Whatever her faults were Byrne really is the mother of modern Chicago. In the ‘70s, the Chicago downtown area was a dead zone - people spent as little time as possible there. Byrne brought in Taste of Chicago and various other festivals that made people actually want to go downtown and live there. The modern day Loop is a world class thriving metropolitan area because of a process that she started.
Byrne was mayor during my more carefree days when I would frequently visit friends in Chicago and go carousing to the bars on Rush Street. When Byrne was mayor Rush Street was kept “clean.” When Washington became mayor, the change was fast and noticeable; Rush Street was overrun with black hookers. You couldn’t walk from a bar to the one next door without being aggressively propositioned three times.
It was not fun anymore.
Oh I agree. I grew up as a kid in Chicago at the time and think that she did a few things to make downtown a decent place - which went into full gentrification in the 90s. Did I lose my memory, but I seem to recall her winning her race for mayor because her opponent, who was part of the Daley machine, failed to shovel the snow off the streets after a rough blizzard? And we all know if you want to be mayor of that town you have to 1) pick of the trash and 2) shovel the snow off the streets.