Chicago's Tough Year Has It Feeling Blue

The Chicago Tribune reports:

The death of Michael Scott, president of the Chicago Board of Education, is the latest blow to the city's psyche.

Scott's body and a gun were found at 3 a.m. Monday on the edge of the cold Chicago River downtown. Whether it was suicide (as the medical examiner says) or murder (as the noir theorists imagine), the violent death of a man eulogized as one of our civic fathers comes as another assault on the collective well-being of a city that has taken a lot of punches recently to its heart and pride.

Think about the past year:

Chicago resident Rod Blagojevich is indicted and kicked out of the governor's office. His close friend, Chris Kelly, days away from prison, dies of an overdose of pain medication. Fenger High School students beat a fellow student to death. Chicago's Olympic bid fails.

There's more:

The city plots to sell its assets to solve its budget crunch. In the past week, two big trade shows pull out of McCormick Place. The jobless can't find jobs.

For more on Chicago's decline.