Mayor Richard Daley spent Monday courting and lambasting the media at press events staged by his office to demonstrate his concern while he moves into his re-election cycle.
Stung by earlier criticism that he once routinely pushed the blame for the city’s public safety away from his administration and onto the back of the federal government, the mayor and his press office have been working to reshape his image and obtain news coverage.
Two stops on Monday, both dealing with crime, were part of a larger public relations pattern. Most of his events are chronicled by the working press as well as his own television cameras, which record Daley’s pronouncements for broadcast on his own cable TV access program.
First, he appeared before Marquette Park community leaders who are hoping to stabilize the Southwest Side neighborhood that was once a white ethnic enclave and help it change into a model integrated community.
Later, he stood with narcotics police and 36 kilos of Colombian cocaine that authorities believe was to be delivered to street gangs.
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Daley’s temporary rostrum was framed by blue and white police vans and the stack of seized cocaine. The 4-foot stack of drugs almost toppled when one mayoral aide tried to move it to make sure they were featured in the television shots. Police said the drugs were worth $3 million. By the time Daley spoke, he said the drugs were worth $10 million.
“We have an obligation to make sure that the public understands what Mayor Daley is doing, that he genuinely is concerned about these issues, that he’s fighting for the city and that he cares about the people who live here,” said Jim Williams, Daley’s press secretary. “Certainly that has to be communicated. We don’t deny that. And we look for the best possible way to communicate that.”
Since early December, following a Tribune series that said tens of thousands of residents flee the city each year in a run from violent crime and a failed public education system, Daley has gone on a public relations offensive.
At dozens of events over the last two months, Daley’s press office has staged a series of photo-opportunities picturing him with uniformed police, with smiling schoolchildren, at crime scenes and with community groups.
The mayor rarely strays from the message. Crime is the No. 1 issue in America, an issue he says has shaken politicians from coast to coast. And the city’s public education problems can only be solved by more state funds along with new stringent accountability standards for teachers and administrators, he says.
Another source close to the mayor said Monday’s events, particularly the drug seizure announcement, were crafted to encourage television news cameras to attend the news conference at police narcotics headquarters.
“There once was a time when all the television stations covered every mayoral event,” a senior administration source said. “Now they’re nowhere to be seen. We have to find a way to get our message on television. You’ve got to give them visuals.”
Earlier, Daley painted the media, and the Tribune, as an arrogant and negative force against Chicago and the city’s neighborhoods. The mayor made his comments at a community roundtable discussion in the Marquette Park community.
Residents were there to tell the mayor about the problems they faced in their neighborhood, particularly the high number of Federal Housing Administration foreclosures in the area-70-which left most neighborhood blocks with empty and boarded buildings.
Other problems include absentee landlords, the difficulty of marketing area real estate to North Side consumers and lack of code compliance by building owners.
Daley told the gathering that the suburbs have the same problems as the Southwest Side.