Backed by a 60-member choir and a giant city flag, Rahm Emanuel promised “a new day for Chicago” after taking the oath of office Monday morning to succeed retiring Mayor Richard M. Daley.
The former White House chief of staff and congressman was sworn in at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion in a highly choreographed event that seemed to blend elements of an Olympic opening ceremony, a state university graduation and a City Council meeting.
Although he paid homage to Daley, Emanuel’s 23-minute inauguration speech did not glaze over the magnitude of the task he will face, including a reference to the city’s population decline of about 200,000 during the past decade.
Amid the pageantry and the schoolchildren waving U.S. and Chicago flags, Emanuel quickly sought to prepare the city’s leaders and taxpayers for what he said would be a vigorous course of treatment for a city government that faces daunting challenges. The new mayor began his speech by repeating his campaign calls for reform.
“Today, more than any other time in our history, more than any other place in our country, the city of Chicago is ready for change,” Emanuel said as the 22-year, virtually unchallenged tenure of the city’s second Mayor Daley concluded.
Emanuel said his “new era of responsibility and reform” would improve schools, combat crime, attract jobs and deal with “the cost and effectiveness of city government.”
Referring to the gaping budget deficits that he inherits, the new mayor said none of his goals could be achieved until fiscal reforms are enacted, and he promised “hard truths and tough choices.”
But without offering specific details, he said his approach would not mimic the actions of Republican governors who have clashed with public employee unions in their cost-cutting efforts. Many in the audience clapped when he said his approach to the financial woes would “reject how leaders in Wisconsin and Ohio are exploiting their fiscal crisis to achieve a political goal.”
Still, he said, “We simply can’t afford the size of city government that we had in the past, and taxpayers deserve a more effective and efficient government than the one we have today.”
Before talking about his plans for his four-year term, Emanuel lauded Daley extensively.
“When Richard Daley took office as mayor 22 years ago, he challenged all of us to lower our voice and raise our sights,” the new mayor said. “Chicago is a different place today than the one Mayor Daley inherited, thanks to all he did.”
The comment prompted a brief standing ovation for the retiring mayor.
Daley and his wife Maggie had followed Emanuel and his wife, Amy Rule, and three young children onto the stage. Daley then formally convened what was, after all, the last meeting of the city’s elected leaders in his record-long tenure, stating, “The Chicago City Council will please come to order.”
The setting and atmosphere was much different than most council meetings, or even Daley’s own inauguration for what became his final term, which was held in the council chambers at City Hall in 2007.
The dignitaries who witnessed the historic transition of local power included Vice President Joseph Biden, three presidential Cabinet secretaries and seven foreign ambassadors as well as the new clerk, Susana Mendoza, City Treasurer Stephanie Neely and the 50 council members elected this year. Chicago’s other elected officials also were sworn in Monday, before Emanuel took his oath, and some of their family members and supporters in the crowd erupted in isolated cheers as their names were read.
On a sunny but unseasonably cold day, a crowd of hundreds stood in the grass of the flagship park built by Daley to watch the elaborate ceremony on a large screen that was erected for the occasion.
Cardinal Francis George, the Catholic archbishop of Chicago, recited the opening invocation, but Muslim, Baptist and Jewish clergy also participated. Imam Kareem M. Irfan, president of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, prayed for Emanuel and for the city’s “blessed fabric of diversity.”
DeJuan Brown, a Chicago Public School student who had campaigned for Emanuel in the February election, led the Pledge of Allegiance. Chanel Sosa, a senior at Innovations High School, read a poem declaring that Chicago “is more than just another Midwestern town.”
“We are hustlers,” Sosa said.
Emanuel has said that private donors will pick up the tab for the elaborate inauguration events and none of the costs will be absorbed by taxpayers. His inaugural committee sought private donations of up to $50,000.
Before the inauguration began, David Axelrod – Emanuel’s longtime friend and an adviser to Daley and President Barack Obama – said becoming mayor was supremely satisfying to Emanuel. Axelrod said Emanuel had talked of leading the city ever since he was elected to Congress from a North Side district in 2002. It was either mayor or speaker of the U.S. House, Axelrod said.
“His interest was always ultimately to come home,” Axelrod said. “If you grow up in or around Chicago, being mayor of Chicago is sort of, you know, the epitome of public service. He has been focused on this for some time.”
Axelrod said he strongly doubted Emanuel would ever run for president, as some political observers have speculated.
“My strong sense is that this is the last public job, at least elective office, that Rahm will hold. I’ve never seen him happier. I’ve never seen him more engaged … I don’t expect him to run for anything else.”
Axelrod said Emanuel’s calls for reform do not diminish Daley’s record.
“To say that we have challenges today that we have to deal with doesn’t in any way diminish the historic contributions that Rich Daley has made, but Rahm’s responsibility now is to look forward and address the things that are in front of us,” Axelrod said.
Daley’s legacy is intact, said William Daley, Emanuel’s successor as White House chief of staff and the retiring mayor’s brother.
“People will someday write that history. It’s not up to us,” Daley said. “But I think there’s no question his place in history, he will probably be the greatest mayor in the history of the city.”
In his first official act as mayor, Emanuel oversaw a motion to recess the council proceedings until Wednesday’s regular meeting, at the usual meeting place on the second floor of City Hall. The Chicago Children’s Choir broke into “Waving Flag,” the 2010 World Cup anthem, and followed that with “We Shall Overcome.”
The new mayor began more substantial business soon after, signing six executive orders to strengthen ethics rules. The first order aims to stop the revolving door through which former city employees became lobbyists by requiring new administration appointees to wait two-years after leaving before being allowed to lobby City Hall. Other orders banned city lobbyists from making campaign donations to Emanuel and aimed to protect city employees from pressure to give gifts to their superiors.
Emanuel later hosted a two-hour open house at City Hall, shaking hands with well-wishers at his exterior office on the fifth floor.
“We’re interested in politics and we’re looking forward to meeting the new boss,” said Lenny Cannatta, who waited in line with a friend. Cannatta said he works with an Italian-American business investor, though he didn’t plan on talking business with the new mayor. “I can’t imagine getting more than 10 seconds with him—just shaking his hand and saying, ‘Hi.’”
Ahead of Cannatta waited Juanita Salvador-Burris, who said she worked as an executive assistant to former mayor Harold Washington, who died in office from a heart attack in 1987.
“I know the position is very hard,” Salvador-Burris said. “I just want to wish him blessings and good health.”
Wrigleyville mainstay Ronnie “Woo Woo” Wickers, wearing a Cubs uniform and a sequined glove, presented Emanuel with a Cubs hat and a plastic bag containing more gifts. Emanuel quickly handed the hat and the bags to an aide, who took them to another room.
