Government

Chicago is divided into 124 wards, each ruled by an alderman. In theory, the aldermen are responsive to the needs of their constituents. In fact, ballot-box stuffing by the corps is quite common in poor neighborhoods. If someone not on a corporate payroll accidentally ends up in the Hall, he is usually bought off or killed off. What does an alderman do? He lines his pockets and the pockets of those who keep his ward's illegal proceedings moving along smoothly.
An alderman has to listen to his constituents enough to prevent riots in his ward. Every once in a while, he's forced to use the money earmarked for repairing street lights and potholes for exactly those purposes. He doesn't really want to give up the money, however, so he often steals supplies and money from neighboring aldermen, who are in turn stealing from other aldermen, using street thugs for the dirty work. The "Aldermen Wars" are the largest-scale gang wars in the country. Anyone too closely associated with the power bloc of a hostile ward takes a big risk walking into an enemy ward.
The aldermen make up the City Council, which is presided over by the mayor. Each office is up for grabs every four years, but 72 percent of the incumbents retain their position each year. Because the aldermen are drawn from the neighborhoods, metahumans make up 12 percent of the Council. Most of the orks and trolls are on the take. The elves are doing all right for themselves and simply want to keep what they have-even if it means beating out the city's other needy groups for funds.
Jerome Standish is the current mayor. He's a thin, creepy guy rumored to have tapped into some weird voodoo juju while with some merc unit down in the Caribbean League. He's just finishing up his first term, and word on the streets is that the Elevated has picked him to win again. Little Earth says His Honor is jammed with some bad voodoo and is some kind of undead. No one suggests who might be pulling his strings. Edmund Jennings is Mayor Standish's Press Secretary. He's got ties with corporations throughout the city, and contacts with organized crime.
Honorable aldermen include Barbara Edwards, Bruce Gorden, and Finch "Teeth" Stump. Edwards, a beautiful human from the Elevated, keeps eking what she can out of City Hall for the city's downtrodden. Gorden is from a Southside family of steelworkers, knows how corps can take advantage of the working class, and does what he can to keep the unions intact. Most of his efforts are focused on the Southside, where the unions are still respected.
Teeth, one of the more personable orks you'll ever meet, hails from the Northside. He's received bribe offers and threats from Truman, Ares, and Perfecto Polymers. He's willing to die for his people, both metahuman and human, despite the complaints of his ork constituents that he should only deal with ork needs. Every week he shows up at the Council meeting prepared to shove in the Council's face another obscure federal statute dealing with municipal housing requirements. He makes it impossible for the Council to ignore the housing problems in his ward.
Each of these aldermen has been on the Council for just over a decade. They started out quietly, gathering dirt on their fellow aldermen and on Chicago's corporations, then started asking for little favors. Those who didn't play the game were suddenly busted by federal Investigators. The trio, independently of one another, attained folk-hero status, and they were targeted for assassination. All attempts on their lives failed. This Is because Teeth has managed to get orks and trolls to donate time as bodyguards for the three aldermen, and because Edwards has secured shadowrunners known as Hooders to enter the Matrix and keep tabs on the files the corps keep on her, Gorden, and Teeth.
Anyone who wants to donate Hooding time should talk to Edwards. The pay isn't always as good as a straight run, but It'll make you feel all warm and gooey inside.
Chicago is one of the few cities where the government still exerts as much authority over the populace as do the corporations. There's nothing particularly cheery about this picture, however. City Hall still has power because It uses the Mafia as a lever against the corporations. In effect, City Hall acts as the fulcrum between organized crime and criminally organized business.
The Hall's traditional alliance with the mob goes way back, but It became a permanent fixture In the city's politics during the 2030s. During the Awakening, Mayor Malony cut a secret deal with the newly Installed Don, Patrick Murphey, to get black-market medical supplies and food to the city during the worst of the chaos. The mayor knew that the Mafia was personally Involved In the city in a way the corps were not, so he split the effort to keep Chicago alive between the two sides.
His Illegal dealings seem to have paid off. The corps and the mob have equal money and manpower. Over the years, City Hall has mediated between the two parties to help them act together for the benefit of the city.