Forget legendarily corrupt city officials and the baneful influence of Prohibition, including those who aspire to Al Capone's throne: Chicago's problems are caused by local taverns:
CHICAGO (AP) — Taverns and booze are entwined with Chicago's history and lore — from Al Capone's bootlegging empire to the tavern owner whose curse on the Cubs is blamed for keeping them out of the World Series for a half century. But the dark, cool watering holes where for decades laborers dropped by for a belt on the way home are drying up.The city that once boasted as many 7,600 taverns in the early 1900s has just over 1,300 today. Now Mayor Richard Daley is pushing an ordinance that would make it easier to close taverns — the latest volley in a battle against the kinds of liquor-selling establishments that some say are magnets for everything from prostitution to littering.
Add to that rapidly changing neighborhoods and a growing number of upscale residents who'd rather see a bistro than a bar on the corner, and it keeps getting tougher to find an honest-to-goodness bar to belly up to.
The neo-Prohibitionists we have always with us, it seems. Just remember: no matter what's wrong with your own life or with your community, the solutiion is, always and everywhere, more controls, more regulation, more power to government, more coercion.
Yeah, that's worked out so well everywhere else...