden nooks and crannies at City Hall, uncloaking mysteries that had been meant to keep me uninformed. I picked up a lot of gossip, opinions, and thoughts that revealed the plans and strategies of my adversaries.

And as an aide to newly elected 48th Ward Alderman Marion Kennedy Volini, I had access to power and information that I didn’t have before. I could use it to help the people who had been manipulated and mistreated for so long by all the self-serving politicians who populated local government.

I made the most of it.

1. The Lay of the Land

The 48th Ward was home to every type of person who lived in Chicago.

There were rich people and poor people and everybody in between. There were White people and Black people and Asians and Hispanics and households comprised of more than one of those. There were people of every religion, ethnicity, and culture. They were foreign-born and American-born. They were old, young, single, married, and not married but living together. Some had children, others didn’t. There were gays and lesbians and straights. There were disabled people.

They lived in high rises, single-family homes, apartment buildings, public housing, senior citizen residences, and halfway houses. They were Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Some voted all the time and some never voted.

Most were employed but many weren’t. Some drove to work while others rode public transportation. Children attended public schools, parochial schools, and private schools. People belonged to churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, or not to any of them.

Their street name was often their local identifier. Those who lived in high rises might say they lived on Sheridan Road, not in Edgewater. One lakefront building on Glenlake Avenue gave itself the address, Sheridan Road East so it would benefit from the same prestige as its neighbors. And residents identified their buildings by name – Malibu, Thorndale Beach, The Renaissance – not by address.

Some residents of Uptown, wishing to avoid the negative connotation of their community moniker, would tell you they lived on Marine Drive, or Castlewood Terrace, wanting you to know they hailed from a nice place.

Also located in the ward was the Kenmore-Winthrop Corridor, as it was called by those who did not live there, not thought of as a nice place, and populated by a disproportionate number of people who were struggling to survive.

It had absorbed an influx of mental health patients who had been discharged from state facilities without proper after-care services, public housing residents who were confined to a small geographic area despite a court order requiring their choices to be scattered throughout the city, recovering alcoholics who resided in detox centers, and tenants who lived in poorly-maintained apartment buildings whose owners sought to profit from their despair.

Whatever the characteristics of the people of the 48th ward, and whatever they thought of everyone else, they lived close enough to encounter each other on a regular basis. If you didn’t like that, you just didn’t live there.

2. Getting Ready

They joked that Christopher Cohen wore wet shoes.

Legislators who wanted to dodge a vote were said to hide in the bathroom when the roll was called. To avoid being found, they stood on the toilet seat. If they weren’t careful, they’d slip, and their feet would fall into the bowl. So, they returned to the chamber with wet shoes.

Regulars (that’s what we called Machine Democrats) were never in danger of losing City Council votes, but they expected their troops to stand up and be counted all the time. And they didn’t feel they could always count on Cohen, who was elected to the 46th ward seat in 1971.

His father, Wilbur, had been Secretary of Health, Education, and