Is Chicago 2/3rd of Illinois; or merely one of the state’s 13 metro areas?

Chicago’s share of Illinois’ population is just over 20 percent; although if one takes into account the entirety of Chicago metro it becomes about two-thirds of the state – with nearly half the state’s population living in a Chicago suburb.

All too absurd, but also accurate, a perception we have of our state

Yet I can remember my days as a Statehouse reporter-type person with officials from the “rest of Illinois” going out of their way to make references to the Chicago-area as “northeastern Illinois” (to make it sound no different than any other region) and making mention of the fact that the state technically has 13 metro areas.

WITH CHICAGO BEING merely one of them, and trying to act as though we don’t acknowledge the other “cities” that exist in Illinois.

That mentality is what largely is behind the measure signed into law this week by Gov. Bruce Rauner – one that says state agencies must regard Springfield as the default location for where employees on the state payroll are based.

Even though the trend of the past couple of decades is to recognize that the bulk of people who live in this state are up here along (or near) the shores of Lake Michigan.

Which causes griping amongst the people based in the Springfield offices of assorted state agencies because they want to be thought of as the home base – rather than just a distant outpost some 200 miles from the focal point of our state’s activity.

RAUNER: Gaining political points for self

THIS BECOMES A political tactic in that it is an act Rauner can point to in his efforts to gain enough votes from the partisans of central and Southern Illinois come the Nov. 6 elections that he can dream of overcoming the many Chicago-area voters who likely are determined to turn out to the polls to vote against Bruce (amongst others).

Rauner, who himself includes a Chicago city-based condominium among the several residences he owns (he’s that wealthy), is taking sides in the perpetual split between Chicago and rural Illinois.

Which actually is similar to the chasm that exists nationally between urban and rural – with those people who prefer the isolated lifestyle unable to comprehend that they’re in the minority of our society; largely because they don’t know many people different from themselves.

BLAGOJEVICH: Pot shots at former gov

The new law says every job title would have to have a location attached to it – and any position to be based in an office outside of Springfield would have to have a justification attached as to why it shouldn’t be a part of the Statehouse Scene.

A STUDY CONDUCTED for the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (essentially, the personnel department for state government) suggested that several hundred jobs currently based in Chicago ought to be relocated to Springfield.

Personally, I think it would be our state government’s loss if it were to carry this line of logic to an extreme. I suspect they’d find a loss in the quality of employees they’d find willing to take a state job if it meant having to endure “capital punishment” – which in political slang means to have to actually spend time in Springfield when the General Assembly itself isn’t in session.

The river IS why Chicago became what it is. Photo by Gregory Tejeda

Which means passing a law like this truly is a partisan act. Particularly since Rauner, in signing the bill into law, made a point of referring to many of the job location changes being made 15 years ago – as in the exact point when the always-despised Rod Blagojevich took office.

Blagojevich, of course, was the governor who was so unenthralled with showing up at state facilities that he eventually came to do the bulk of his work at an office in his Ravenswood neighborhood home – or at one set up in his ward, almost as though he were just a local political boss.

PERSONALLY, I THINK these regional spats have the potential to hold us back – since Illinois’ greatest advantage truly is that it has elements of all the parts of our society as a whole.

Would Abe have become a White Stockings fan

We ought to try to feed off our knowledge for the collective good.

Instead of thinking there’s something special about promoting the idea of our capital city – which itself is truly a product of 19^th Century mentality. After all, we are a state whose settlement originally began in Southern Illinois, with people presuming that a city like Cairo (where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers converge) would be our pride and joy. We evolved into a place that emphasized Chicago because of its Lake Michigan/Chicago River location (while Cairo has withered away to a town of merely 2,000 people).

There’s even the fact that the family of Springfield’s most famed resident (none other than Abraham Lincoln) eventually moved on to Chicago itself. Would “Honest Abe,” if he had lived long enough to be a retired president, have wound up praising the joys of life in what came to be known as the Second City?

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Dem ‘top of the ticket’ that 99 percent of voters likely know nothing about

The jokes already are starting up about gubernatorial hopeful Ameya Pawar’s choice for a lieutenant governor running mate – he picked a mayor from the southernmost tip of Illinois.

 

PAWAR: Went far beyond Sout' Side for running mate

Which certainly gives a geographical sense of balance; an alderman from the 47^th Ward up on the Northwest Side of the city and a mayor from the town where both Kentucky and Missouri lie on the other side of the rivers that create Cairo’s location.

BUT JUST AS most people don’t have a clue who Pawar is (the first Indian-American individual to serve in the City Council), I suspect most are going to be equally clueless about Tyrone Coleman – who is in his second term as Cairo mayor and also cites that he used to be a full-time Baptist minister (he's now an interim minister of a different congregation) and is founder of a community organization that serves young people as being amongst his credentials.

Although the Internet already is buzzing with the snide remarks of some who point out that Coleman is one of those African-American individuals who cites his religious faith as justification for snubbing (to put it mildly) gay people.

Which could be a factor that tanks this particular ticket amongst the kinds of people who vote in Democratic primaries. Although I’m sure others will look at this non-white ticket and be skeptical of its chances for succeeding.

It will be interesting to see just how many people do wind up casting votes for Pawar/Coleman – since I’m not kidding when I say that many would-be voters are not aware of the pair, who had their first public appearance Tuesday night at the German/American Cultural Center near Pawar’s home neighborhood.

 

Will we get a Coleman/Stratton ...

IT SEEMS THAT many people are thinking of this as the J.B. Pritzker/Chris Kennedy campaign, with those aware enough to want to have a third option focusing their attention of Daniel Biss – the one-time math teacher from Evanston who serves in the General Assembly and is willing to openly criticize Dem leadership.

Which could be the reason that Pawar felt compelled to publicly name a running mate. It creates the impression that his campaign has something resembling a full structure and ought to be taken seriously.

Compared to everybody else except for Pritzker, who as of yet have not paired up with anyone for the second spot within Illinois government.

 

... debate for lieutenant governor?

Biss’ big move for Tuesday was to announce his “The Road Forward” tour that is meant to be a 2,000 mile trip across the state so he can meet with people everywhere.

A NICE GESTURE, to be sure. But there are those same snide Internet commenters who are saying that Pawar has just one-upped Biss and shown himself to be the guy whom voters ought to focus their attention upon if they absolutely can’t stomach the thought of voting for either Kennedy or Pritzker.

Could this be what gives Pawar’s campaign chances a jolt of attention – even if just for a few days?

He is the guy who has been going about this campaign continuously offering up what he calls his own “New Deal” of ways to improve the quality of life in Illinois. Although I really doubt anybody thinks he’s the Second Coming of FDR.

They’re probably not thinking of him much at all. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn if down in the land of Southern Illinois, Tuesday’s announcement by Pawar about Coleman was the first time they ever acknowledged his existence.

BUT THEN AGAIN, the fact that Pawar may be able to take the majority of votes in Cairo may not mean much. Because Cairo is a shrinking community – largely due to the historic racial hang-ups of area residents.

 

BISS: Is he now lagging behind Pawar?

The one-time city of some 20,000 people had, in 2016, an estimated population of 2,359 – with 69.62 percent of its population being African-American. Much of the white population of Southern Illinois fled the city long ago and is content to let it rot – similar to the attitudes felt by some Chicagoans toward select South and West side neighborhoods.

So maybe Coleman has a life experience (he was born-and-raised in Cairo, left for 10 years to serve in the military, and says he was shocked by how decrepit his home city had become during his absence) that some in Chicago can identify with.

For those of you not quite sure of Cairo's location

At the very least, Chicagoans may finally figure out the local pronunciation of the municipality named for the Egyptian city on the River Nile. Because it sure ain’t “KY-ro.”

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Will we react in time to save Cairo?

Will a modern-day image of this old postcard depicting Cairo, Ill. and its position along the rivers be nothing but a sea of light blue?

I have never set foot in Cairo, Ill. That town at the far southern tip of the state where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers converge and where one literally is seven miles closer to Jackson, Miss., than they are to Chicago.

And now, I’m wondering if I’m never going to get the chance.

WILL IT TURN out that the time I was in Tamms, Ill., (about 12 miles to the north of Cairo), I will be able to claim I was in what will become the far southern tip of Illinois?

The aging southern city that resembles a ghost town in many parts is getting hit with heavy rains that are causing the two rivers that are the sole justification for its location to rise higher and higher.

The Ohio River at Cairo reached record-high levels on Sunday, and officials say it will continue to rise. Which has people thinking it is just a matter of time before the levees will give way and the rivers will wash away the city of some 2,800 people.

That has the Army Corps of Engineers thinking that the solution to the problem is to blow a hole in the levees that protect the Missouri side of the river from flooding. By letting farmland along the river overflow with water, they think it would ease pressure enough on the Cairo levees so that they will hold – and Cairo will continue to exist.

THE PROBLEM IS Missouri political people, who are determined to drag this issue out in the courts – even though the federal district and appeals courts have both upheld the desires of the Army Corps of Engineers as being justified and, quite possibly, the best way to cope with an ugly situation.

Missouri officials on Sunday tried unsuccessfully to get the Supreme Court of the United States to take the case under advisement, which meant that the Illinois attorney general’s office was busy this weekend trying to fight off the legal stalling tactics so that preventative action can occur.

There are those who are trying to portray this as selfishness by Missouri, trying to protect farmland instead of a city with actual people – even though Cairo officials this weekend gave the evacuation order and are trying to get everybody out of the area so as to reduce the potential for casualties should the river overflow.

I’m not quite sure I see it that simple.

BUT THIS COULD be a case where Cairo’s history, particularly from the late 1960s when racial tensions related to the demise of segregation as an acceptable policy for life in this society, is continuing to linger in its own weird way.

The historic fact is that when it became apparent that the old ways were gone and that the white and black populations of Cairo were going to mix (actually, Cairo proper was white, while black people were expected to stay in the unincorporated community of Future City located just up U.S. Route 51), many of the white people fled the area.

That is what gives us a modern-day Cairo that is overwhelmingly African-American, and ONLY 2,831 people in size. I’m sure there are many people who are fighting the Army Corps of Engineers’ desires who simply think that the people who remain in Cairo just don’t matter.

Or that we’re doing them a major favor by encouraging them to leave and letting the river overflow into Illinois – thereby forevermore eliminating the city that once was supposed to be a major shipping port in the United States because of its location on the two major rivers.

THE NATION'S HIGH court wound up deciding not to hear the case, letting the lower court rulings remain in place and allowing this to become an issue to be considered by the Army Corps of Engineers. Let's only hope the legal nonsense ended in time – because we really don’t know how much time there is left.

Various reports coming out of Cairo indicate signs that water is somehow seeping underneath the levee, which could weaken the structure and cause it to collapse. It is totally possible that the courts could make the proper rulings to give the Army Corps of Engineers the authority to decide for themselves how to fix this mess (which is one of their reasons for existence), only to have the levee collapse just before the court ruling is made public.

Will our political people get their act together in time to fix the disaster-in-the-making at Cairo? If they don’t, I’d think it is the kind of mess that is worthy of bringing down someone’s political career – and not just Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley, R-Perryville, for bluntly saying that Missouri farmland was worth more than Cairo people.

Because someday I’d like to be able to go down to that part of Illinois (about the only part of the state I haven’t been to) and see where the rivers come together. I’d rather be surrounded by people when I do so, and NOT the ghost town-like remains of the city that so many of us became confused about when pronouncing.

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