a seven-day strike by the teachers and next two to three years will determinethe IN A ONE­ struggled to get a handle on a spike in face of Chicago for the next 20 to 30years," gun violence. According to a recent poll, he says. And given his bona fides at the Emanuel has lost support among black highest levels of the Democratic Party­ PARTY Chicagoans- who were vital to his easy former White House chief ofstaff for Pres­ victory in 20II- while his overall ap­ ident Obama, go-to Congressman during TOWN LIKE proval rating hovers at 50%. The mayor's the rise of Nancy Pelosi, senior adviser to efforts at school reform, urban redevel­ former President Bill Clinton- his clash THIS ONE, opment, infrastructure repair and job with the left may prove to be a proxy for training all seem to irritate the status a broader fight nationwide over the iden­ all great conflicts are intramural. Repub­ quo in favor of other, often corporate, in­ tity of the Democratic Party. Some of the licans pose no threat to Chicago Mayor terests. Changes he has made in'the po­ same constituencies attacking Emanuel Rahm Emanuel as he enters the third lice department have puta dent incrime, have beefs with Obama over such issues year of his four-year term, gunningfor re­ but that hasn't won him the confidence as drone strikes, Guantanamo and, yes, election. It's his fellow Democrats who are of residents who experience the worst education reform. But they have been re­ scheming to destroy him. Consider Cain of it. Watching him court corporations luctant to take on a trailblazing President and Abel, the Yorks and Lancasters, Mi­ and plot strategy with hedge-fund plu­ inhis second and last term inoffice. chael and Fredo Corleone: family conflict tocrats, some of whom cut his campaign The mayor of Chicago is a different . is often the deadliest. six-figure checks, Emanuel's enemies matter. Skirmishing among Chicago Demo­ have dubbed him"Mayor 1%." With millions banked for his -next crats escalated to all-out war after the This factious city's gift for turningdis­ campaign, a firm grip on the city council mayor's handpicked school board vot­ agreement into Armageddon is a proud and the teachers at a loss so far to recruit ed on May 22 to shutter 50 city public partof its identity. "Stormy, husky, brawl­ a suitable opponent, Emanuel still packs schools. Facing a billion-dollar deficit in ing," Carl Sandburg famously wrote of plenty of punch. He is, after all, Rahm­ the schools budget, Emanuel had good Chicago. For more than half a century, the rare Washington insiderwithenough reason to tackle the problem of half-full the culture has favored the get-along, go­ zing to be on a first-name basis with peo­ buildings and underperforming kids. But along machine politics of the Richard Da­ ple he has never met. Legendary for his this giant step- no American city has leys, the legendary Boss and his shrewd, Fbombs and swagger, he has star power closed as many schools at one time- was stumble-tongued son. They reigned in Washington, Hollywood and certain guaranteed toprovoke. over Chicago by husbanding power and parts of Manhattan sufficient to attract Sure enough, the Chicago Teach­ spreading favors, not always tending to the gaze of Robert Redford, who recently ers Union, a power unto itself, loosed the long term. No Daley was crazy enough announced plans for an eight-part reality its heavy artillery, with its president, to cross the teachers' unionor tangle with series, Chicagoland, featuring the "tough, Karen Lewis, calling Emanuel "the mur­ the unionized janitors at O'Hare airport. visionary mayor" (Redford's words) front der mayor" when the closings were an­ That approach won elections but did and center. nounced. "He's murdering schools. He's not solve big structural problems. Elected But his approach to running Chicago murdering jobs," she said. Neighborhood in 20n after 22 years ofRichard M. Daley, makesiteasyto believe his insistent deni­ leaders charged that the closures targeted Emanuel inherited a cash-strapped city als that he would flee the city's problems majority-black schools with majority­ in a flat-broke state. Chicago has budget for a return engagement in Washington. black faculties. "Does [Rahm's] new Chi­ problems and crime problems, problems When I ask him during an interview cago mean no black folks?" asked Valerie of inequality ahd racial division, prob­ whether he is dreaming ofthe presidency Leonard of North Lawndale on the city's lems of mutual suspicion and failing one day, he replies, "No. I'm not. Never. It West Side. At a rally against the school schools, of high unemployment and aging is not happening. I don't know how else closings, people roared as 9-year-old infrastructure. And behind it all, special to say it. No." The mayor has deep-set eyes Asean Johnson proclaimed, "This is rac­ interests so deeply entrenched you need that gather shadows in.their sockets, and ism!" "Children will die," a protester cried spelunking gear to go after them. this can make him look ominous when at another gathering, presumably because But Emanuel has picked the fights his he stares, which he was doing intensely. they will have to walk farther to school predecessors avoided. His confrontational I braced for an F grenade, but nothing through gang-troubled streets; the accusa­ approach, he says, is the city's best chance detonated. As mayor, he has cleaned up tion was soon echoed on placards waved to retain its perch as the country's third his language- a little. for the evening news. largest city, a Midwestern metropolis with "I'm done with that," he said of Wash­ Strongstuff. And it follows a tumultu­ global ambition- and to avoid a grim Rust ington's gridlock and posturing. "I ous 2012 for the mayor, who weathered Beltfuture. "The decisions we make inthe worked eight years in the White House The Impossible Politics of Crime NOTHING HAS BEEN MORE DIFFICULT thanthe surge of street violence during the mayor's first full year in office. The num­ ber of murders in Chicago climbed past 500 in 2012 for only the second time since 2004- andturned a near coronation ofthe celebrity mayor into a baptism offire. Emanuel had taken over a city where crime rates fell gradually and steadily over more than a decade, mirroring a national trend- butthey hadnotfallen as much as insome other major cities. WhileChicago cut its murder rate in halffrom a peak in the 1990s, New York City managed to cut its murder rate by three-quarters and Los Angeles by two-thirds. The difference is more than roo lives per year. The problem is rooted, troublingly, in a relative few South Side and West Side neighborhoods where the legacy ofsegre­ gation, police corruption, failed schools and misguided public-housing policy can be seen in concentrated pockets offamily dysfunction and violence among young black men. Three percent ofthe city's real estate is the source of 20% of its homi­ cides; at the same time, 40% of Chicago, mostly on the North Side, experienced no murders at all last year, according to city officials. During the younger Daley's long reign, the city demolished such notorious high­ rise poverty traps as the Robert Taylor Homes and Cabrini-Green, but these overdue steps h ad the perverse effect of scattering crime and gang activity into previously stable middle-class neighbor­ hoods. At the same time, Chicago police for two great Presidents. They talk about The closer Emanuel's were slow to embrace the revolution in things they want to do- I'm doing it. This handpickedschool board anticrime tactics that helped tame the is the happiest I've ever been inpubliclife. voted to shutter50 city mayhem ofother cities. I've always wanted to be mayor." schools, angering parents On taking office, Emanuel moved He leveled the death stare again. "You and teachers quickly to hire a new superintendent of don't believe me?" But I do believe him, police. He picked Newark, N.J., police com­ because Emanuel is not stupid. Arrogant, missionerGarry McCarthy, a Bronx-born chesty, prickly, yes, but never stupid. veteran of the New York City police and He knew what he was getting into as a disciple of the law-enforcement guru mayor of Chicago and why the office is W illiam Bratton. As the officer in charge a poor stepping-stone to any other job in of New York's CompStat system of data­ politics. Chicago mayors are sometimes driven policing for seven years, McCarthy feared, sometimes scorned, sometimes was revolutionary to the core, but with investigated- butalmost never promoted. the streetwise demeanor ofa beat cop. A CITY DIVIDED MOST OF CHICAGO'S 506 HOMICIDES IN 2012 TOOK PLACE ON THE CITY'S SOUTH AND WEST SIDES, IN NEIGHBORHOODS WITH LOWER PER CAPITA INCOMES McCarthy told me in a recent inter­ view that he and the mayor shared a vi­ sion of a "proactive" force, which meant more officers on the street to gather more LINCOLN PARK This mostly information about bad actors and simmer­ white, ing conflicts. It did little good to respond higher-Income after a crime was committed when a more area had no homicides or aggressive approach mightprevent crime any schools before it happens. To accomplish this, the slated for department would have to be reorganized around new district commanders loyal to the vision. "He promised that I could run the department and he would take care of the politics, because if you want performance from a police department, you have to take the politics out of it," McCarthy says. The changes did not produce immedi­ There were ate results. While overall crime dropped, no mmdcrs the number of homicides, which had aver­ last ycnr in this Island of aged fewer than 460 per year from 2004 diversity and through 20n, soared. Emanuel blamed relntivc affluence such influences as the warm winter­ which supposedly brought gangbangers into the streets- and the enduring prob­ .J.em of absent fathers. Barraged by report­ ' •• ers eager to talk about murder when he - ,,·. wanted to bask after hosting a successful • • NATO summit, Emanuel seethed. ••• "You're like birds all jumping from -\ the telephone wire," he scolds when I • ' ask him about gun violence in February, • shortly after a 15-year-old named Hadiya Pendleton was killed while standing with friends in a park about a mile from Obama's South Side home. She was one of at least 39 killed in Chicago in January, and her death, which came days after she took part in the Obamas' Inauguration ceremo- nies, reawakened the world to the city's epidemic of gun violence. ';t~C:,JI:t~f. . •• ; • 2~ ;.¥~, • • • KEY TO MAP .. ,. ,.. HOMICIDES IN 2012 _,. WEST ·,·~ •. . PULLMAN • SCHOOLS MARKED . FOR CLOSURE • • • This • neighborhood PER CAPITA INCOME had 13 _ 1==-==r:2:-:k:::-m- 2 miles homicides ,n Sources: Redeye; Cook County 2012 and LOW · ~·~ I HIGH medical examlne(s office; has multiple Chicago police department: <$10K 20K 30K 40K+ schools Chicago breaking news center; marked for City of Chicago closure Research by M~es Little Scrambling to stop the killings amid the could think he was intimidating," but AFTER RISING IN 2012, CHICAGO media glare, the mayor and his police his aunt described him as "the gentle gi­ MURDERS ARE DOWN SHARPLY superintendent raided overtime budgets ant." Lawson spent partofeach Saturday SO FAR THIS YEAR to saturate hotspots with cops. in an honors class in physics and was Now McCarthy's reforms appear to be deciding between going to college and kicking in. Through May 6, the city ex­ joiningthe Navy. 601 perienced 102 murders, compared with Afterthe murder, Wright was touched 500 167 in the same period of 2012. "These when Emanuel phoned her and told her 506. are the best numbers Chicago has seen to "consider this call a hug." But she and since 1959," McCarthy said. Crime over­ Young have very different feelings about all is down II% compared with last year the police. "Where's theOfficer Friendly?" and close to 20% since Emanuel took asks Wright, a longtime government em­ office. McCarthy believes he can do bet­ ployee. "We have young people who are ,,: 1111111 , A ter still. "A regression analysis bas~d on afraid ofthe police when thi:y need to be 2003 '05 '07 '09 '11 2013 algorithms-sounds funny coming from able to trustthe police." · a cop" has identified the 420 most trouble­ Of McCarthy's early talk about more some men in Chicago, he says, and police police onthestreets anda more aggressive THE MURDER RATE FOR 2012 are looking into their networks. approach to crime, Wright says, "The mes­ WAS THE HIGHEST OF THE THREE That improvement will depend partly sage I got was that they would shoot first LARGEST U.S. CITIES on manpower- the police department and ask questions later. Every group of MURDERS PER 100,000 RESIDENTS, 2012 has already used about two-thirds of young black menis a gang to him- what its entire 2013 overtime budget to tamp would be a 'group' ofwhite kids is a 'gang' down violent crime. Summer's warm if they're black. I told Tyrone, 'Ifyou see 5.0 7.8 18.6 weather, which historically brings a police, you sit down anddo what they say, NEW YORK CITY LOS ANGELES CHICAGO rise in gun violence, won't make it any because they aren't coming to talk to you. easier. Shootings over the Memorial Day They're coming to shoot you.'" weekend killed six people and wounded McCarthy says he eliminated the CHICAGO MURDERS II, a high toll, but a drop from the more special warm-and-fuzzy detail because ARE MOSTLY than 50 killed or injured during the "every cop should be doing community BLACK-ON-BLACK 2012 holiday. relations. We should be able to walk and CRIMES These statistics are of little consola­ chew gum at the same time." What's 2013 tionto many residents of South and West more, the Lawson family are exactly the to date Side neighborhoods. When McCarthy sort of solid citizens caught in failing reorganized the department to attack circumstances that the mayor says he "one of the worst, if not the worst, gang is trying to help. Yet they don't trust his problems inthecountry" and reassigned programs, and they're not sure he is on Offenders: black 77%, Hispanic 19%, white 3% what he calls the "warm and fuzzy" their side. "The mainfocus seems to be the community-relations officers to street downtown area," Wright tells me, which patrols, some residents regarded it as a in Chicago means the businessinterests. OF OFFENDERS ARE hostile gesture. 15 TO 24 YEARS OLD ; This was clear inaninterviewwithPa­ A Wonk in a Hack's Body 44%OF VICTIMS ARE mela Wright andGreg Young, the mother IN A C IT Y OF ETHNIC NEIGHBORHOODS 54% IN THAT AGE RANGE and stepfather of Tyrone Lawson. An hon­ and tribal politics, Emanuel is a bit of ors student atMorgan Park High, Lawson, an outsider. For most of modern history, OF MURDERS IN 17, was shot to death outside a basketball South Siders have occupied the mayor's 2013 HAVE BEEN game in January. 'Jwo grown men have office; five mayors, including the Daleys, SHOOTINGS been charged; their motive remains un­ have hailed from the historically Irish 82% clear. It may have been simply a case of neighborhood of Bridgeport. Chicago's mistaken identity. first black mayor, Harold Washington, "He never, that I am aware of, had a came from the nearby African-American fight or an argument," his mother says. neighborhood of Bronzeville. Emanuel, "He was a big kid," adds his dad, "6-feet-3 the city's first Jewish mayor, was born in and over 300 pounds, so l suppose people Chicago butspent muchofhis childhood NATION I RAHM EMANUEL

• !, ~ ,, ;. t ,_. t •.. - . ' ~ -, I _ • ,~, .- . , . . 1 •

A mayor's gravestchallenge Police officers perform a roll call at agang hot spot in Englewood, left. Ondelee Perteet, right, whose spinewas struck by abullet in 2009, stands on hisown whilehis mother watches

in a prosperous North Shore suburb, colleges to emphasize job-skills training office. Tastefully decorated with pieces Wilmette. He's now on the North Side, and establishedan infrastructure trust to borrowed from the Art Institute of Chi­ living with his wife and three children allow privateinvestmentinpublic-works cago,the space is a reminderthatthis par­ in the leafy Ravenswood neighborhood. projects. All of these are popular ideas ticular hack was educated at artsy Sarah At age 53, with a nimbus of gray hair among some Democratic policy mavens, Lawrence College and won a scholarship and a fluffy pile ofmillions in the bank butno othermayorh as takenthem sofar, to the Joffrey Ballet. (made during a brief but incredibly lu­ sofast. Inadditionto hisshowdowns with The lessons learned from two very crative private-sector sojourn among theteachersandthe janitors,Emanuelhas different Presidents are also on display. friendly "investment bankers), Emanuel clashedwithconstituenciesrangingfrom The mayor seems to have picked up some is m ayor purely for the sake of being professors at the community colleges to of Obama's cool composure, and he still mayor. He's living his dream, and that Cubsfans perchedonthe rooftops outside keeps a close eye on the White House he dream turns out to involve potholes and Wrigley Field. used to run. He gives the Administration snowplows,garbage collection andsewer "It'snotastrategytheold Rahmwould high marks for its reaction to the rat-a-tat pipes, streamlining the permitprocess at have advised a candidatetofollow," he ac­ ofrecent crises. "Congress has a job to do the department ofbuildings and renego­ knowledges. So why? with oversight," he says of the hearings tiating the city parking-meter contract, Oneclue mightbefound ina bookthat onBenghazi,theIRSscandalandpossible not to mention wooing businesspeople Emanuel co-wrote with the influential overreachingby aleak-chasingJustice De­ to move to the Loop from places like NewDemocratBruce Reed,nowVice Pres­ partment. "Butifyouroversight becomes St. Louis and Cleveland. A mayor has to identJoeBiden's chiefofstaff. The authors overlypolitical,the publicgets turnedoff. sweat the small stuff. divided political life into two warring Not that this White House needs saving, But at the same time, he has taken on camps- not conservatives and liberals, but that's where the Republicans are sav­ someverylargeissues,thekindPresidents buthacks andwonks.Emanuel represent­ ingthe White House." give speeches about: education reform, ed the hacks: pols who play hardball to Emanuel also evokes Clinton in the job creation, unsafe streets. Revealing win elections but yawn at policy. On the way he rattles off statistics and peppers the stripes of a pragmatic, pro-business fifthfloorofcityhall, however,the mayor conversations with arcane details. And, New Democrat, the mayor lengthened has gotten intouch withhis inner wonk. like Clinton, he knows how to schmooze the school day for Chicago's elementary "I am a wonk desperate to get out ofa to get what he wants. "He's a more open and high school students, reorganized the hack's body" ishowhe puts itduring a re­ mayor than I'm used to," Alderman city's enormous system of community centinterview inhis large, wood-paneled Walter Burnett Jr. tells me. "He'll call up Casualtiesofthe street Friends mourn 25-year-old Deshaun Williams at hisfuneral; he was killed in a shooting outside a nightclub in Englewood. Leon Cunningham, right, r9 andparalyzed below the waist, was shotfour times nearhisfamily's homefrom 2009 to 2012 and say, 'Hey, Alderman, this is Rahm.' subjects- science, technology, engi­ Daunted he should be. Chicago's Rahm?!" After the Daley years, it's hard to neering and math-Emanuel decided problems are stubborn. The city's un­ imagine a first-name mayor. to adopt the idea, but at five schools, not employment rate was 10.3°/o in April, a At his best, hiswonk and hack tenden­ one. "Typical competitive middle child," notch below Los Angeles, but far above cies blend into a 21st century version of he shrugs. Microsoft, Cisco and other Houston and New York. The city's the classic urban boss. (Emanuel did once high-tech giants have joined IBM at the population is inching back up after a work for the youngerDaley.)One example: mayor's request. In a similar vein, he has decade of losses, but at the slowest rate determinedto steer Chicago's leading uni­ steamrolled past the complaints of tradi­ of any major city in the country. And versities into partnerships withlocal high tionally minded liberal-arts professors to his pet projects at the state capital in schools, he summoned their presidents to focus Chicago's community colleges on Springfield-pension reform and a Chi­ his office one byone. "Each of those college real-world job training for hotel and hos­ cago casino- are languishing. presidents has construction projects they pital workers as well as truck drivers. The Chicago Tribune recently scolded wantto complete," he explains. "I just told Changes like these, added to the ldn­ Chicagoans for turning on Emanuel sim­ themif they would help me, I'd have some­ ger school day he rammed through and ply for following through on campaign one walk their plans through the permit the promise of full-day kindergarten for promises. "By essentially doing what process." They all assented, though he all students, will finally give kids long he had said he would do- by pushing didn't have to say what might happen to trapped in poverty a realistic path to suc­ for better schools and imposing tough those permits should they refuse. cess, Emanuel insists. He hasrisked politi­ economies- Emanuel stoked grievances The mayor has a press release for ev­ cal backlash, he says, because he "will not oldand new," the paper noted. ery company he has lured to town- more shortchange our students." The Chicago way of resolving griev­ than two dozen- and will never miss a Business leaders are buying it. "I per­ ances is not to forget them but to fight photo op at a renovated branch library. sonally think Mayor Emanuel is just them out. That's what Rahm Emanuel He brags about the tech incubator he sup­ whatthe doctor ordered," said Jeff Smisek, will be busy doing for the next couple of ported in the Merchandise Mart, where chairman and CEO of United Airlines, years. And to borrow a classic Chicago an estimated 225 start-ups created some which has its headquarters in Chicago's line from the 1987 film The Untouchables, 800 jobs during the first year of operation. landmark Willis Tower (formerly the "you wait until the fight is over. One guy After reading in the Wall Street Jour­ Sears Tower). "He is willing to take on is left standing. And that's how you know nal about IBM's plans to create a six-year some tough issues and vested interests. who won." - W ITH REPORTING BY KARI high school curriculum heavy in STEM He's not daunted by them." LYDERSEN/CHICAGO