Rahm Emanuel, Locked in a Mayoral Run-Off, Removes 50 Red-Light Cameras
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Charles Rex Arbogast / AP Photo
Will Chicago voters see political opportunism in the mayor’s decision to reform the unpopular traffic enforcement program?
With Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel locked in a tight primary election runoff with Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, any big municipal move by the incumbent can be looked at through a political lens.
And so Sunday’s announcement by Emanuel that 50 of the city’s 300 red-light cameras would be removed from Chicago intersections was, not surprisingly, greeted with skepticism from the mayor’s April run-off opponent.
"I am confident voters will see this announcement today for what it is," Garcia said, according to DNAinfo Chicago, "pure politics."
Politics or not, automated traffic enforcement has been unpopular with many Chicago drivers and local officials, including Garcia. But the mayor, transportation officials and the police department have been talking up the red-light camera program’s impacts on improving safety on city streets.
In addition to announcing the removal of the 50 red-light cameras, Emanuel said that additional reforms would be coming to the program as well.
According to DNAInfo Chicago:
Reforms include adding a requirement for community meetings before red light cameras are removed, moved or added, including these 50, installing pedestrian countdown timers at all 42 of the 174 red light camera intersections that don't currently have them, and offering first-time offenders the option to take an online traffic safety class in lieu of paying the $100 violation fine.
Garcia has pledged to pull the plug on Chicago’s red-light cameras if elected mayor. “It’s time to end the red light rip-off,” he told reporters last week, according to the Chicago Tribune. “No more tickets.”
Will Chicago voters view Emanuel’s red-light announcement as Garcia does—a politically opportunistic move that’s “too little, too late”—or something that’s the product of reasoned data analysis and smart government? (The removal of cameras was based on a review of Illinois Department of Transportation data, DNAinfo Chicago reported.)
Chicago will know in a few weeks.
In the grander scheme of municipal operations, toying with a red-light camera program may be small potatoes compared to, say, garbage collection.
And deploying waste management improvements in the run-up to an election isn’t always a wise move when problems suddenly arise. Just ask Vincent Gray.
Last year, Gray, then the District of Columbia’s mayor, was facing a stiff re-election challenge from then-Councilmember (and now Mayor) Muriel Bowser. In the run up to the Democratic Party primary, Gray’s Department of Public Works distributed new residential garbage containers.
But DPW’s distribution of the new “Supercans” and removal of the old containers was haphazard and the subject of intense local media scrutiny for weeks.
Gray ultimately expressed his displeasure with DPW’s botched roll-out but denied accusations that the trash can deployment “had been accelerated to help with his ultimately failed primary bid,” according to Washington City Paper, which through a public records request, discovered documents describing the roll-out as having a “compressed schedule.”
Gray’s re-election prospects, with an ethical cloud hanging over his entire term in office, were already dim heading into election day. But a botched deployment of garbage cans certainly didn’t help him.