The City That Works

It's time to talk about making Chicago work

Chicago is a great city. It's not a place about what's glamorous like LA, or what's buzzy like San Francisco, or what's trendy like New York. It's a place that cares about getting things done - the place that Richard Daley called 'The City That Works.'

But these days it often seems like The City That Works doesn't work particularly well. Chicago politics has long been synonymous with everything that can be wrong in government. Many years of mismanagement have left our city facing real challenges. Often these challenges aren't new or unique, and they're challenges other places have faced and solved. We need a city that's capable of facing and solving these problems too. A city that's capable of educating its children better. A city that's capable of protecting its people better. A city that's capable of managing its finances better. A city that's just, well, capable.

This is a blog aimed at understanding the challenges Chicago (or, in some cases, Illinois) is facing, and on what we should do about them. This isn't a neatly ideological question. It's not about bigger or smaller government, but about better government. In some instances, that means finding places we’re overextended and cutting back to be more effective. In other instances, it means finding problems we’re ignoring and doing more to fix them. And in some cases, it means doing the same things, but doing them differently than we are today. In all cases, however, it means figuring out why our government doesn't have the capacity to do what it should be doing, and what it takes to change that - so we can actually have a City That Works.