Abstract

The Lawless Air

For its celebration of Cleaner Air Week, Chicago, Illinois, pollution control agency rounded up a dozen tots at the Civic Center Plaza, gave them bright balloons, and sent them off to stand next to executives for the major polluting industries, posing for promotion photographs in front of painter Pablo Picasso's renowned sculpture, an entirely suitable backdrop, since its dusky color is a patina caused by seriously polluted air. The administration of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley fights pollution lackadaisically, at best. Although Chicago's control ordinance is comprehensive, its penalties are weak, and they are rarely invoked. The politics of Chicago's pollution efforts show a good deal of the other side of the law-and-order corn in Mayor's realm.