The infrastructural art of Dan Rostenkowski

Dan Rostenkowski is the most important invisible person in the history of Chicago.

I read in the Chicago Tribune yesterday about the White Eagle, a place where I’ve had lots of mostaccioli at round tables of 10:

White Eagle in Niles closes after decades as a hub for Polish community and political powerhouses. Snip:

After more than six decades as a cornerstone of local Polish culture and a fixture in national politics, the iconic banquet hall and events center has shut its doors to the public.

The venue hosted a litany of dignitaries and celebrities over the years, from Pope John Paul II to President Jimmy Carter to former Polish President Lech Walesa. Three-time heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was known to have dined there as well.

I thought to myself, “OK those people are cool, but what about Dan Rostenkowski?”

Coming of age in 1980s Chicago, “powerful Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski” was everywhere. He was hauling in federal money for the Chicago Skyway, city bridges, Deep Tunnel, CTA modernization, stabilizing the lakefront— on and on.

Yet he has no public buildings named after him. No parks, no schools, no bridges, no statues, no plaques, no public awards or civic honors visible anywhere in the built environment. Not even a simple brown commemorative street sign near his three-flat compound on Noble and Evergreen streets near St. Stanislaus Kostka.

I saw firsthand the indignities of Rostenkowski in April 2018, when I walked through this home at the estate sale held 8 years after his death. This sad, temporary sign served as a perverse marker:

The sale was surreal. A handmade sign made the kitchen, and its new-fangled 80s stove/ microwave combo, off limits.

I was envious of the groovy dropped ceiling.

I saw personal items like (way too many) golf clubs and a congressional facebook inscribed personally for his wife. It was jarring.

There were the usual things that everyone collected but no descendants want— National Geographic magazines and family china.

I bought a set of artistic depictions of Rostenkowski and headshots no restaurants wanted anymore.

Here he is with his friend Sen. Bob Packwood, who had some issues.

I also picked up this art— what I saw as the key artistic element of apartment— a poster from 1992 marking 30 years of Washington Dulles International Airport, an important place for a commuter Congressperson like him. It was personalized and signed by Joseph Craig English, the artist who made the poster

It reminded me that nothing is permanent, but both infrastructure and ephemera endure.