http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/y2k24.html

Daley rips Hillard's Y2K staff memo

November 24, 1999

BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND FRANK MAIN STAFF REPORTERS

Mayor Daley on Tuesday blasted a memo from Chicago's police superintendent to 17,000 police employees recommending they stock up on food and water because of possible Y2K problems.

Police Supt. Terry Hillard's Oct. 19 internal memo is an example of a "bunker mentality" emblematic of paramilitary organizations, the mayor said.

"The memo is incorrect," he said. "I don't know where he got that. I will be talking to him about that."

In a prepared statement, Hillard defended the memo.

"The recommendations included in the memo are just that: recommendations," he said. "They are not executive orders, nor are they alarmist messages. In fact, much of what is recommended is common sense and typical of what Chicagoans hear every year as we approach the winter storm season."

The entire department is assigned to 12-hour shifts for New Year's weekend, Hillard said. The memo simply encouraged employees to ensure the comfort and well-being of family members, he said.

But Daley called the memo "alarmist," pointing to one recommendation to store at least a two-week supply of water for every member of the family.

"Two weeks? Are we all gonna carry canteens?" the mayor said.

The four-page memo said no one knows how widespread Y2K computer problems may be.

"Most people anticipate Y2K problems happening on New Year's Eve at midnight," said the memo, signed by Hillard, a Daley appointee. "Some experts think the problem is more likely to be a persistent one over several years, rather than a single event."

Daley said he wants the Chicago Police Department to prepare for Y2K as it did for the celebrations that followed the Bulls' six NBA titles.

Police officers who will be working long hours during New Year's weekend may want to take care of a few odds and ends at home so they don't have to worry about their families. But he told them not to get carried away.

"It's not the end of the world," Daley said.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Tminus37&counting.down), November 24, 1999

Answers

Repost from another similar thread:

-------- Just to clear up one bit of the Mayor's comments.

Daley said he wants "the Chicago Police Department to prepare for Y2K as it did for the celebrations that followed the Bulls' six NBA titles."

This isn't as Polly as it sounds. Each and every time the Bulls won the NBA title there were hundreds of thousands of revelers on Chicago's streets. One year there was enormous rioting and looting. Another year there was burning and looting. Another year half a dozen people were shot to death.

One year police closed off ramps on all the major highways leading IN and OUT of town for hours. People were jailed for looking cross-eyed at cops.

Check out this article from The Washington Post (sorry, no link, I got if off Nexis-Lexis) and you'll see that the Mayor was probably worried about water hoarding. But he is hinting that major preps may be necessary.

====================

June 23, 1993

A teenage boy and a woman were shot to death minutes after the Bulls defeated the Phoenix Suns, 99-98, Sunday night in Phoenix.

Police patrolled in greater numbers and reported fewer arrests -- 682, mainly for burglary and disorderly conduct, compared with more than 1,000 last year. After the Bulls' first championship win in 1991, there was looting and more than 100 arrests.

Stores reported scattered looting, though police couldn't say today how much damage was done. Last year widespread looting caused about $ 10 million in losses.

Mayor Richard M. Daley praised police for controlling things as much as they did.

"There's thugs and there's criminals and there's gang-bangers and there's dope dealers and they'll take advantage of anything, and that's what they did," he said.

At one intersection, crowds dragged drivers from their cars. After beating one driver, the crowd yanked passenger Julio Castillo, 18, from the car and someone shot him to death, Sgt. Lee Epplen said. Another passenger, Castillo's best friend, 17-year-old Oswaldo Arroyo, was stabbed in the back. The driver was not seriously injured.

Also killed was Rosalind Slaughter, 26, who was hit by a stray bullet as she stood on a porch outside her South Side home. Across the city, on its northwest side, two young women were shot, one critically, as they hung out of the sunroof of a moving car.

"It's just senseless," Sgt. Wilson McGee said.

The city's preparations were much more elaborate this year after police were criticized for being outmanned and outmaneuvered during last year's rioting. The city and the team also produced a public relations entreaty to fans to "celebrate safe."

Police in riot gear, on horseback and with police dogs manned busy intersections, sometimes closing off streets and ordering crowds to disperse. Many storeowners boarded up windows and hired private security guards to stand outside all night.

Rioting in response to a professional team championship has occurred in a number of North American cities in recent years. This month 115 people were arrested and 168 injured in Montreal after the Canadiens won ice hockey's Stanley Cup. In February, 18 were injured and 26 arrested in Dallas during a rally for the Cowboys' Super Bowl Victory.

-- Lara (nprbuff@hotmail.com), November 25, 1999.

Chicago and water from a January 1999 Chicago Tribune article. Did they finish?

http://chicagotribune.com/version1/article/0,1575,SAV- 9901010066,00.html

[snip]

Water purification plants and pumping stations in Chicago and the suburbs have not yet been checked to make sure their electronic controls will operate on Jan. 1, 2000.

[snip]

"Anyone who says they are ahead of the game on embedded (chips) is lying," said Liz Fieweger, who is heading the City of Chicago's hunt for microchips that will stop working in 2000. "The whole world should have been doing this two years ago.

"In some ways, we are behind. But everybody is."

[snip]

Ask Chicago's Y2K boss what single issue worries her most, and she'll answer in a snap.

"Water."

Chicago's water purification plants not only serve millions of people in the city, but pipe drinking water from Lake Michigan to dozens of suburbs as far away as DuPage and Will Counties.

Pumping, filtration and chlorination is governed by systems built years ago and controlled in part by equipment that contains embedded microchips.

"It is the only place where we have process-control equipment, and that is an area of the biggest problems," Elizabeth Boatman said.

It wasn't until mid-December that Chicago hired the consulting company to go in and inventory the devices at the city's filtration plants and 12 pumping stations.

According to the work plan, the consultants are to finish their inventory and analysis in March. Only then will it be clear how big or small the problem really is.

[snip]

Also see...

"Mayor Richard M. Daley Announces Chicago's Plans for the Rollover"

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001ny2

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), November 25, 1999.