Mayor Daley's new bulldozer

The best breakfast I've ever had was a greasy Polish sausage with grilled green peppers. I remember it all so distinctly, so vividly -- as if it were a lucid dream. A cantaloupe dawn was breaking over the foul waters of Lake Michigan. Yawning delivery men were heaving bundles of the Chicago Tribune on street corners, and the line at Jim\'s Hotdogs was at least a block long. Those electric blue insect zappers were zinging and flypaper dangled over the deep fryers. Maxwell Street was muggy, even at 6 a.m., and sweat trickled down the spine like spooked rodents. \nYou know those times where being anywhere else seems like self-robbery? Those times when there is no place you'd rather be? I get them all the time. They bloom up like aces in back pockets. Hop on your bike and blast down the hill on Walnut Street in low gear from 11th to 17th and you'll know what I'm talking about. Smoke a cigarette on a subway platform, place a field bet on Atlantic City craps tables or stand in line for a "Polish" on Maxwell Street in Chicago -- chances are your restlessness will disintegrate.\nSadly, thanks to Mayor Richard M. Daley and the champagne sippers at the University of Chicago, stand "Polish" at dawn is a luxury that many will never experience -- compliments of urban renewal and the sprawl of gentrification that is bulldozing its way across the south side of Chicago, leaving a path of fond memories and deserted buildings in its wake.\nMayor Daley and his gang of starch-collared UC rubes have now uprooted Maxwell Street, once the nerve center for the African-American Chicago blues experience. Their intent is to create a university expansion that "unites" the college goatee-strokers with the predominantly African-American working class community. \nYet this "brotherly" intent seems only genuine in public speeches and press releases. The fact that 90 years of African-American culture is being literally uprooted and erased by wrecking balls armored with city money is yet another example of urban renewal at its filthiest hour.\nJim's Hotdogs is no longer on Maxwell Street. Though its temporary relocation gives Daley and his posse a reason to bolster their compassionate facade, most argue that the new location lacks the essence of the old one on Maxwell Street. \nAnother Maxwell Street landmark that's felt the bureaucratic pinch is the Maxwell Street Market, which was relocated in 1994 to Canal Street. Though still swarming with vendors and blues musicians, its displacement has lacked the punch of the original site. \nBlue's man Jimmie Lee Robinson called Mayor Daley and the UC scum "the devils of displacement." Though this is a harsh tag, it is rather tame compared to the language I'd use.\nThough Daley and his men have promised Maxwell Street residents and merchants legal vouchers for relocation, the deal appears flawless on paper -- but in reality, it's a loaded pair of dice and Daley has the hot hand. Unable to pay the sky-rocking rent, residents of low-income housing have been forced out. In exodus, they may be lucky enough to catch the ribbon cutting ceremonies at a sparkling Walgreen's. \nNever has, "Don't let the door hit ya on the way out," been so relevant. \nWhy does the wealthy upper crust (the ones who make and buy our laws) get a panic attack every time they see folks congregating on the sidewalk? Is the neurotic fear really necessary? We're just standing in line for "Polish." Some of us don\'t like croissants and jam.