re: #133 Joe Bacon

I lived in Chicago during the winter of 78/79 when then-Mayor Bilandic only plowed the streets of friendly wards. It was a bloody mess. For a couple days I couldn’t get out of my apartment building because of the drifts.

Made the decision to finally listen to my Grandma and move to Los Angeles. First day I was here, Grandma had me go pick tangerines off of her tree for breakfast. In January, 70 degrees outside…Never regretted moving…

His inability to handle that freak snowstorm that fell on a Friday rush hour in January of 1979 sealed Bilandic’s fate. The resulting public outrage was so great that with the Democratic primary less than a month away not even the Chicago Machine could prevent his defeat by Jane Byrne.

As an aside, in March of 1979 after losing the Dem primary but before leaving office Michael Bilandic went on a shopping trip at what is now Macy’s but was then Marshall Field’s flagship location on State Street in Chicago. While there he was quite literally run into by a toddler who happened to be Yours Truly. I don’t remember that happening of course, but my mother remembers and still tells the story at times.