Mayor Rahm Emanuel deserves blame and credit for open government

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Updated: February 19, 2012 8:24AM

If I weren’t a jaded, cynical newspaper reporter, I’d swear I just witnessed democracy in action at City Hall on Tuesday.

As a matter of fact, despite being a jaded, cynical newspaper reporter, I’m pretty sure I saw more signs of democracy at work than at any time in recent memory.

There were average citizens making their voices heard in public meetings, and signs that the aldermen were listening.

There were aldermen making their voices heard and asking good questions, and signs that the mayor was listening — not only to the aldermen, but also to the citizens, albeit belatedly.

It wasn’t all neat and clean, and it’s not going to end up working out to either the satisfaction or benefit of everyone. But that will happen even in a normal democratic process, which hasn’t always been the starting point at 121 N. LaSalle.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel deserves both the blame and the credit for this unusual outpouring of open government, which all got started because he screwed up.

Emanuel proposed a flawed set of ordinances he thought would make it easier for the city to host the G-8 and NATO summits in May, failing to realize that in the process he would be seen as infringing on First Amendment rights to protest.

As 86-year-old World War II veteran Alfred Klinger told aldermen Tuesday, what this country needs are more protests, not fewer.

Klinger was among folks on both ends of the political spectrum who rose up in the past few weeks — the importance of the First Amendment appreciated by both the right and the left. Many went online to air their concerns. In turn, that gave aldermen the confidence to voice their own complaints.

On Wednesday, Emanuel came close to completing his capitulation on the matter by withdrawing his proposal to increase fines for individuals arrested for resisting arrest.

This came on the heels of the mayor last week modifying proposed restrictions on parades that had added to the perception that he was trying to limit dissent.

Our first red flag should have been when he got the whole business off on the wrong foot by mistakenly — or falsely — passing off his proposed changes as temporary. Temporary laws are almost never a good idea.

“You listen to people and you hear them…,” Emanuel told reporters Tuesday in explanation of his retreat, which overlooked the fact that if he would have talked to more people in advance he might have recognized the problems sooner and not found himself in this position.

Still, it’s not such a bad position to be a mayor who changes course instead of always bullying forward. He can sell this.

The mayor sent a cadre of administration officials, including Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, in front of a pair of Council committees Tuesday to finish the job of putting at ease lingering concerns about his plan.

They eased my mind about a proposal to change the opening time for city parks to 6 a.m. from 4 a.m. It turns out the change only applies to Millennium Park and a handful of other actual city-owned parks as opposed to all the parks operated by the Chicago Park District, which already observe operating hours of 6 a.m to 11 p.m. While a 6 a.m. opening still doesn’t make complete sense to me, at least it’s nothing new.

Less satisfying were assurances Chicago taxpayers won’t be left paying part of the tab for the city’s hosting duties. I would characterize those assurances as less than definitive, although I still expect the Obama administration will come through with the money in the end.

Protesters who had forced Emanuel’s about-face on the First Amendment issues seemed appreciative of the changes but were nowhere near ready to sign off on the finished product and urged aldermen not to try ramming it through at today’s City Council meeting, as the mayor intends.

The City Council was practically a three-ring circus of activity as cab drivers lined up to protest the mayor’s new taxi ordinance, and other residents came for a public hearing on the ward remap plan.

Some aldermen still hope to force a final vote at a special meeting Thursday on a compromise remap proposal even though its particulars have yet to be made public.

They’re still having some trouble wrapping their arms around this concept of good government.