New book explores Mayor Richard M. Daley’s legacy, both his successes and his scandals

Chicago (CBS) — For 22 years, Mayor Richard M. Daley has governed Chicago from his fifth-floor office at City Hall — always ensuring that Chicago is the proverbial “city that works.”

A new book, “The Daley Show,” examines the retired mayor’s legacy—from successes and scandals to influence and conflict. The book is written by Forrest Claypool—who served as Daley’s chief of staff and as the head of several city agencies.

Claypool said he wrote the book because the city has changed so much under Mayor Daley. Daley served from 1989 to 2011 — a year longer than his father, Mayor Richard J. Daley.

“I think his mayorship was absolutely transformational — and an extraordinary transformation of a city that was an ‘economic cripple’ in 1989; a city on the brink that nobody thought would turn around,” Claypool said, “and so people forgot about that and forgot about the lessons that make city government great — and we shouldn’t forget that.”

The book is not simply a tome of Daley’s praise. Claypool noted that it is a book of both merits and demerits — addressing scandals, torture in the Chicago Police Department and other issues that have negatively affected the city during Daley’s tenure.

“But I think overall, his 22 years were a remarkable transformation of a great metropolis, and I think it’s important to understand the lessons of that,” Claypool said.

Claypool did not interview Daley himself for the book, which was a strategic move.

“I intentionally didn’t interview him because I didn’t want it to be his story. It’s not his side of the story,” Claypool said. “It’s based on public records — and most importantly, the memories and observations of countless people who worked for him over the years; who worked against him — community leaders, activists, businessmen.”

The book’s driving force, Claypool said, are the perspectives, stories and behind-the-scenes anecdotes these various sources bring to the table.

Claypool noted that when Daley left office in 2011 — with the effects of the Great Recession still weighing on him — Daley’s own popularity was low. That was partly because of a controversial decision a few years earlier, when the city entered into a 75-year, $1.157 billion contract with private equity firm Morgan Stanley to take over the city’s parking meters.

As a result of the decision, parking fees increased throughout the city, with further increases set to occur over the next five years.

But Claypool said that in the 13 years since Daley left office, life in Chicago has deteriorated in a number of well-known ways.

“A lot of the great things he did have been eroded. I mean, the quality of life, the jobs and businesses that left the city, you know, the Board of Education — students and families are leaving in droves, record lows after he changed it, and they’re undoing all of those reforms. Violent crime came back — endemic — when he brought it to a 40-year low after inheriting something very similar to what we have today,” Claypool said. “So I think if we’re going to turn great cities around and have healthy cities, let’s look at history.”

Claypool noted the city faced similar challenges when Daley took office 35 years ago.

“The first thing Mayor Daley did was look at quality of life, because he knew businesses wouldn’t move here, people wouldn’t move here if there wasn’t quality of life. And the first thing he did was get rid of graffiti. He moved the homeless camps into shelters. He tore down the rundown housing and emphasized what we called maintenance issues — beautification,” Claypool said, “and that allowed him to start doing the more complicated things.”

Claypool said the more complicated issues included transforming Chicago Public Schools, tearing down Chicago Housing Authority projects that Claypool called a “cancer of the city” and replacing them with mixed-income communities, building Millennium Park and expanding O’Hare International Airport.

“It started with those basic things that we forgot about, that you have to do first, and then you can move on to the harder things,” Claypool said.

Claypool is also a former head of the Chicago Transit Authority, who is in business himself. negative headlines recently on crime and disorder. He said turning around the CTA will also require going back to basics.

“When I was at the CTA, for example, we installed thousands of security cameras and had police officers monitor them to combat crime, so I think that sense of security — just like Daley emphasized those kinds of policing issues to keep people safe in the community, and so at the CTA, I think that’s where you have to start,” Claypool said.

Claypool was Daley’s first chief of staff when the mayor took office in 1989. Four years later, Claypool became CEO and superintendent of the Chicago Park District — where he is credited with drastically cutting costs and expenses and expanding programs for families. Claypool returned as Daley’s chief of staff in 1996, and then in 2002 was elected a commissioner on the Cook County Board — a position he held for two terms.

Claypool also served as chief of staff to Daley’s successor, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and served as president of the CTA and CEO of Chicago Public Schools while Emanuel was mayor.

“The Daley Show” is published by the University of Illinois Press and features a foreword by political consultant and former senior presidential adviser David Axelrod.