Formation | 1903 |
---|---|
Type | Non-Profit |
Purpose | foster civic responsibility, promote public issues, and provide a forum for open political debate |
Headquarters | 400 N. Michigan Ave, Suite 1018, Chicago, IL 60611 |
Region served | Chicago (United States) |
Website | cityclub-chicago.org |
The City Club of Chicago is a 501 (c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit membership organization intended to foster civic responsibility, promote public issues, and provide Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois with a forum for open political debate. The organization attracts those interested in civic responsibility, public issues, politics and networking opportunities. Affiliates of the club include prominent business, civic, and governmental leaders in Chicago. Founded in 1903, it is the longest-running public policy forum in Chicago.
The City Club has boasted such prominent members as Jane Addams, Ruth Hanna McCormick, Louise DeKoven Bowen, Richard J. Daley, Henry Horner, George Herbert Mead, Charles Edward Merriam, Harold Ickes, and Louis Sullivan.
When the City Club began, it operated amidst adverse social and working conditions. Chicago had the dubious honor of being labeled a notorious city in terms of politics. The City Club took a leadership role in initiating political change in Chicago by establishing committees to investigate and report on aspects of local government and public policy. One of the most notable probes conducted by the City Club was its 1904 "Piper Report," which took a critical look at the operations and conduct of the Chicago Police Department. [1]
By 1913, membership included more than 2,400 individuals. Membership increased shortly thereafter, upon merging with the Women's City Club of Chicago, its sister organization. [2] However, following the Second World War and the Post-War Period, membership began to decline. When then-Mayor Richard J. Daley died in 1976, membership numbered as low as 60. That year also marked a turning point for the organization. Under the direction of Larry Horist and Tom Roeser, membership began to steadily rise throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. [3] At the end of 2017, membership totaled some 2,200 members - close to its 1913 high. While times have changed and issues have morphed since its inception, the City Club is still committed to addressing the problems of the Chicago metropolitan area and engaging in productive dialogue with its constituents.
The City Club of Chicago's crusading spirit inspired the founding of unaffiliated City Clubs in other major cities, including Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Seattle and San Diego.
All City Club of Chicago events are open to the public and feature some of the most well-known and influential figures of the day. As a non-partisan public affairs forum, the City Club hosts figures of all political ideologies and backgrounds. Such speakers include: Pres. Donald Trump, Pres. Barack Obama, Sen. Richard Durbin, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Governor Pat Quinn, Mayor Richard M. Daley, former Sec. of Education Arne Duncan, Lt. Gov. Corrine Wood, DuPage County Board Chairman Daniel Cronin, Vice President Mike Pence, and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan. [4] [5]
While political and civic affairs is a guiding tent of the programming, in recent years, the City Club of Chicago has diversified its array of guests. The organization has started bringing in leaders in the fields of technology, infrastructure, business, science, cuisine, culture, sociology, education, and non-profit organizations. Speakers include Rick Bayless, Mike Ditka, Tom Ricketts, Anne Pramaggiore, Wick Moorman, Dr. John Jay Shannon, Karen Lewis, and Howard Tullman. [6] The City Club hosts thematic panels and forums targeting contemporaneous cultural, social, and political events. From panels explicating federal legislation and analyzing national sociocultural trends to the events on the local Chicago Architectural Biennial, the City Club endeavors to present a wide variety of themes and issues apart from those purely political.
Events consist of a reception, main event, and question and answer section, and can come in the form of a debate, forum, speech, or panel. The City Club produces anywhere between 75 and 100 events per year, including Luncheons and Breakfasts. Events are live-streamed and archived online so that any member of the public can access them.
Richard Joseph Daley was an American politician who served as the mayor of Chicago from 1955, and the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party Central Committee from 1953, until his death. He has been called "the last of the big city bosses" who controlled and mobilized American cities. Daley was Chicago's third consecutive mayor from the working-class, heavily Irish American South Side neighborhood of Bridgeport, where he lived his entire life. He was the patriarch of the Daley family, whose members include Richard M. Daley, another former mayor of Chicago; William M. Daley, a former United States Secretary of Commerce; John P. Daley, a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners; and Patrick Daley Thompson, a former alderman of the Chicago City Council.
Richard Michael Daley is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term. At 22 years, his was the longest tenure in Chicago mayoral history, surpassing the 21-year mayoralty of his father, Richard J. Daley.
The American Whig–Cliosophic Society, sometimes abbreviated as Whig-Clio, is a political, literary, and debating society at Princeton University and the oldest debate union in the United States. Its precursors, the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society, were founded at Princeton in 1769 and 1765.
Daniel David Rostenkowski was a United States Representative from Chicago, serving for 36 years, from 1959 to 1995. He became one of the most powerful legislators in Congress, especially in matters of taxation. He was imprisoned in 1996. A Democrat and son of a Chicago alderman, Rostenkowski was for many years Democratic Committeeman of Chicago's 32nd Ward, retaining this position while also serving in Congress.
The Richard J. Daley Center, also known by its open courtyard Daley Plaza and named after longtime mayor Richard J. Daley, is the premier civic center of the City of Chicago in Illinois. The Center's modernist skyscraper primarily houses offices and courtrooms for the Cook County Circuit Courts, Cook County State's Attorney and additional office space for the City and the County. It is adjacent to the neoclassical City Hall-County Building, also on the plaza. The open granite-paved plaza used for gatherings, protests, and events is also the site of the Chicago Picasso, a gift to the city from the artist.
The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States. Membership is open to everyone.
Michael Joseph Madigan is an American politician who is the former speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. He was the longest-serving leader of any state or federal legislative body in the history of the United States, having held the position for all but two years from 1983 to 2021. He served in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021. He represented the 27th District from 1971 to 1983, the 30th district from 1983 to 1993, and the 22nd district from 1993 to 2021. This made him the body's longest-serving member and the last legislator elected before the Cutback Amendment.
The Cook County Democratic Party is an American county-level political party organization which represents voters in 50 wards in the city of Chicago and 30 suburban townships of Cook County. The organization has dominated Chicago politics since the 1930s. It relies on an organizational structure of a ward or township committeeperson to elect candidates. At the height of its influence under Richard J. Daley in the 1960s when political patronage in employment was endemic in American cities, it was one of the most powerful political machines in American history. By the beginning of the 21st century the party had largely ceased to function as a machine due to the legal dismantling of the patronage system under the Shakman Decrees issued by the federal court in Chicago. The current Chair is Toni Preckwinkle, who is also the elected Cook County Board president.
Milton J. "Milt" Rosenberg was a prominent social psychologist who was professor of psychology at the University of Chicago and was the host of a long-running radio program in Chicago, Illinois.
The City Club of Portland is a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic organization based in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Established in 1916, the organization had approximately 1500 members and a paid staff of 4 in 2013. The former Mayor of Portland, Sam Adams, served as executive director 2013 to 2015. The current executive director is Julia Meier.
The Calliopean Society, also known as the Fraternity of Phi Epsilon Mu, is a literary and debating society at Yale College founded in 1819, disbanded in 1853, and revived in 1950. Its name refers to Calliope, chief of the muses and muse of epic poetry, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne (memory).
Joseph "Joe" Berrios is a Democratic politician who was the Assessor and Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party of Cook County, Illinois, as well as a registered Illinois state government lobbyist. He was the first Hispanic American to serve in the Illinois General Assembly and the first and only Hispanic American to chair the Cook County Democratic Party. He was also a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Review, a property tax assessment appeal panel.
An election took place on February 24, 2015, to elect the mayor of Chicago. The election was non-partisan and no candidate received a majority. A runoff election was held between the top two finishers on April 7, 2015, and resulted in the reelection of incumbent mayor Rahm Emanuel. The elections were concurrent with the 2015 Chicago aldermanic elections.
The Niagara Foundation is a nonprofit organization, founded in 2004, dedicated to the mission of fostering civic conversations and sustained relationships between people of different cultures and faiths, and part of the Alliance for Shared Values.
The League for Political Education was a New York City-based group devoted to providing a forum where people of every rank and station could be educated on the important issues of the day. Founded as a pro-women's suffrage group, the League initially fought for passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and provided general education on social and political issues. After opening up their membership to both genders, they later commissioned the building of The Town Hall and sponsored the long-running radio program America's Town Meeting of the Air. The League essentially dissolved in 1938 when it changed its focus to the daily operations of Town Hall.
The Chicago mayoral election of 1963 was held on April 2, 1963. The election saw Richard J. Daley elected to a third term as mayor, defeating Republican Ben Adamowski by a double-digit margin.
The Chicago mayoral election of 1959 was held on April 7, 1959. The election saw Richard J. Daley being elected to a second term as mayor by a landslide margin of more-than 40%.
The 1955 Chicago mayoral election saw Democrat Richard J. Daley win election to his first term as mayor by a ten-point margin over Republican Robert E. Merriam. This was the narrowest margin of victory of any of Daley's mayoral races.
In the 1980 Cook County State's Attorney election, incumbent second-term state's attorney Bernard Carey, a Republican, was unseated by Democrat Richard M. Daley.
Nicole T. Lee is an American politician in Chicago, Illinois. She is a member of the Chicago City Council as the alderwoman for the 11th ward, which includes portions of Bridgeport, New City, and Chinatown. She took office in March 2022, after being appointed to fill the vacancy created by the removal of Patrick Daley Thompson. She was elected to a full term in 2023. She is the second Asian American and first Chinese American to serve on the City Council.