Jail stunt reminiscent of Madame Byrne

The sheriff for Lake County, Ill., had plans to be locked up in his very own county jail – supposedly to show that the place is not a deathtrap, despite the fact that two people have died there in recent weeks.

CURRAN: Not inmate material (we hope)

Although the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday that Mark Curran changed his mind. A scheduling conflict, he claims. Although the Internet is filled with anonymous comments about how Curran decided at the last minute how he would prefer not to be sexually molested by the jail inmates.

PERSONALLY, I DOUBT that would have happened. Because I’m sure the personnel who work for Curran at the jail would have gone “by the book” and treated him the way inmates are supposed to be treated.

If anything, he would have received extra care to ensure that nothing bad happened to him – other than having to adapt to a new diet consisting of foods such as bologna and oatmeal..

Curran would have received what he described as “the realities of the exceptional treatment of the inmates at his jail.” I doubt other inmates receive similar treatment, except perhaps by accident.

But I’m really not as concerned about whether Curran’s stunt would have proven anything about the daily realities of jail life. I expect it would have proved about as much as did Jane Byrne in 1981when the then-Chicago mayor decided to show that Chicago public housing really wasn’t all that bad.

SHE DID SO by moving into the now-demolished Cabrini-Green public housing complex – the one located right next to the Gold Coast neighborhood where Byrne herself really lived.

Byrne gave the same explanation that Curran gave for her stunt – she wanted to see for herself what things were like for people who had no other options than to be in those places.

BYRNE: A Cabrini-Green resident?



No one believed it when Byrne said it just over three decades ago. I doubt anyone finds it more believable now coming from Curran’s mouth.

For the record, Byrne lived in an apartment (number 401 at 1160 Sedgwick St.) with her husband, Jay McMullen, for three weeks some 31 years ago. In her book “My Chicago,” she wrote, “Living in Cabrini was not uncomfortable, but all in all it was a sobering experience.”

SHE GOT TO see up-close an environment in which people were afraid to be seen outside near their own residences for fear they’d get caught in the street gang crossfire. She also got to experience the “eternal vigilance” against protecting one’s food supply from being infested with cockroaches.

Which, to my mindset, makes the video that exists on YouTube all the more hilarious. It was Easter Sunday that year, and Byrne arranged for a church service to be held outdoors at the complex grounds. We get to see Jane “find Jesus” along with all the other Cabrini-Green residents.

Of course, none of those residents had a Chicago Housing Authority crew do their best to clean up the apartments she used. Note, I wrote apartments – as in plural.

Because Byrne admits her mayoral security detail was living right across the hall from her. Which, in and of itself, makes her experience of sleeping nights in a Cabrini-Green apartment and going to work at City Hall during the day somewhat artificial.

ABOUT AS PHONY as any experience Curran would have had staying a couple of nights in his jail.

Which makes me think there is something inherent in the political process that makes public officials believe they can arrange for an artificial view of something and make it reality.

The Cabrini-Green of decades ago was a dismal place where too many disadvantaged people were crammed together and wound up feeding off each others’ misery. Too much like the conditions of a jail, except that the public housing residents didn’t have criminal records that put them there.

The superficial view didn’t offer up much in the way of change for public housing three decades ago. It wouldn’t give us anything better in the northern suburbs now.

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Cabrini-Green – R.I.P. (& good riddance)

The Cabrini-Green public housing complex on the Near North Side, like all the other high-rise public housing units that sprung up throughout the South and West sides, was a pit. Nobody lived there by choice.



Will Chicago even try to remember this mistaken attempt at isolation?

It was part of a failed attempt to house the less fortunate among us, whose real purpose was to isolate those people in distant pockets of the city where the rest of us Chicagoans could ignore them. A part of me thinks that we, as a society, should be ashamed that we ever let people live under such conditions.

SO LEARNING THAT the final resident of Cabrini-Green was to leave the Near North Side complex, and that all physical traces of the high-rises will soon be gone, is a positive for Chicago. Sort of.

Even though the places where these public housing residents were moved to aren’t exactly ritzy, they are bound to be an improvement over the collection of poverty that one found in the public housing high-rises – which always struck me as resembling prisons.

In fact, that probably is the best characterization of the structures. They were there to incarcerate people who didn’t have criminal convictions (or were perhaps in between prison sentences), but whom we didn’t want living among us.

Anyone who thinks I’m being overly cynical in taking such an attitude ought to read some of the Internet commentary that is sprouting up. There are many people whose biggest concerns are that these public housing residents may now be living near them.

WE’RE ALSO GETTING the rants from people who object to anyone being able to live in public housing, complaining it is now their own money (as in tax dollars) that is paying for undesirable people to be their new neighbors.

All of which means that I have mixed feelings about the demise of Cabrini-Green – which at its peak consisted of 23 high-rise apartment buildings containing more than 15,000 residents.

I can understand the reluctance of some people to move from there, even though I know their lot in life will improve by getting away from the concentration of narcotics and streetgangs that dominated the local lifestyle.

Not that they’re getting away from those problems altogether. They are everywhere. It just won’t be as intense as it was in the high-rises.

BUT I DO understand why those residents feared that the only reason city officials showed any interest in their fate was because the actual land upon which Cabrini-Green stood was SO CLOSE to the Gold Coast, Michigan Avenue and the Near North Side (some of Chicago’s most elite real estate).

They were correct in thinking that the interest had nothing to do with their own well-being (like I wrote earlier, if we cared about their well-being, we as a society never would have created the high-rises to begin with).

I got my chuckle from reading the Chicago Sun-Times account of the last Cabrini-Green resident. She is being moved to a smaller-scale Chicago Housing Authority complex south of U.S. Cellular Field, and complains that the area is a “food desert.”

She’s right. There won’t be any nearby supermarkets, compared to Cabrini where residents could shop at that Jewel-Osco supermarket located just to the east on Division Street.

OF COURSE, THAT was a source of tension at times for area residents, since that is a store frequented by Gold Coast residents as well (except for those who preferred the neighborhood Treasure Island grocery store that used to be on Clark Street). Many of them didn’t care for the interaction between the two that would occur.

It is probably another reason why some people may be glad that the housing complex honoring the memory of Mother Cabrini and former Gov. Dwight Green is gone. You won’t have to feel pangs of guilt while grocery shopping, although I suspect many of the people who most strongly felt this way never felt guilt.

Although it was that very proximity to the Near North Side that caused then-Mayor Jane Byrne to use Cabrini-Green for her stunt in 1981 when she “moved” to the housing complex for a month or so, in hopes that her presence might reduce the violence.

So while I realize that, as a whole, Chicago has potential to improve by eliminating these high-rises, I know that anyone who portrays this story as being that simple is being simple-minded themselves.

I ONLY WONDER how future generations will remember what once stood between Evergreen Avenue, Sedgwick Street, Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street – since I would expect developers to obliterate any traces of what has existed for the past seven decades.

I only hope that Hollywood and television don’t control that image. Because there are bound to be copies of that 1992 horror film “Candyman” (set in Cabrini-Green) that get aired on “bad movie nights.”

Then, there is “Good Times,” that staple of 1970s television that used to be CBS’ competition to “Happy Days” on ABC. The opening credits of that situation comedy set in a public housing complex in Chicago clearly singled out Cabrini-Green – although it was never mentioned by name.

I’d hate for people to think that the real-life of Cabrini-Green had anything to do with Jimmie Walker, or “Dyn-o-mite!” or those re-runs that crop up every night on “Me-TV.”

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EDITOR'S NOTE:  R.I.P., Dantrell Davis.

People who screech “no” usually don’t have enough vision to see the future

There is one thing I have learned during just over two decades of covering public policy and attempts to implement major projects – there’s always someone who will screech “no.”

And while I’m not saying that every objector is a crackpot, the fact is that there are people whose objection is centered around the fact that they don’t want anything in their “backyard.”

THEY’RE THE “NIMBY” crowd – they will scream “no” just because it will be the only time anyone will pay attention to them.

So if you get the impression that the people who are opposed to bringing the 2016 Olympic Games to Chicago are not swaying me to their side, you’d be correct.

And if you figure out that I think a new group calling itself “No Games Chicago” is a batch of Facebook fans with way too much free time on their hands, you’d be correct. There are those among us who would like this rendition of an Olympic Stadium for Chicago to remain just a dream. Illustration provided by Chicago 2016.

But these people are going to get their moment of public attention – their 15 minutes of fame, so to speak – this week, when the International Olympic Committee makes its trip to Chicago to give our home city the once-over to see if we are worthy of hosting the summer Olympics to be held seven years from now.

THESE PEOPLE USE a weblog and a Facebook page to promote their idea, which if you don’t give it much thought sounds so noble.

“Better Housing – Schools – Buses and Trains.”

They’re trying to push the idea that the money spent to give Chicago some quickie cosmetic improvements and build (or upgrade) the athletic facilities required for an international spectacle such as the Olympics would be better put to use to upgrade education, housing and public transportation for the masses.

Now I know some people are going to read this commentary and respond that my cynicism has made me snotty (if not elitist). But whenever a major project that would significantly alter the face of the city is put forth, you will always get some local resident who will complain that they don’t want change, and would rather see the money go elsewhere.

IN FACT, THEY will always cite schools or hospitals or mass transit or something along those lines as a better use for the money that would have paid for construction.

I’m skeptical, in part because even if we did put that money into these areas, there’s the likelihood that these people would complain that we’re still not spending enough. This is empty rhetoric, nothing more.

But another problem is that we, the people of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs that comprise the metropolitan area, can’t often agree on what constitutes “improvement” in those areas.

We could take some of this construction money and try to direct it to the Chicago Public Schools. But what about those people who don’t put their kids in the public school system? They’re going to complain that they’re not getting a share of this money.

OR EVEN IF they’re in public school systems, what if they’re in the suburban areas (roughly two of every three Chicago-area residents live in a suburb, rather than the city proper)? Is there a guarantee that every single one of the 129 municipalities of Cook County (just over 260 if you count the five collar counties as well) would get money for their school systems?

Put money into mass transit? What about people who don’t want to use mass transit, and who view the very concept as some sort of “communist plot” to take away a person’s automobile (some people really are that paranoid)?

My point is that when these people cite their mantra (“Better Housing – Schools – Buses and Trains”) all through this week, we need to keep in mind that it is a false promise.

There’s also the fact that the Olympic Games, if they truly come to Chicago, have the ability to force Chicago officials to confront certain problems that confront public policy and public life.

WHILE IT WOULD be nice if city officials were willing to confront these problems without the motivation of having the world’s eyes on the city for a couple of weeks in the future, the reality is that it likely will take such an event as an Olympics to provide the impetus.

Take the streets around Washington Park that recently got repaved so that they would not look so decrepit when Olympic officials see the site being considered for a primary Olympic Stadium in Chicago.

Critics complain that other Chicago streets should have received repairs first because they are in worse shape. But would we really be better off if those South Side streets near the stadium site had not been fixed up.

I doubt it’s a matter of Olympic-related streets being repaired out of order. Likely, nothing would have happened if not for the Olympic impetus.

THERE’S ALSO THE fact that this particular group is going to get far more attention than it deserves, just because the Olympics officials will be in town.

On what do I base this observation?

I note their presence on Facebook, where they describe their site as “a spot to bring together all those opposed to Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics.” Yet all they had (at least as far as Sunday afternoon is concerned) is 740 “members.” That’s out of the many millions of people who decide to waste their time on their computers with Facebook.

So excuse me for thinking these are a few hundred people who can’t see into the future far enough for the potential benefits that an international spectacle as the Olympics could bring to the metropolitan area.

BECAUSE THE BOTTOM line is that the Olympics themselves will lose money. That fact is well documented from past Olympics. But that is if you base your perspective solely on the gate receipts raised from tickets sold to the events themselves.

An event such as the Olympics is more about using the presence of the athletic events in our hometown to provide the motivation for many improvements to the community.

Even if the construction is originally done just for the two weeks of the Olympics, they can then be reused for decades to come for purposes that will improve the quality of life in our city.

For that reason, we all ought to be in favor of the idea.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: If you’re absolutely determined to grouse about the 2016 Olympic Games, here is a Facebook site (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19962749751) and a weblog (http://nogames.wordpress.com/) for you.

Is Barack Obama truly the key to the Olympic Games being awarded to Chicago some seven years (http://www.suntimes.com/sports/olympics/1501045,daley-obama-chicago-olympics-032809.article) from now?

The “Just Say ‘No’” types will always exist (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/28/AR2009032801758.html?hpid=moreheadlines), regardless of the issue.

What did we lose with a lost life?

Every now and then, a thought pops into my mind – “What would have ever become of Dantrell Davis?”

If he had lived, he would be 23 years old. Although considering he grew up on some rough inner-city streets at Cabrini Green public housing (which was nowhere near as comical as that 1970’s era sitcom “Good Times” would have us think), there’s a chance he might not have made it this far regardless.

THIS WAS A kid growing up in the same public housing complex where former Mayor Jane Byrne felt compelled to focus her own efforts to fight inner-city crime. Dantrell had a lot more strikes in life piled up against him than most kids, and he might have struck out.

Or, he might have overcome them and made something of his life. We’ll never know, although he deserved the chance to try to succeed in life.

Now back in the late 1980s into the early 1990s, I was a reporter with the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago. In my role with that local wire service, I wrote about a lot of crime – to the point where a lot of the mayhem I covered blends into a mish-mash.

I will go by the place where Pershing Road and Archer Avenue intersect, or the 8900 block of South Burley Avenue, or many other sites around Chicago and surrounding suburbs, and I know I once covered something bad that happened there. But I can’t remember the specifics.

THAT, HOWEVER, IS not the case with regards to Dantrell. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the 7-year-old boy who was shot to death in what quite possibly is the most pointless incident of violence imaginable.

It was October 13, 1992 that Davis was walking to school. As a resident of the Cabrini-Green housing complex (which was just a few blocks from some of the wealthiest neighborhoods of Chicago), he attended the Jenner School – which was located within the complex and consisted of public housing kids.

So this wasn’t the idyllic image of a grammar school that some people might come up with, even though all of these students were little kids. These are the kids whom the Rev. James Meeks is fighting on behalf of with his attempts to organize boycotts and alter the school funding formula to give all children a chance at obtaining a better education.

Security was tight around the building, as Chicago police made a habit of sending a marked squad car with uniformed officers to the school every day around the times that school began in the morning and ended in the afternoon – just to create the appearance that THE LAW was present.

SOME PEOPLE WOULD think that having uniformed police so obviously in place would scare away anyone who might be thinking of doing something illegal.

But in the case of Cabrini-Green, it didn’t. In fact, it is questionable whether anything more could have been done by authorities to prevent this incident. It happened anyway.

What happened was that rival street gangs were always engaged in acts of trying to one-up each other, so as to show who THE BOSS really was in the housing complex.

On that particular day 16 years ago, Davis was in the school yard, and happened to be standing (if my memory serves me correctly) about 20 feet away from that police car that was supposed to make everyone feel safe.

BUT AT THAT particular moment, a gang member with a rifle who was trying to intimidate rival gang members fired a shot. His aim stunk, he missed his target, and Davis was wounded in the jaw. He was killed almost instantly.

Some say the gunman (who later was arrested and convicted, and is currently serving a lengthy prison term) was trying to hit rival gang members who were standing near the school, but I can remember indications at the time that the gunman was trying to hit the police car.

I suppose it would have made him feel like a big man to think he could strike the police and get away with it (even though, in the end, he didn’t get away with anything).

Instead, Dantrell Davis had his life snuffed out at age 7 – which creeps me out because I have two nephews who are both older than that and two nieces who are 5. What a waste it would be if their lives were nearly over before they could even come close to accomplishing anything in life.

NOW I NEVER knew Dantrell Davis or his mother, who in dealing with reporter-types trying to get a quote was understandably hysterical over having lost her son and was incapable of saying anything coherent.

So I don’t have any first-hand knowledge of what Dantrell was destined to become. For all I know, the ignorant half-wits who on Sunday used a Chicago Tribune website comments section to say that Davis would have been just another criminal in prison may have turned out to be correct. Of course, that could be said about a lot of people, and turns out to be correct by pure coincidence.

As it was, the Tribune in a feature story that interviewed Dantrell’s mother noted that the boy (even though only 7) had already become adept at shooting dice, had lost his father to a drug overdose, and was experiencing problems in school that made him inclined to not want to go.

It was obvious that the lure of the inner-city streets were already starting to reach out to Dantrell. Who’s to say whether he would have been strong enough to resist, or to see the need to try to get out of “the projects” and the possibility of a better life.

I DON’T KNOW. None of us do.

What is sad about this case is that Dantrell never got the chance. And for those people who would say he didn’t deserve a chance in life to succeed because of his background, all I have to say is, that’s just sick.

Now I was glad to read the Tribune’s account of how Dantrell’s mother was trying to rebuild her life after losing her only child, mainly because there are times I wonder if I’m one of the few who remember Dantrell’s name.

The school he attended is now an open field and the building where he lived was demolished, all as part of an effort to expand the Near North Side neighborhood of wealthy Chicagoans a little further west.

WHAT I NOTED about the Tribune account was that they found the honorary street name sign “Dantrell Davis Way” that had been erected as a tribute in the months following the incident had been taken down, and no one could provide an explanation of what happened.

My guess is that gentrification, that process by which neighborhoods are upgraded so as to benefit a higher-income type of resident, is involved. Somebody probably took the sign down, having forgotten who or what a Dantrell Davis was.

Now I’m not going to say I long for the “old days” when Cabrini Green had become a notorious public housing complex (mostly because of its proximity to such wealthy neighborhoods directly to the east. Other public housing complexes on the South and West sides actually had higher crime rates).

But I hope someone does manage to replace that street sign. For even if the area around Evergreen and Sedgwick streets continues to develop into an area of affluence (an extension, so to speak, of the Gold Coast), there ought to be a reminder of what was once at the site – a place where a young life could be snuffed out before it had a chance.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: The Chicago Tribune had at least one interesting story worth reading (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-dantrell_07_bdsep07,0,337057.story?track=rss) in their Sunday edition.

There are some sick, twisted people in this world, and the scary aspect is that they think (http://www.topix.net/forum/source/chicago-tribune/TADR520903876ANOO) they are the respectable ones in society.

Much of what was once Cabrini-Green is gone (http://www.voicesofcabrini.com/), but some people (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/11/60II/main532704.shtml) are determined to follow the advice in the title of an old Elvis Presley song, “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” what was once there for public housing.