SUBSCRIPT: A 'shoveled already' project courtesy of the chief of incubation and innovation for America's third largest city. 'What trees to they plant?' asks Chicagoland mayor as Rahm's press team announces innovative and incubative use for the city's potholes
Chicago's technocratic and mediagenic Hollywood mayor, Rahm Emanuel, announced on April 25, 2014 an exclusive Chicago technological incubation. Rahm will be using the city's existing potholes to add to the city's greening. At a press release issued by the Mayor's Press Office on the day the Chicago Tribune exposed the fact that Rahm had dictated the content of Robert Redford's hagiographic CNN melodrama "Chicagoland," Rahm told the world that he would be planting 5,400 trees as part of the city's greeningly greener green programs.
Rahm planting an Arbor Day tree in April 2014. Nearly 50 years after an iconic Chicago mayor, Richard J. Daley, was quoted responding to critics by demanding "What trees do they plant?" Rahm was one-upping another predecessor without directly insulting the Daley family by name. In response to critics during the 1960s who said that Chicago was segregated with major ghettoes, Daley not only denied that Chicago had ghettoes, but demanded of the media "What Trees Do They Plant?" As Daley's critics continues to complain about the growing problems of Chicago's inner city, Daley defiantly ignored them, while an army of supported formed a chorus supporting his claims.
But the Chicago of 1968 was ancient history when compared with the Chicago of 2014, and Rahm Emanuel, unlike Richard J. Daley, can count on a Hollywood crew to adulate his every move. The latest announcement fits into the mayor's clean, green and mean version of reality. That fictionalized image was lately featured in the Robert Redford CNN production "Chicagoland." With the help of Rahm's huge personal propaganda team (called "The Mayor's Press Office"), Hollywood scripted the Rahm story in order to prepare the USA for Rahm's nomination for the vice presidency. After all, Hillary would need a serious running mate with a clear record of austerity politics and neo-liberal success in Wall Street.
Left out on Arbor Day for later announcement was the fact that the mayor would only be planting those trees in two of the city's wards, the 45th on the Northwest Side and the 19th on the Southwest Side.
Shovel ready in time for Rahm's Arbor Day celebration. The official reason is that the total number of "shoveled already" potholes in the streets of just those two wards. The mayor refused to comment when a reporter tried to ask why only two wards were chosen, but a mayoral source, on condition of anonymity, noted that there were more than 5,400 potholes remaining in the 19th and 45th Wards a month after the city's last snowfall of the Winter of 2014.
Mayoral supporters, including Chicago magazine and N'Digo, said the mayor was insulted that anyone would suggest that the pothole redemption program was being planned for the 19th Ward because its citizens had not voted for Emanuel in the 2011 election and the 45th Ward because its alderman is one of the leaders of the City Council's tiny but vocal "progressive caucus."
Mayoral aides who spoke on the condition that they never be asked for their email records under Open Records requests said that the press conference at the Dore Elementary School on Chicago's Southwest Side on April 25 where six sample trees were displayed was an example of how coyly Chicago is handling its innovative incubations as the mayor approaches the third anniversary of his May 2011 inauguration. "If we had showed these trees being planed in the already existing holes across the selected wards," one source said, "the dramatic impact of the final product would have been ruined." Another noted that it would have been like reporting that Fenger High School had gotten hundreds of trees and new landscaping during the year after the world-famous murder of student Derrion Albert, or like correcting the historical record from "Chicagoland" to note that the kid was actually murdered a half mile northeast of the school,, and not at the school as current mythologies claim.
Aldermen from other parts of the city quickly responded with praise for the latest innovative and incubationist initiative by the Emanuel administration. Alderman Carrie Austin, who chairs the City Council Black Caucus, said that the green potholing program was another example of the fact that Emanuel's policies were not racist. Alderman Emma Mitts told supporters that the Lord had sent Rahm to innovate Chicago's way out of the pothole problem, while Alderman George Cardenas said that the pothole program was another example of why his Southwest Side community needed more charter schools.
THE CITY HALL PRESS RELEASE OF APRIL 25, 2014 FOLLOWS:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. April 25, 2014. MAYOR EMANUEL ANNOUNCES CITY TO PLANT 5,400 TREES IN NEIGHBORHOODS ACROSS CHICAGO IN 2014
Contact: Mayor�s Press Office?312-744-3334. press@cityofchicago.org
CDOT, DSS Celebrates Arbor Day with Tree Planting Around Southwest Side Elementary School
At an Arbor Day celebration today, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the City will plant about 5,400 trees in neighborhoods across Chicago this year through various programs and projects in the �Building a New Chicago� infrastructure investment program.
�Chicago was one of the first cities where planting trees and urban forests were part of the City�s plan and design,� said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. �Not only do trees beautify our neighborhoods, but they clean our air, provide shade, and improve our quality of life to make our City in a Garden an even better place to live.�
The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and Department of Streets and Sanitation celebrated Arbor Day today with the planting of seven trees in the parkway around John C. Dore Elementary School, 6108 S. Natoma Ave. �The planting of trees is an important part of any infrastructure investment, and our many streetscape and development projects this year will be enhanced with new greenery,� said CDOT Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld. �Planting and protecting our trees is an important part of creating a greener Chicago for our future.�
CDOT will plant more than 2,600 trees this year, at an estimated cost of $1.6 million, through various infrastructure improvement projects. In 2014, the Department of Streets and Sanitation will spend approximately $2.9 million for tree inoculation, removal and the planting approximately 2,800 trees. �The Department of Streets and Sanitation is committed to maintaining the health and vibrancy of 500,000 Chicago parkway trees,� said Commissioner Charles Williams. �We will continue to plant diverse tree species throughout the City and inoculate all viable Ash trees on city parkways against the Emerald Ash Borer.�
At Dore Elementary, CDOT is planting three Swamp White Oaks, three Princeton Elms, and one Kentucky Coffee tree. All three tree species are hardy to Chicago and the Midwest climate, and can be found elsewhere along the streets of Chicago. Chicago has an estimated 3.5 million trees on both public and private property, which cover more than 17 percent of the area, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Chicago�s urban forest removes about 25,000 tons of carbon per year and about 900 tons of air pollution annually.
By: John Kierig
'Shovel ready' when Rahm speaks his _ _
During another local or national media puff piece, I start looking around for a shovel. When rahm speaks, the b.s. gets pretty deep.