I have been witnessing the corruption while residing in the West side of Chicago and now the west suburbs most of my life. Some people think I am crazy when I say Chicago is corrupt. Well, now my opinion doesn’t matter. It is now a fact. According to the Chicago Sun time’s paper, Chicago is the corruption capital of the nation. If you live in the Chicago area, then you will in fact witness or hear about the corruption on a daily basis. For the people who do not live in Chicago, just listen to these names of politicians who have done corrupt deeds. George Ryan, Rod Blagojevich, Otto Kerner, and Dan Walker are some of the governors of Illinois who not only been charged, but convicted for corruption. There also have been 31 Chicago Alderman who have been convicted since 1973. There aren’t a lot of states that come close to those numbers in regards to convicted politicians or alderman.
Why Chicago though? Chicago is one of the top three largest cities in the U.S. There is a very large market for sports, celebrities, entertainment, and music. There are many prominent and wealthy people who live and have their business in Chicago (mainly the downtown area). Chicago is not a bad place. But with that being said, there is also a lot of gang activity and drug wars that take place in Chicago every day. Chicago has always been known for violence and corruption. Al Capone started the bootlegging business decades ago. The street gang called Vice lords were created in the cities’ West side area. The street gang Gangster Disciples’ was founded on the cities’ Southside area. Because of those few facts I have mentioned, there will automatically be some sort of violence and corruption. Chicago not only has crime, it has been the foundation for crime and holds its roots.
Chicago definitely deserves to be the called the corruption capital of the country. Our political leaders have proven this frequently by being caught up in political corruption. The constant happening of corruption may be due to political leaders keeping jobs in the family. Ive witnessed this quite often, when family members get jobs they are not qualified for they may have a tendency to follow in corruption. It has became a normal culture in Chicago politics to participate in corruption, no matter how high or low you are in power.
ReplyDeleteI never thought growing up how corrupt Illinois really was. As a child you never really think about those kinds of things. After everything in the news and all scandals lately it is pretty easy to see why Illinois is the corruption capital of the nation. It also makes sense why would be corrupt since we are the third largest city and have access to all different types of entertainment. Still, it is not good and doesn't look good for us as citizens.
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere that Chicago is the most corrupt city, and I didn’t actually read the article, because it definitely wasn’t a shock. Why do we think this is? Is it because Chicago is the third largest city in the USA so we feel the need to try to be on top?
ReplyDeleteI would first off like to say, Chicago is a great city, has many wondeful traditions, and historic markers, but on the other hand it has it's problem of corruption. I would like to say Chicago doesn't have a problem of corruption, but when Blagojevich attempts to sell the Obama's seat after he started running for president back in '08, it makes me wonder how many leaders or governors before the ones listed above that have been in some type of scandal. I mean the men mentioned in your blog, those are only the people caught or got caught up in their scandals. But yes, it has been true for some time now, but Chicago will remain corrupt until we get a new governor, but to back up chicago, there are a ton of other larger cities, that have corruption on a daily basis, it just hasnt been brought to the publics attention yet!
ReplyDeleteChicago is a great city with stupid people...
There are so many different contributing factors to what makes Chicago the great city that it is. Unfortunately, one of the main factors that is associated with Chicago, especially to those who do not live near and have never been to the city, is corruption. Its sad to think how overshadowing corruption stands now over everything else that makes it great.
ReplyDeleteI think what makes corruption so widespread throughout the city is the number of opportunities for it which exist. Being placed in a position of power could take a toll on anyone in pressuring them towards corrupt actions. In a city like Chicago which has so much to offer corruption can easily spread through sports, music, and entertainment all of which are big money industries. While there does need to be something done to address the issue of corruption within the city I really do not see it going away anytime soon.
I like to take a different perspective on this. Corruption is obviously a problem, but is it really just a problem known to Chicago? Maybe Illinois is not one of the most corrupt, but instead, one of the best at detecting corruption.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Andrew above. I don't think that whoever and however they went about judging the most corrupt cities was objective in their decision. Maybe I am bias because I love Chicago, but I am not willing to believe that the city is the most corrupt in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Chicago is very corrupt. One thing I find interesting and I was thinking about while I read this is that our current president was last in Illinois… But besides that, I think you made a good point that a lot of the gang activity and drug activity could have lead to all this corruption that we see. I think that a lot of politicians are already shady and just trying to get votes one way or another. When you put them into an environment where a great number of the people they are trying to get votes from are in corrupt markets then clearly they are going to need to become corrupt themselves to get them what they need.
ReplyDeleteI think we have multiple politicians in prison including a few governors that would agree that Illinois and specifically Chicago is a very corrupt city. Many believe that Chicago needs to be separated from the rest of Illinois and i would not be opposed to that. Money and pressures from Chicago cause politicians to make unfair and many times illegal actions in Springfield. When you look back at the Daleys you can see multiple connections to organized crime.
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