cuchulainn
June 24, 2003, 03:45 PM
from the Galway Advertiser
http://www.galwayadvertiser.ie/dws/story.tpl?inc=2003/06/19/news/35060.htmlDate: 19-06-2003
Chicago's first citizen to be given freedom of Galway
THE MAYOR of Chicago, Richard M Daley, will this month be granted the freedom of Galway city, an honour also awarded to John Hume and Pope John Paul II.
The honour will be conferred upon Mayor Daley at a special function in the Great Southern Hotel, Eyre Square, on Saturday June 28 at 11am. Daley will also receive an honorary doctorate from NUI, Galway.
Galway and Chicago are sister cities and the freedom is being given to Daley to acknowledge that. "This is an award of recognition and the highest honour the city council can bestow," city manager John Tierney told the Galway Advertiser. "Mayor Daley has made an outstanding contribution to the development of that relationship and also for his outstanding work for the Chicago public, including the many Irish people who live there and who have made it their home."
Richard Michael Daley was born in Chicago on April 24 1942, the fourth of seven children and the eldest son of the late Mayor Richard J Daley and his wife Eleanor. Daley and his wife Maggie are the parents of three children, Nora, Patrick, and Elizabeth. A son Kevin died in 1981 at the age of three.
A former state senator and county prosecutor, Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was re-elected in 1991, 1995, and 1999 by overwhelming margins. In that time he has earned a reputation in the USA for his innovative, community-based programmes to address education, public safety, neighbourhood development, and other challenges facing American cities.
Daley is credited with improving Chicago's public schools and obtained unprecedented control over them from the Illinois General Assembly in 1995. With a management team, he closed a $1.8 billion deficit by imposing fiscal discipline; made homework mandatory; ended social promotion of underperforming students; improved school safety; greatly expanded summer school, after-school, and early childhood education programmes; and invested $3.6 billion in capital improvements. Student scores on standardised tests have risen consistently since 1995 and passed national norms in some areas in 2002.
Under Daley’s leadership, Chicago’s community policing program also became a national model, with beat officers working with city agencies and neighbourhood residents to solve problems that foster crime. Courageously he took on the gun industry in an effort to stem the flow of guns into Chicago. The city and Cook County sued the gun industry for $433 million in 1998, accusing it of creating a public nuisance. Chicago’s crime rate has dropped every year since 1992. :barf:
Daley's focus on quality-of-life concerns has led to greater emphasis on the delivery of basic services, from removing graffiti, abandoned cars, and deteriorating buildings, to creating more green space and a citywide recycling plan. He tripled the number of available beds for the homeless and committed record resources to the development of affordable housing.
http://www.galwayadvertiser.ie/dws/story.tpl?inc=2003/06/19/news/35060.htmlDate: 19-06-2003
Chicago's first citizen to be given freedom of Galway
THE MAYOR of Chicago, Richard M Daley, will this month be granted the freedom of Galway city, an honour also awarded to John Hume and Pope John Paul II.
The honour will be conferred upon Mayor Daley at a special function in the Great Southern Hotel, Eyre Square, on Saturday June 28 at 11am. Daley will also receive an honorary doctorate from NUI, Galway.
Galway and Chicago are sister cities and the freedom is being given to Daley to acknowledge that. "This is an award of recognition and the highest honour the city council can bestow," city manager John Tierney told the Galway Advertiser. "Mayor Daley has made an outstanding contribution to the development of that relationship and also for his outstanding work for the Chicago public, including the many Irish people who live there and who have made it their home."
Richard Michael Daley was born in Chicago on April 24 1942, the fourth of seven children and the eldest son of the late Mayor Richard J Daley and his wife Eleanor. Daley and his wife Maggie are the parents of three children, Nora, Patrick, and Elizabeth. A son Kevin died in 1981 at the age of three.
A former state senator and county prosecutor, Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was re-elected in 1991, 1995, and 1999 by overwhelming margins. In that time he has earned a reputation in the USA for his innovative, community-based programmes to address education, public safety, neighbourhood development, and other challenges facing American cities.
Daley is credited with improving Chicago's public schools and obtained unprecedented control over them from the Illinois General Assembly in 1995. With a management team, he closed a $1.8 billion deficit by imposing fiscal discipline; made homework mandatory; ended social promotion of underperforming students; improved school safety; greatly expanded summer school, after-school, and early childhood education programmes; and invested $3.6 billion in capital improvements. Student scores on standardised tests have risen consistently since 1995 and passed national norms in some areas in 2002.
Under Daley’s leadership, Chicago’s community policing program also became a national model, with beat officers working with city agencies and neighbourhood residents to solve problems that foster crime. Courageously he took on the gun industry in an effort to stem the flow of guns into Chicago. The city and Cook County sued the gun industry for $433 million in 1998, accusing it of creating a public nuisance. Chicago’s crime rate has dropped every year since 1992. :barf:
Daley's focus on quality-of-life concerns has led to greater emphasis on the delivery of basic services, from removing graffiti, abandoned cars, and deteriorating buildings, to creating more green space and a citywide recycling plan. He tripled the number of available beds for the homeless and committed record resources to the development of affordable housing.