This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Remembering Richard J. Daley

Interview transcript: James McDonough, September 17, 2003

Interview with James McDonough, September 17, 2003. RJDOH_01_mcdonough_james_20030917. Richard J. Daley Oral History collection, University of Illinois Chicago.

This page is referenced by:

City Beautiful, City Cultural
The mayor was very much involved, as is his son, in beautifying the city. So he created urban beautification awards. Every year, they would give plaques to different people who had won awards.

Jerome Butler, City Architect, interview excerpt, July 8,2002

A cleaner Chicago
We used to hand sweep the streets at night with a small crew in the downtown streets only. But it was a pretty wide area. Well, all of the visitors would come to Chicago. And these guys with the hand brooms would get between the cars. They’d get all the debris. If you went to New York, you’d see it all over. Well, people would come and they’d see all of this wonderful, cleaned up, downtown area. And they attributed it to being the same throughout it.

James McDonough, Commissioner of Department of Streets and Sanitation, interview excerpt, September 17, 2003

Silent footage (no sound) from a cleanup parade on State Street in Chicago:
Beautification
Well, one man that had a big business on Michigan Avenue came to him and suggested that he’d like to donate money to the city for the beautification and did. So Dick turned to him and he said, “No, the city has the money. I’ll tell you what you can do. We have the flower boxes. The city will donate those to the merchants for the streets. During the four seasons of the year, you businessmen can donate the flowers. That’d be a project for you people.” And they were greatly impressed with that. He didn’t just want the money to do it. He wanted to let them do it. They felt that they were part of the operation….But he always wanted the best.

Eleanor Daley, wife of Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, January 17, 2003

Public art
While Daley was mayor, the city commissioned famed artist Marc Chagall to create a public mosaic downtown. Chagall later wrote the mayor [translated]:
I have just received your letter of October 4. I thank you; and I must also express my emotion and gratitude for the warm greeting that you and your city gave me. I want to assure you that it is one of the best memories of my life. My wife joins me in sending to you and Mrs. Daley our most cordial sentiments.
Mayor Daley comments on the Picasso sculpture:
Making the City Work
Basic city services
One of his top priorities as mayor was to improve the delivery of city services to all of the neighborhoods and to all of the people of Chicago. When you look at the city’s Capital Improvement Program during his administration and the emphasis that was placed on constructing new facilities for every city department, you get a clear picture of the mayor’s priorities. As the City Architect, I had the opportunity and responsibility for the design and construction of these new facilities. New Police, Fire, Health, Senior, Community Service, Library, Streets and Sanitation, and Transit facilities were completed in neighborhoods throughout the city. All designed to improve the delivery of city services.

Jerome Butler, City Architect, interview excerpt, July 8,2002
William Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, explains his father's atttention to detail when it came to city services:
I think that you can see how development helps a community. That’s not only from providing amenities in that area that will serve the people long after it’s built, but also the jobs it creates to build that amenity.

Patrick Thompson, grandson of Richard J. Daley, interview excerpt, June 13, 2002
Watch footage (no sound) of waste management services:
Clean water
Those filtration plants are the lifeblood, not of the city, but of this region. Well, that wasn’t popular. It wasn’t popular at all. Build something in the lake? How could you do that? How could you even conceive that? But he knew that was right. He knew that we had to have clean water, if we were going to have cities in the surrounding areas. The foresight that he had was always, “What’s good for the city? And what’s good for its people?” Politically, at times, it was difficult.

Ed Bedore, City Budget Director, interview excerpt, May 18, 2009
Watch footage (no sound) of Mayor Daley inspecting water filtration plant:
Public safety
Daley expanded and professionalized police and fire services.
We re-did the headquarters. We built a communications center. We worked with O. W. Wilson in the reorganization of the Police Department and built a series of area headquarters, which were never built before, after Wilson came in. We started with the Area 4 Police Headquarters, then Area 6, and then the Police Training Academy. The city never had a police training academy until Wilson came in. Here’s the fire department. They never had a fire academy until Daley came in. They built a new fire academy.

Jerome Butler, City Architect, interview excerpt, July 8,2002
Watch footage (no sound) of Chicago Police Department services: In 1967, 23 inches of snow fell within 35 hours — the largest single snowfall in the city’s history. Businesses closed, roofs collapsed, cars were abandoned, and many Chicagoans were stranded.
We didn’t have the power. We didn’t have the strength. We didn’t have a good plan. We didn’t have anything. And Mayor Daley pulled it off because of his charisma on television, telling everyone how good we were doing. We really weren’t doing so good.

James McDonough, Commissioner of Department of Streets and Sanitation, interview excerpt, September 17, 2003
Youth and community engagement
The city had a number of programs for youth.

Services for the neighborhoods and the wards.
I was Alderman of the Ninth Ward from 1971 to 1979—8 years. The Ninth Ward, under the leadership of Mayor Richard J. Daley, received many important improvements including: a new library in West Pullman, a new grammar school in West Pullman, a new high school in Altgeld-Murray Homes, addition to Curtis Junior High School at 115th Street and State Street, building Chicago Police Department Area 2 Headquarters at 111th and the Calumet Expressway with a City of Chicago Court, City of Chicago Landmark status for Pullman in 1972, and a new roof for Hotel Florence in 1975.

Alexander A. Adduci, Alderman, interview excerpt, July 18, 2014
Introduction to City that Works Chicago owes much of its reputation as “the city that works” to Mayor Richard J. Daley’s administration.
I think [Richard J. Daley] made Chicago the most livable city in America. He paid attention. He stuck to his knitting. I use that word in our own business, too. He knew what they needed between neighborhoods, good streets, good highways, and water systems. And he did those things. He did the public works projects well.

James McDonough, Commissioner of Department of Streets and Sanitation, interview excerpt, September 17, 2003
On Daley's watch, the city prioritized neighborhood services. It added new garbage trucks, sewers, and street and alley lighting. It reorganized and enlarged police and fire protection. It furnished cleaner water with the Central District and the South Water Filtration Plants. The mayor oversaw city beautification projects. Examples included neighborhood cleanup campaigns and construction of one of Chicago’s first bicycle paths.

A number of city residents felt left out, believing that well-connected businesses and workers from favored neighborhoods benefited over others. Some critics charged that neighborhoods on the south and west sides, particularly those whose residents were predominantly black or Latino, got especially short shrift. But Daley’s defenders pointed to what they saw as the vitality of Chicago’s business and cultural life during his administration, especially at a time when other major cities suffered losses of business and population declines. Daley also revitalized the downtown Loop area. He urged national and international corporations to establish headquarters there and facilitated construction of many of the buildings that have come to define the city’s skyline. Among those were the Standard Oil Building, the Hancock Building, and the Sears Tower.

This page references:

Interview with James McDonough, September 17, 2003