EDITORIAL: Politics aside, renaming Dan Ryan Expressway for Obama has appeal (so does renaming the Sun Times the Obama Times)
Dan Ryan sits to Mayor Richard J. Daley's left at a press conference in 1961. | Sun-Times file photo
Bill Daley, who is running for mayor, is playing politics in proposing that the Dan Ryan Expressway be renamed to honor former President Barack Obama.
He’s also on to a good idea.
Daley’s primary motivation is obvious: He’s trying to score points with African-American and liberal Democratic voters. But Daley also was once Obama’s White House chief of staff, so it’s only natural that he would champion Obama’s legacy.
EDITORIAL
And, frankly, what matters more than where the idea came from is the idea itself — and it’s an appealing one.
With all respect to the descendants of Dan Ryan, almost nobody driving that South Side expressway today knows who he was. Nor should they. Cook County board presidents, which is what he was, come and go.
It makes entirely good sense, whatever the hassles, to rename the expressway for the only American president ever to call Chicago his hometown — and an admired and historic president at that. It’s just a matter of time before Chicago honors Obama in some big way, really putting his stamp on the geography of the city, and renaming a major expressway would be one appropriate way.
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A couple of things should happen first:
* The state should rescind the naming of a stretch of I-55 — outside Chicago — for Obama. Two roads with the same name within proximity of each other makes no sense.
* A full airing of the renaming proposal should be conducted in both Chicago and Springfield. Let’s hear all arguments for and against it. Let’s be sure it reflects the popular will. Let’s avoid a replay of the closed-door process by which the Obama Presidential Center found a home in a city park.
Once that’s done, though, it’s apparently a straightfoward matter to rename an expressway. As Alexandra Arriaga reported in the Sun-Times, it can be done by gubernatorial proclamation, legislative resolution or designation from the transportation secretary.
Chicago expressways, as Daley said in a press release, should be named for “towering figures” such as President John F. Kennedy and Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson.
Barack Obama belongs to that club; Dan Ryan not so much.
Daniel B. Ryan was president of the county board from 1954 to 1961, dying while in office. His good pal, Mayor Richard J. Daley — Bill Daley’s father — arranged to have the expressway named in his honor the next year.
As it happens, there also is a Dan Ryan Forest Preserve in Chicago. It was named for the father of the expressway Dan Ryan, who also was a member of the county board.
Maybe the Southwest Side forest preserve, as a sort of consolation prize, could be renamed — for both the father and the son.
Send letters to: letters@suntimes.com.
First off, Obama isn't from Chicago, no matter how many White Sox caps he owns. Secondly, naming public spaces after him assumes his leadership positions include some demonstration of leadership. Instead we have Obamacare, we have weaponizing government agencies like the IRS to target Tea Party members, the FBI and CIA spying on private citizens, his participation with Hillary and her private emails, his security adviser creating the fiction about the Benghazi attacks that killed an Ambassador, $150 billion in cash delivered to Iran, 2 inept Secretaries of State, one telling Iran how to sidestep government imposed sanctions (Kerry) and the other selling out 20% of our uranium supply to Russia while stuffing their pockets with huge speaking fees for doing so. His longtime pastor Jeremiah Wright damning the United States and his personal associations with Weatherman terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn (now somehow legitimized though unapologetic about their roles in bombings in the 70's that killed innocent people). Lets not forget his Attorney General who refused to cooperate with a Congressional investigation regarding the Fast and Furious debacle. Then there was his role in perpetuating the "Hands up Don't Shoot fiction of Ferguson, Missouri, or his take on Travon Martin. And those are only instances that have come to the surface. He's already encroached upon Chicago Park District property to have a Center, not a Library named after him. We'll be on the hook for infrastructure costs and the center itself will be privately run and presumably a profit making venture. No, name our public spaces after public figures who put in the time and effort to improve our community. Imagine, an Obama library, a facility whose content would only contain fiction.
ReplyDeleteAmen. The color of his skin makes him a god to liberals no matter how much he hated white men and Christians.
DeleteGive him a small side-street in Englewood.
ReplyDelete2 comments- First, Why do politicians focus on this inane garbage? Do they think we are that stupid? Second- Just wait for Obama to throw his hat into the ring of the mayor's race. He'll be making more money than being President.
ReplyDeletePRAISE THE LORD.
ReplyDeleteStopped buying the Sun Times when maywood park closed. No other reason except for the horse racing line from Tom Krish.
ReplyDeleteI advocate renaming Cook county "Crook County"
ReplyDelete