ML - Michigan Avenue

2012 - Issue 3 - April/May

Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!

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A photo of former Mayor Anton Cermak— Chicago's first and only immigrant mayor— seated at his desk, which is the same desk Mayor Emanuel uses. Ivo Daalder. He's one himself. "It's what makes America unique. And that's what Chicago brings. I think it is so appropriate not only to come to the hometown of the president, which is why the pres- ident really wanted to do this, but to come to a place that is truly America." Or the most American of American cities, which is what Mayor Emanuel has taken to call- ing it. Getting them here—for the summit, a business meeting, a vacation—is clearly, in his mind, just most American the beginning. "Besides being the of American cities," says Chicago's first immigrant mayor. O Ari, Emanuel, "we are the only inland city with an international economic footprint because of geography and transportation. We have major Fortune 100 companies based here that have international economic footprints. Our exports are actually growing. And if I can move us from 10 to nine, that's a billion-three [dollars]. You got another billion-three you wanna lend me? Okay, I've gotta take it from tourists." ur press-wary mayor's pretty relaxed at this point. He's open, unguarded, takes his time giving a tour of the office. There's a framed to-do list from President Obama, checking off their White House accom- plishments. As chief of staff, Emanuel had a reputation for being coarse, profane, aggres- sive—the administration's street fighter. Looking over the photos and mementos, he's none of these things. Standing amid the trappings of a career in public life, he opens up about his private one. "My grandfather—maternal—came here in 1917. Thirteen years old, from the Russian-Romanian border, by himself to meet a third cousin that he never met in the old country." He was a Chicago union organizer. "My father [who was born in Jerusalem] settled here in 1959, grew up here. My father barely spoke English when he started prac- ticing medicine," he says. "There's a bit of an immigrant culture instilled. On my family wall are the pictures of relatives who never made it to this country. There's nothing subtle in a Jewish family. It's my mother and father's way of reminding us: You're here, it's fortunate, others never made it, don't screw it up or we'll beat the hell outta ya. And then they drove us to do something with our lives." And so they did. The story of younger brother famed Hollywood agent, is well-known. Older brother Zeke is a celebrated author and bio- ethicist who may hold the key to a system for universal healthcare. ("We argue about that all the time," the mayor says.) They speak every day. Photos of wife Amy and their three children are everywhere. There's a math text on a table, space set aside for the kids to do homework. There's also 104 michiganavemag.com "First of all," President Clinton replies, "I liked him 'cause our campaign was broke, and he was a genius at raising money—even as a young person without any money himself. I liked him because people said I was too young to run for president and I was too ambitious, and Rahm made me look laid-back and passive." That line gets the former president a big laugh. He goes on. "When he was very young—before he ever got elected to anything—Rahm was good at figuring out how to take a good idea and turn it into real change. Lots of people can think and even more people can talk. Not everybody can do. The doing makes all the difference." Not that the mayor doesn't like to talk. He loves to crack wise—especially on points of civic pride, or that Clintonesque dis- tinction between talking and doing. During our cover shoot, he listens as a New Yorker raves about the Chicago sky- line. "But I still love New York," she quickly adds. "That's the thing about you New Yorkers," the mayor "Always fires back. talking about how much you love your city. Here in Chicago, we just do." MA The last occupant of this office took his desk with him. It was Richard M. Daley who, in 1989, realized the potential of his aggressive chief fundraiser—a not-yet-30 Emanuel— passing him along to a presidential candidate from Arkansas. Bill Clinton campaigned for Emanuel when he ran for Congress in 2002 and mayor in 2011. Eighty days away from the NATO summit, he comes back, announcing a billion-dollar trust to improve Chicago's infrastructure. At that press conference, he's asked what he saw in his young protégé. a clear yet invisible line, drawn long ago by the mayor with the media— his family did not choose the spotlight. Then he's back at work, on the phone, a foot propped on a desk used in the 1930s by Anton Cermak, father of the city's Democratic political machine and Every day, Mayor Emanuel wears his heart on his lapel: a pin of the Chicago flag. A paperweight on his desk underscores the mayor's belief that Chicago is the "most American of American cities."

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