Dan Ryan family ‘shocked’ by Bill Daley proposal to rename expressway for Obama

Mayor Richard J. Daley swears in Dan Ryan as Cook County Board president in December 1954. | Sun-Times file photo
For decades, two families worked hand-in-hand as the top political powerhouses in Chicago.
The Daley name is still synonymous with Chicago politics.
And while the name Dan Ryan might remind more Chicagoans of their daily commute than their political history, the former Cook County board president teamed with former Mayor Richard J. Daley for years to pave the way for the expressway that became his namesake.
So it came as a “shock and disappointment” to Daniel B. Ryan III on Friday when Bill Daley — the son of Chicago’s legendary boss — proposed removing his grandfather’s name from the highway after 56 years and renaming it in honor of former President Barack Obama.

The Dan Ryan Expressway looking north from 31st Street, several months before construction was completed in December 1962. | Sun-Times file photo
“I’m hurt. I feel bad that he didn’t try and contact us to see what we would think,” Ryan III said. “We feel very honored to have this named after our grandfather. Why would you take an honor away from one man to honor another?”
In his quest to become the third Daley to reign on the fifth floor of City Hall, Daley issued a press release saying “Chicago expressways are named for towering figures in out history: Kennedy, Eisenhower, Stevenson,” suggesting the 11.5-mile stretch of Interstate 90/94 should instead be named for Obama.
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The campaign statement noted that the namesake Ryan was a longtime Cook County board member and its president from 1954 to 1961, pointing out “that a forest preserve is also named for Ryan.”

Mayoral hopeful Bill Daley. | Rich Hein / Sun-Times
What the campaign didn’t mention is that Daley’s father was the one who chose the Dan Ryan Expressway name in the first place, according to Ryan III. It also was incorrect in its assertion about the forest preserve. The Dan Ryan Woods aren’t named for the same person as the highway; they’re named for Dan Ryan’s father, who also had a career in Chicago politics.
The Ryan family was a political dynasty in its own right when Dan Ryan took his late father’s position on the county board in 1923. Three decades later, as board president, Ryan was considered second in power only to Boss Daley himself.
Ryan helped lead the fight for a “superhighway” connecting interstates 90 and 94, but died unexpectedly in 1961. The expressway opened about 18 months later, on December 15, 1962.

Mayor Richard J. Daley (left) and Cook County Board President Dan Ryan (center) look at a concept model of a downtown development in September 1958. | Sun-Times file photo
For his widow Ruby Ryan — who was appointed to her late husband’s board seat with Daley’s support, and went on to serve for two decades — the expressway title proved a fitting tribute.
“It will run right past the home where he grew up, at 66th and Stewart,” his wife, Ruby Ryan, was quoted as saying in the front-page Sun-Times story about the newly christened highway.

Cook County Commissioner Ruby Ryan, Mayor Richard J. Daley and county board President Seymour Simon congratulate Theresa Waicosky, a Back of the Yards resident who became the first person to drive on the Dan Ryan Expressway at its December 1962 opening. | Sun-Times file photo
Ryan III recalled finishing a high school entrance exam and then hurrying downtown to meet his grandmother for the expressway ribbon-cutting.
“It would’ve meant a lot to him to know it was named for him. That was a true honor bestowed on him for all the work he did. It was the culmination of a great career,” Ryan III said Friday.

The Dan Ryan’s opening was front-page news for the Sun-Times in December 1962, framed here with the scissors and a strip from the ceremonial ribbon-cutting. | Provided by Dan Ryan III
“These families stood together for many years. I guess it’s been forgotten,” said Tara Ryan, the expressway namesake’s great-granddaughter.
A Daley campaign spokesman declined to comment on the Ryan family’s reaction.
Beyond political business, Ryan III said his grandfather and Richard J. Daley were good friends. He remembers the families taking in a 1959 White Sox World Series game together at Comiskey Park, and working alongside Bill Daley as pages at Chicago’s notorious 1968 Democratic National Convention, he said.

Cook County President Dan Ryan (front left) and Mayor Richard J. Daley (with mitt) attend Opening Day at Comiskey Park in April 1958. | Sun-Times file photo
“We did a lot of things together. We were old friends,” he said.
Since then, “everybody’s gone their ways,” according to Ryan III, age 69, now retired after a career in insurance. He suspects the renaming idea is a vote-getting tactic.
Ryan III insists he’s an Obama fan. “But you don’t change something just to change it.”

Three generations of Dan Ryan today; from left to right: Ryan III, Ryan V and Ryan IV. | Family photo
Less clear is whether the state legislature would get behind Daley’s proposal, especially after a stretch of Interstate 55 already was named after Obama last year.
“And I don’t think President Obama would ever want someone else’s honors and accomplishments to be taken away for him,” Tara Ryan said.
Representatives for the 44th president did not return messages seeking comment.
“I don’t want this to sounds like sour grapes,” Ryan III said. “Our family has been honored by this for 56 years, and we’d like to keep it that way.”
This is a typical Daley move. Screw over someone that helped you years ago because they can't help you in the future. Richie did this all the time. Old man Daley would turn in his grave.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous12/24/2018
ReplyDeleteThe old man was the best. Dead 42 years now and I think we still miss him. Richie was sincere in his caring for the city. He just stayed there too long. Got burnt out. Bill is also sincere. He will do the city good.
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Anonymous12/25/2018
Richie was sincere? How about Richie, when asked to respond to the 54 million his nephew Venecko got from the city employee's pension funds? His response to the Sun Times expose? "This is the first I'm hearing of it." Now if 2 members of the Mayor's cabinet sit on each of the City's 4 pension boards, how is it that none of them mentioned to him that his nephew stopped by and hit us up for 54 million? And if none of them mentioned this ridiculously speculative loan, who was it that initiated contact with the pensions to arrange the loan? Do you think the nephew may have mentioned he was looking for investment dollars and sidestepped Uncle Rich about hitting up the pension board for this money? In short, who made the initial contact, who arranged the contact, whose idea was it to contact the board for the loan? Richie got the big pass when this story broke. But his "this is the first I heard of it" response fails the smell test.
It smells almost as bad as Venecko losing all the money and taking a $9 million dollar fee for managing this fiasco. Can you imagine being behind such a huge failure, but taking a $9,000,000.00 profit for yourself and then stiffing the people you borrowed the money from?
No, Richie lacked sincerity on this scheme, and Uncle Bill, being the financial wiz with his financial and banking friends could very well be instrumental in setting the nephew up with the contacts to get this loan. So I don't know where he will do the city good. And frankly, I don't see anything in 8 years of the Obama presidency that merits a library, presidential center, a Tiger Woods golf course, let alone renaming an expressway that's already been named to honor someone else.
Daley the first ran the city, the other Daley's ran away with whatever they could get from the city. Bill Daley for Mayor? No Thank You.
The only thing the daley's care about is themselves.
DeleteThe headline over the article should have been BILL DALEY HAS HIS SPARTICUS MOMENT.
ReplyDeleteThis scion of the original Mayor Daley must be the Fredo of the family. For his litany of patronage appointments to federal jobs and private sector gift jobs, he apparently has no real sense of the Chicago constituency. Consider spending $57,000 on media buys and then pissing it away in one fell swoop over an attempted act of pandering to a black constituency that wouldn't vote for him if he renamed the expressway after any one of them.
Meanwhile, the middle class voter, already feeling disenfranchised of the idiocy and giveaways which have become the hallmark of what passes as the democratic party have had enough. Daley can flout his 3.2 million dollar campaign coffers, including the 10 grand he got from his grifting nephew who stiffed the City pensions but rewarded himself with $9 million for the royal screw job. You take a few steps back and have to think that after the old man died back in '76, the following generations offer a legacy of grifting, mismanagement, malfeasance crowned with a healthy dose of stupidity. And what lofty goals this man has for the city. Rename an expressway and bump the population up to 3.2 million...for what? Maybe to give each of us a dollar from his campaign fund.
Any chance of renaming the Civic Center .".The Barack Obama Center" ?
ReplyDeleteBill Daley's most memorable moment, next to this asinine suggestion about renaming the Ryan, fainting in front of the national press when former President and unregistered sex offender Bill Clinton named him commerce secretary.
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