Is Chicago really the king of unclean?
Mayor Richard Daley doesn’t think so. He lashed out Thursday morning at a study recently released by Reader’s Digest that calls Chicago the dirtiest big city in America.
“I am surprised,” Daley said. “Maybe they should just come here and look at it and live here.”
The publication, based in Pleasantville, N.Y., ranked five measures of cleanliness–air pollution, water pollution, toxic emissions, hazardous waste and the number of sanitation workers per capita.
Cities were ranked on a 50-point scale, with the cleanest cities receiving the highest scores. Chicago netted a lowly 6.71. Portland, Ore., the cleanest city according to the report, garnered a 44.
Daley wasn’t enthused.
“You see people cleaning up their block and the city workforce,” Daley said. “All over, we are constantly keeping the city clean.”
But while Chicago takes the cake for dirtiest, neighboring communities should take note: The report said Chicago “has excellent water but its score is brought down by problems in the outlying areas.”
And because scores are relatively ranked, the report states, last place doesn’t mean a city is “dangerously filthy.”
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