Editing Richard J. Daley (section)

==Legacy==
A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]] saw Daley ranked as the fifth best American big-city mayor to serve between the years 1820 and 1993.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Holli | first = Melvin G. | title = The American Mayor | publisher = PSU Press | year = 1999 | location = University Park | url = https://archive.org/details/americanmayorbes0000holl | isbn = 0-271-01876-3 }}</ref> The survey also saw Daley ranked the best big-city mayor to serve in office post-1960.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Holli |first1=Melvin G. |title=American Mayors: The Best and the Worst since 1960 |journal=Social Science Quarterly |date=1997 |volume=78 |issue=1 |pages=149–157 |jstor=42863681 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42863681 |access-date=1 March 2023 |issn=0038-4941}}</ref> On the 50th anniversary of Daley's first 1955 swearing-in, several dozen Daley biographers and associates met at the [[Chicago Historical Society]]. Historian [[Michael Beschloss]] called Daley "the pre-eminent mayor of the 20th century". [[Robert Remini]] pointed out that while other cities were in fiscal crisis in the 1960s and 1970s, "Chicago always had a double-A bond rating." According to Chicago folksinger [[Steve Goodman]], "no man could inspire more love, more hate".

Daley, through his political patronage and role as a political boss, helped advance the political careers of multiple Chicagoans. Notable protégés included [[Michael A. Bilandic]], [[Jane Byrne]], [[Neil Hartigan]], and [[Edward Hanrahan]].

Daley's twenty-one-year tenure as mayor is memorialized in the following public buildings:

* A week after his death, the former William J. Bogan Junior College, one of the [[City Colleges of Chicago]], was renamed as the [[Richard J. Daley College]] in his honor.
* The [[Richard J. Daley Center]] (originally, the Chicago Civic Center) is a 32-floor office building completed in 1965 and renamed for the mayor after his death.
* The [[Richard J. Daley Library]], the primary academic library at the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/mainlib/ |title=UIC Library: Main Library |website=www.uic.edu |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970607034602/http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/mainlib/ |archive-date=7 June 1997 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* The Richard J. Daley Branch of the Chicago Public Library in [[Bridgeport, Chicago|Bridgeport]], Daley's home community, dedicated February 1, 1989.<ref>{{cite web |title=About Richard J. Daley Branch |url=https://www.chipublib.org/about-richard-j-daley-branch/ |website=www.chipublib.org |access-date=12 February 2025}}</ref>

Journalists Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor argue that Daley's politics may have saved Chicago from the same fate that cities like [[Detroit]], [[Kansas City]], [[St. Louis|Saint Louis]] and [[Cleveland]] endured, which suffered from suburbanization, crime and white flight. "But for every middle-class neighborhood he saved, there was a poor neighborhood in which living conditions worsened. For every downtown skyscraper that kept jobs and tax dollars in the city, there was a housing project tower that confined poor people in an overcrowded ghetto".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Adam |authorlink=Adam Cohen (journalist) |last2=Taylor |first2=Elizabeth |title=American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley. His Battle for Chicago and the Nation |location=New York |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |date=2000 |page=11 }}</ref>

Daley was known by many Chicagoans as "Da Mare" ("The Mayor"), "Hizzoner" ("His Honor"), and "The Man on Five" (his office was on the fifth floor of City Hall). Since Daley's death and the subsequent election of son Richard as mayor in 1989, the first Mayor Daley has become known as "Boss Daley",<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-J-Daley | title=Richard J. Daley American politician and lawyer | website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |accessdate=May 3, 2018}}</ref> "Old Man Daley", or "Daley Senior" to residents of Chicago.

During the civil rights era, some black Chicagoans referred to Daley as "Pharaoh", comparing him to the oppressive and unrelenting figure in the [[Book of Exodus]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Adam |authorlink=Adam Cohen (journalist) |last2=Taylor |first2=Elizabeth |title=American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley. His Battle for Chicago and the Nation |location=New York |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |date=2000 |pages=12 }}</ref> These claims were supported by Daley's role in the assassination of Fred Hampton and his anti-MLK stance.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3734&context=edissertations|title=Policing, Race, and Politics in Chicago|first1=Peter Constaine|last1=Pihos|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|date=2015|accessdate=March 27, 2023}}</ref>