Ricketts
Photo: Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune

The Ricketts family

Rahm rejected their ask for $200 million in subsidies to renovate Wrigley Field. “And guess what? Just a few years later [they] paid for the entire thing themselves, and they’re making out just fine.”

 

Adirondack chair
Photo: Getty Images

Staffers who managed the Adirondack chair installation on the Riverwalk

“Six weeks later there were still no chairs. I called them again. They said they were still evaluating. ‘Okay. Stop evaluating now and go to Crate & Barrel and buy forty chairs today.’ ”

 

Wirtz
Photo: Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune

Rocky Wirtz

“He threatened to cancel his plans to put the [Blackhawks’] training facility in the city as an act of retribution for not extending the tax break. I turned up the heat on him a bit. The Blackhawks’ new downtown training facility is really beautiful.”

 

Rauner
Photo: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune

Bruce Rauner

“Our fight became personal and acrimonious. We started as good friends, but that is not how our relationship ended.”

 

Klein
Photo: Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune

Former transportation commissioner Gabe Klein

“Each member of my team … had a homework assignment to bring one bold idea to the [former U.S. secretary of transportation Ray] LaHood meeting. Gabe had forgotten his homework.”

 

The federal government

“Slow and sclerotic,” “sclerotic, partisan, and broken,” “sclerotic, clumsy, inflexible, wounded, and weak, unable to move forward.”

 

Trump
Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The Trump administration

“A disastrous anomaly,” “constant turmoil, shadiness, and sheer ineptitude,” “chaotic and incompetent.”

 

Trump Tower
Photo: Anthony Souffle/Chicago Tribune

The Trump Tower sign

“Ugly.”

The Nation City: Why Mayors Are Now Running the World comes out February 25.