Chicago was going to change in 2011. That much was clear at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, as mayoral candidates had lined up to replace Richard M. Daley as Chicago’s leader. The night before, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis had dropped out of the race and stood behind former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun as the “consensus” black candidate.

But even then, it was pretty clear who was the favorite to win the city’s throne: Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s former chief of staff. Once officially in the race, he never trailed in the polls.

The only roadblock came from questions of his eligibility to run for mayor, and whether he had abandoned his residency in Chicago when he went to Washington, D.C. to work for the president. On Jan. 24, he was removed from the ballot by an Illinois appeals court, but that was quickly overturned by the Supreme Court.

So when the votes were counted on Feb. 22, the result was all but a foregone conclusion.

Some of the city council’s races in Chicago Journal territory were a bit more interesting, but very few came down to the wire. Despite being nearly invisible during the campaign as he battled tonsil cancer, Ald. Bob Fioretti fought off four challengers in the 2nd Ward — Genita Robinson, Federico Sciammarella, Enrique Perez and Melissa Callahan — and managed to secure victory without a runoff.

Ald. Pat Dowell defeated Ebony Tillman, daughter of her predecessor in the 3rd Ward, handily. Ald. Walter Burnett crushed his two opponents in the 27th Ward by collecting 71 percent of the total vote.

The only candidate with a serious challenge was 25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis, who couldn’t squeak out an outright victory over his opponent Cuahutemoc Morfin on Feb. 22, largely because of questions from voters about his connections to the ownership of the Fisk coal-fired power plant.

Solis was forced into a runoff on April 5 and eventually won with 54 percent of the vote, but he lost most of the vote in East Pilsen, particularly close to Fisk.

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But even though there may not have been much turnover with local politicians, much changed throughout Chicago’s neighborhoods. Here are a few events that made waves this past year.

It wasn’t long into 2011 when Chicago got slammed by one of the biggest weather events in the history of the city. More than 21 inches of snow fell at O’Hare during February’s Groundhog Day blizzard, shutting down Lake Shore Drive and stranding hundreds of drivers on the road — most of whom had to be towed out one at a time.

Snowmobiles acquired by the city’s fire department, which once looked like folly, proved invaluable tools for maneuvering through impassible conditions that looked more like Alaska than Chicago.

One of the hardest-hit buildings in the city was the Near West Side’s First Baptist Congregational Church at Ashland Avenue and Washington Street, which saw one of its large stone towers collapse and fall through the roof. That damage took the 140-year-old church’s sanctuary out of commission until Sept. 11, when the congregation returned to its home with a joyous ceremony.

The most interesting change in neighborhood outlook, perhaps, was at the far end of the South Loop, in the three-block stretch of Michigan Avenue known as Motor Row. In spring 2011, Ald. Fioretti began pushing for a new entertainment district on the strip between Cermak Road and I-55 and announced the goal of filling it with music venues, bars and restaurants.

A new microbrewery, called Broad Shoulders Brewing, is on board; they’ll be located at 2337 S. Michigan Ave. The rock ‘n’ roll band Cheap Trick has announced plans for a new museum-cum-entertainment venue, where they’ll showcase years of memorabilia and play shows a few times a year; that’s set to be located at 2245 S. Michigan Ave.

The year began with an announcement from Chicago Public Schools that a new school was slated to open up in University Village, an attempt to quell complaints from parents of young children in the neighborhood who were unsatisfied with the neighborhood’s existing options.

The school would be called STEM Magnet Academy, its name an acronym for the areas it would focus on: science, technology, engineering and math.

It opened in September at the former Thomas Jefferson Elementary Building at 1522 W. Fillmore St., with a ceremony emceed by Mayor Emanuel and schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, who trumpeted the new school for its teachers’ endorsement of a longer school day.

On Madison Street in the West Loop, a string of restaurants and bars is often crowded before and after events at the United Center — so much so that when the Chicago Bulls’ season was threatened by the NBA lockout, owners feared they’d be hit hard.

But one restaurant on the strip — Plush — has stood out to neighbors, who have insisted that its rowdy clientele was ruining the neighborhood.

So after three hearings with the restaurant’s owner, Billy Kleronomos, neighbors and aldermen Burnett and Fioretti, the community took action. The West Loop Community Organization spearheaded petitions to shut down the restaurant, and got enough signatures to do it.

In October, after a man was stabbed inside the restaurant, Kleronomos said he was planning on getting out of the business, cutting out of the lease early and giving the shop back to his landlord, who would turn Plush into a pizza place.

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By Snake from West Loop
Posted: 12/31/2011 2:48 PM

The saddest thing of 2011 was the election of US President wannabe, hypocrit and liar Rahm Emmanuel. He took money from the unions, then burned them. The majority of African Americans voted for him now he has taken away their political jobs so he can give his million dollar donors privatization. Still they cowtow to him and his entitlement map. The media has forgotten about the corruption and scandal of his floor leader Pat O'Connor. He is the worse thing that has ever happened to this city.