In 1981, then-Mayor of Chicago Jane Byrne took the unheard of and highly unorthodox step of temporarily moving into one of the housing units in the Cabrini Green Public Housing Project, a low-income, high-crime, drug-infected housing complex which was once described as “a slice of hell” in The New York Times.
Mrs. Byrne and her husband’s stay for a duration of three weeks took place in a fourth floor unit. The unit itself was modified so a secondary entrance was welded shut purportedly for the mayor's security. Mayor and Mr. Byrne were also guarded by a rotation of Chicago Police.
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In these days of politicians having second homes and travel allowances this seems all the more a strange tactic for a politician to undertake but in the context of 1981 it was an even more unusual action for a mayor to take. So why did she do it?
The primary reason, according to Mrs. Byrne was to demonstrate that this area was not as bad as its detractors were trying to lead people at-large to believe. Secondarily, it would prove difficult to claim to be a reformer making great strides against inequality when the city’s housing projects were deemed so dangerous and uninhabitable.
Cabrini Green, a stone's throw from the affluent Chicago’s Gold Coast; where Mayor Byrne coincidentally resided, was comparatively infamous for crime and urban blight had also become a byword for racial and class divides. The mayor attracted, and courted, the media who followed her every movement during her experiment. With this publicity Byrne aimed to publicize the inequality that plagued the city.
By moving into one of the most deprived areas she hoped to shine a light on the neglected side of the city and in turn hopefully prove that Chicago was a city worth investing in. In the final scenario, Mayor Byrne gained an almost equal number of supporters and applause for her efforts as detractors who dismissed her experiment as a publicity stunt.
Flash forward to 2018; Democratic Illinois Gubernatorial Nominee J.B. Pritzker is drawing publicity for having a multi-million dollar home deemed uninhabitable and thereby avoiding a tax bill on the aforementioned property. The Democratic Gubernatorial hopeful has been dubbed “The Porcelain Prince” in a new campaign ad by rival Republican and incumbent Governor Bruce Rauner running in rapid rotation on television, streaming services such as Amazon Prime and social media.
The commercial depicts actors playing the roles of movers, carrying multiple toilets out of a mansion. Mr. Pritzker has made the rounds in the media explaining, yet, not denying that he actually took steps several years ago to have the house in question deemed uninhabitable and quantifiable fact exists that he was the recipient of tax breaks due to the maneuver.
In the interest of equality, according to a Huffington Post article written by Robert Creamer, current Governor Bruce Rauner, personally received a $750,000 per year tax cut as a result of his decision not to continue the state’s temporary 1.25% income tax surcharge that expired in 2014.
“His taxes were cut by an amount equal to the annual income of 14 families of four making the median income. And remember that after adjusting for inflation, that median income number has not materially increased in about 35 years, since virtually all of the income growth resulting from the massive increase in worker productivity over that period has been siphoned off by speculators like Rauner.”
My idea isn't new or revolutionary. Following the example of Mayor Byrne, let's have the Republican and Democratic Nominees for Governor live in Chicago's worst low-income housing project for three weeks. Cabrini Green, however, is no longer an option for this, my proposed experiment, because it was torn down in 2010.
Nonetheless, I'm sure we can still find an ‘uninhabitable’ option among the existing Chicago Projects for the Gubernatorial hopefuls’ temporary lodging. Maybe then, Pritzker will emerge with an new appreciation of what the word ‘uninhabitable’ really means and Rauner will gain a new perspective on his yearly tax breaks, which happen to be over four times the annual median income of the people of Illinois whom he has represented for the past three and a half years!
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