Wrigley Expansion - Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs

Here's your editorial, Mayor

August 5, 2004

Because the Tribune is dedicated to a better Chicago, and because the fortunes of the city seem to rise and fall with Mayor Richard Daley's blood pressure, we're going to accommodate the mayor today. Here's the editorial about the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field that he's been demanding to see.

On several occasions in the last few weeks the mayor has claimed there's some kind of conspiracy of silence at this newspaper over the problems of falling concrete at Wrigley. Apparently he thinks the team and the newspaper are in cahoots because they have the same corporate parent, Tribune Co.

If concrete fell from City Hall, "you would have an editorial, right?" Daley said on July 21. "If something fell off Soldier Field, you would have an editorial. When it comes to [Wrigley Field], it is kind of quiet."

"You hide the news," he said.

"You have written editorials ... about [falling] terra cotta and [defective] back porches," he said the next day. "Now it is the responsibility of the Chicago Tribune to be honest and open to the men and women ... who are spectators in the confines of Wrigley Field."

The mayor was in fine form again on Tuesday when he was asked about Wrigley.

"They are the Tribune," the mayor said. "They have all the ink you want in the world, and they can write any editorial they want, but they will not look at themselves. This is an example."

We hide the news? We won't look at ourselves?

The Tribune has published more than a dozen stories and columns about concrete falling at Wrigley Field.

The Tribune was the first newspaper to publish a story about the structural issues at the ballpark.

When Cubs officials claimed that spot repairs had been made after concrete fell before a July 21 game--and then had to admit those repairs had not been made--the Tribune reported that.

No, this isn't about what the Tribune hasn't been reporting. This is about what the Tribune has been reporting.

The mayor's first complaint about the Tribune came on a day that he deflected questions about a Tribune story dealing with irregularities in a huge city garbage-cart contract. A politically connected company was cashing another company's checks and City Hall didn't know about it. Daley didn't want to talk about the Tribune story, though. He wanted to talk about the Tribune.

The Tribune has reported extensively over the years about City Hall cronyism, about cases like the indictment of members of the Daley-connected Duff family, who have been charged with collecting $100 million in city contracts by posing as minority business people.

That's what this is about. The mayor has a complacent and compliant City Council. The mayor has a complacent and compliant Democratic Party. No one in town has the temerity to question in public how he runs the city.

Except some members of the press, including this newspaper. And that seems to drive him to distraction.

Three pieces of concrete have fallen at Wrigley Field. No one has been hurt. Netting has been erected to protect fans from any more falling debris. Cubs officials were wrong not to promptly and loudly acknowledge the first incident of a falling piece of concrete. They were wrong to state that spot repairs were made on July 21, when in fact they had not been. Cubs officials have acknowledged those mistakes.

City Hall is right to push the team hard to ensure the safety of its fans. If the Cubs violate city laws, the mayor should address that as he would with any other owner of a major venue, no less and no more, no double standard.

But let's try to keep separate the concrete and contracts, Cubs and cronies.