The family of the namesake of a major road on Chicago’s South Side is pushing back against a mayoral candidate’s suggestion the expressway be rebranded to former President Barack Obama.
Bill Daley, who is running to replace Rahm Emanuel as Chicago’s mayor in February’s election, last week proposed changing the name of the Dan Ryan Expressway, also known as Interstate 90/94. But the Ryan family is upset that Daley, whose father and brother previously served as the city’s mayor, would put forward the idea without seeking their opinion first. Dan Ryan, a former Cook County board president, worked extensively with then-Mayor Richard J. Daley, the current candidate’s father, to build the road. Dan Ryan died suddenly in 1961 before it opened in 1962.
Bill Daley served as White House chief of staff in the Obama administration, as did Emanuel, the outgoing mayor.
“I’m hurt. I feel bad that he didn’t try and contact us to see what we would think,” Daniel B. Ryan III, the namesake’s grandson, 69, told the Chicago Sun-Times this week. “We feel very honored to have this named after our grandfather. Why would you take an honor away from one man to honor another?”
In fact, Bill Daley’s father suggested the road be called the Dan Ryan Expressway in the first place, Ryan III told the outlet, adding that the Daley and Ryan families were once “old friends” but now “everybody’s gone their ways.”
The Ryan family was additionally a prominent force in Chicago politics. Dan Ryan and his wife, Ruby, both led the Cook County board at various times.
Ryan III said his feelings weren’t driven by anti-Obama sentiment, but believes the proposal was floated as a way for Bill Daley to secure votes from Obama fans.
“I don’t want this to sound like sour grapes,” Ryan III told the Sun-Times. “Our family has been honored by this for 56 years, and we’d like to keep it that way.”
Interstate 55 is already named for Obama, who started his political career in the 1990s on Chicago’s South Side as a community organizer. Another stretch of road, in Southern California, is now also named after Obama. “President Barack H. Obama Highway” signs were posted last week on State Route 134, which connects California State Route 2 in Glendale to Interstate 210 in Pasadena.
