Mayor Richard Daley's "Neighborhood Appreciation Tour" made another stop Monday, this time joining interim Police Supt. Terry Hillard to break ground on the new 12th District police station.
The tour, with stops so far at a Northwest Side women's center and Edgewater's Bromann Park, is meant to thank Chicagoans before the long-time mayor leaves office in five weeks, on May 16.
But really Daley is on a resume farewell.
"You have to have vision," Daley said on Monday, listing changes he made at Soldier Field, Maxwell Street and Walmart. As his days dwindle as mayor, Daley seems to offer comments a la stream of consciousness, no holds barred.
"It's easy to stop progress," he said about green-lighting Walmart in Chicago. "It took 12 years to build Walmart and now no one says anything."
"It's like ice cream," he said. "They want it now and they want it right away."
He rounded out his resume by throwing in praise for Millennium Park and said there were complaints as the park was built but "now it's better than sliced bread."
In the end, though, as Daley hands off the city to Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel, he says he still wants what's best for Chicago.
"I think everyone should be a public servant," he said. "I really believe in the future of the city of Chicago."
