Cuddy/Daley
By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 2, 2009 3:20PM
WBEZ's Alison Cuddy sat down for a one-on-one with Mayor Daley and while we can't say she was soft on Daley, there are no major revelations in the interview. Daley defends his decision to dip into the parking meter fund for the 2010 budget; when asked how that money will be replaced, Daley simply says, "You replace money as the economy gets better," and then makes a joke about praying for the economy to get better. On the subject of TIFs, the Mayor said, "Most TIF funds don't generate any money." And on the topic of TIF transparency, Daley chuckles when Cuddy mentions the Chicago Reader and then seems to brush off the question with a less-than-genuine answer. Not that we're surprised. On the subject of privatizing other city assets, Daley side-stepped the question, saying, "There's no market. If there's no market, you cannot lease a public asset," as if to imply, "No." Which we don't believe as getting fair market value for the asset never seemed to be Daley's main concern. Other topics tackled include his approval rating and youth violence, on which Daley still manages to find a way to blame the media for something.
There were moments when we felt Cuddy was primed to push Daley hard on some of his answers - and in one or two places she did - but it felt like she mostly backed down. Not that we could have expected MayDay to admit any mistakes or to let slip any city secrets. Still, we felt Daley was never outside of his comfort zone.