“Kelly Lowenstein. How’d you end up at Hoy, dude?”
The author of this question was neither a Californian surfer nor
, but
, who was looking at the business card I had just handed him.
We were on the fifth floor of City Hall, down the way from the black and white framed portraits of Chicago mayors past like
,
and
.
The Mayor had granted us 10 minutes to talk with Arturo Vargas and him. The chief executive of non-profit group
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials
, or NALEO, Vargas was in town for
the organization’s 30th annual conference
that opened last Thursday at Swissotel.
Emanuel’s question came during small talk as our videographer
was getting the microphones and camera set up for our conversation. Looking tan and relatively relaxed, the mayor was sitting at the head of the table in the largest chair. (His people had told us before he arrived that we could sit anywhere but there).
I resisted the temptation to joke that, as a fellow Jew, he could well appreciate the irony of my working at a place called Hoy. Instead I explained my career transition from
to my current place of employment.
The information did not seem to make much of an impact on the mayor, who asked twice if we were ready to start.
Tino finished placing the microphones on the three of us, and we began.
After Vargas denounced the
Supreme Court’s recent decision
to strike down a key provision of the
, I asked the mayor to talk about the Latino community that had helped propel him to victory in 2011, but many of
in the face of his carrying out the largest schools closing in city, if not American, history.
Emanuel called Latinos a “vibrant part of the city” before asserting that Chicago is the most immigrant-friendly city in the country. He cited action on specific issues like
and the legislation that
signed allowing
undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses
, the post-strike agreement with the
for a longer school day and full day of school for kindergarteners and efforts of his administration to have the entire city government welcome new arrivals to the city.
I said that the continuing deportations of undocumented immigrants during the immigration reform debate have lead some in the community to question whether Chicago is indeed as immigrant-friendly as he maintained.
Emanuel replied that he opposed the deportations and pointed to his pushing successfully for an ordinance to be passed that
declared Chicago a “Welcoming City”
last September.
“It doesn’t live on the whims of a mayor,” he said. “Now, it’s city policy.”
I pivoted back to Mr. Vargas before Eve Rodriguez from Emanuel’s office said there was time for one more question.
I started to describe another concern we had heard from talking with people all over the city.
“You’re really in touch with concerns,” Emanuel said after emitting a high-pitched chuckle.
“We talk with a lot of people,” I answered while he turned to Vargas and said, “We’ve got nine minutes, three concerns.”
I said that many people we had spoken with say they feel he doesn’t care deeply about the people in the city.
More laughter as he started to interrupt me.
“Let me ask you a question,” Emanuel said. “How long have we debated closing the last two coal fire power plants in the city that affected the Hispanic children who live here? We debated it for 10 years, and I closed it within 10 months. Nothing has affected both Little Village and Pilsen community like that.”
I wasn’t sure when during his decade of serving as a North Side congressman and White House chief of staff Emanuel had joined the discussion about the plant closures. But I did know from
that he had helped created Exelon, which operates the nation’s largest fleet of nuclear power plants through
in 2000 while working as an investment banker.
“I think that shows a real concern to the depth of the family,” he said later before touting his environmental record and returning to the agreement he and the teachers had arrived at that extended the school day and year.
“I know what we have to do,” he said.
The interview ended.
I thanked the mayor for his time and extended my hand.
Emanuel looked as if he didn’t want to take it, but he did before turning and walking out of the door without comment.
Vargas’ handshake was decidedly more enthusiastic before he, too, left.
Tino took a shot of the poster with an image of Emanuel in a mock movie poster titled
He was deciding what else to shoot-I was rooting for a bat autographed by Cubs legend
– when another staff member came in and asked us to leave the room.
Another news crew was coming in for an interview.
I doubted that the mayor would also call the next journalist “dude,” but couldn’t know for sure.
Tino and I walked back to the room with the portraits, took the elevator down to the first floor and headed back to the office.
People interested in seeing the entire interview with Emanuel and Vargas can go
.
