August 23, 1999
Web posted at: 12:09 p.m. EDT (1609 GMT)

CHICAGO (CNN) -- On a beautiful Saturday in Chicago, you won't find this city's mayor on the golf course.

Richard Daley would rather be meeting with residents over breakfast.

He wants to hear their ideas and their gripes about the neighborhood -- everything from broken street lights to leaking roofs to loitering drug dealers.

He's a bricks-and-mortar mayor. In 10 years, his administration has spent $5 billion on physical improvements -- new roads, new parks, new trees, new schools. Daley watches over America's third largest city as if it were Mayberry, and points with pride to the results.

"We're showing that the city can have pride and that we can clean up our city," he said. "Why shouldn't we keep it clean?"

In February, Daley was re-elected to a fourth term with 72 percent of the vote. Supporters say that by focusing on the basics, the mayor again has made Chicago the "city that works."

Daley's brother, Secretary of Commerce William Daley, believes the key to Richard Daley's success is pragmatism.

"He knows that he can't solve a lot of the world's problems. He can't solve AIDS, he can't solve the global warming problem, but he can feel and make sure that people's quality of life is addressed by the city government," William Daley said of his brother.

In this way, Richard Daley is his father's son. Daley's legendary father, Richard J. Daley, was Chicago's mayor from 1955 to 1976 and presided over a political patronage army and delivered city services with ruthless efficiency.

Richard Daley came of age while his father was in City Hall. He was born in 1942, the eldest son among seven children in an Irish Catholic family. Raised in a white working class neighborhood on Chicago's southwest side, he and the other Daley sons got an early introduction into the family business.

"We were always involved," said William Daley. "Rich was active in the ward organization, the 11th ward organization, which was the base of my dad's politics. There were actual people who went door to door on election time. Rich would be one of them."

Daley's father persevered through the turbulent 1960s, but his image was nearly destroyed by the events of 1968. At the Democratic National Convention -- with the whole world watching -- Chicago police brutalized protestors in Grant Park.

Richard Daley decided to run for office a year later. He spent eight years in the Illinois Senate, then was elected Cook County's state's attorney in 1980.

Daley was elected mayor of Chicago in 1989, 13 years after his father died. The city he took over was radically changed, so politically divided, it was dubbed "Beirut on the Lake."

As mayor, Daley has made improving public education one of his top priorities. Shortly before he took office, Chicago's public schools were branded the worst in the nation by Former Education Secretary William Bennett.

"Most people thought I'd lost my mind," Daley said when the city took over the schools in 1995. "You know: 'This is a sewer system. You're not going to improve it.' "

But on Daley's watch the schools have improved. The city has built 16 new schools and added 1,000 classrooms through renovations. Social promotions have ended. Attendance and graduation rates are up systemwide.

Entering his fourth term, Daley has his sights trained on another of Chicago's monumental failures. Just like the schools, the Mayor wants full control of the city's public housing -- much of which was built when Daley's father was mayor.

In and around Cabrini Green -- perhaps the most notorious project of all -- Daley is pushing mixed income development. Condominiums worth $250,000 are sprouting up in the shadow of the projects, and people are buying. Many of the notorious high rises have been demolished.

Critics worry that the demolitions will leave the city's poor stranded, but Mayor Daley promises to find them new homes.

Daley said as mayor, he's in a unique position to solve problems because he's close to the people. And that, he said, is exactly where he wants to stay. Despite all his political success, Daley said he has no plans to seek higher office.

Monday, August 23, 1999

• Dole courts women's vote in California
• GOP candidates urge Bush to put drug question to rest
• Poor female-headed families lose ground during economic boom
• Election 2000 briefs
• Thurmond hospitalized again, will have prostate surgery
• Daley moves out of father's shadow, leaves his own Chicago legacy
• For first time since statehood, Kentucky GOP has Senate majority
• Clinton back golfing: Bad shots, good relaxation
• The first Clinton-Giuliani contest is for money
• Speakership changes Hastert's life
• U.S. Senate candidate Lincoln Chafee says he tried cocaine in college
• Clinton on saxophone: 'My Funny Valentine'
• Minnesota's governor returns to his wrestling roots

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