As he embarked Monday on his all-but-official campaign for Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel hit the streets of Chicago by inviting citizens to “tell it like it is.” And before lunchtime, he got what he was asking for.
Days after resigning as White House chief of staff, the former North Side congressman invited the news media to follow him as he bopped around a carefully selected set of neighborhoods — from an “L” stop in the South Loop and a diner in Chatham to a popular Mexican restaurant in Pilsen and the shops along Devon Avenue.
But as he wolfed down scrambled eggs and sipped coffee at Izola’s Restaurant on 79th Street with three patrons, some residents tried to interrupt, blaming the former White House strategist for a lack of jobs on the South Side. As the cameras rolled, Emanuel stood up and tried to quell the simmering scene, explaining how he felt the Obama administration had helped create jobs.