

Daley erupted and called Despres a liar, and the alderman responded by challenging the mayor to a public debate-which Daley ignored, much to the disappointment of Despres. In the 20 years he represented the Fifth Ward in the City Council, Despres stood up to old man Daley on issues of patronage (he scoured the budget looking for ghost payrollers), preservation (he unsuccessfully urged the city to fight harder to save historic buildings from demolition), and open space-during a contentious 1970 council debate over the city’s proposal to construct a school in Washington Park, Despres argued that public parks shouldn’t be turned into construction zones. He started fighting for open-housing laws and other civil rights causes almost as soon as he became an alderman in 1955, and he kept up his crusade through the tumultuous 1960s, when southwest-siders were hurling rocks at Martin Luther King. Despres was simply the greatest independent alderman in Chicago history he died last year at 101. Next came the independent crusaders of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, led by Leon Despres and Don Rose. As a matter of fact, I know some lefties now pushing 90 who still haven’t forgiven Douglas. The lefties in the Democratic Party-Hyde Parkers included-turned against him, voting for Republican Charles Percy in 1966. Senate, and he might have died there if he hadn’t supported President Johnson’s Vietnam war policy. This progressive political tradition starts with New Dealers like Fifth Ward aldermen Paul Douglas and Robert Merriam.

Dozens of savvy politicos and politicians got their chops fighting the University of Chicago, and many of them even went to school there. The area’s divided into two wards, the Fourth and the Fifth, so ambitious activists have twice as many opportunities to rise up the political ranks, and it’s home to the University of Chicago, which over the years has launched so many self-serving urban renewal projects and economic development schemes that the locals have gotten really smart about fighting them off. It’s the birthplace of independent antipatronage politics and one of the few racially integrated neighborhoods in town. Just about everything good to emerge from the miserable swamp of Chicago politics has some connection to the communities lodged roughly in the area between 43rd and 60th streets on the north and south and from the lake to Cottage Grove.
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