Dirty Waters: Confessions of Chicago's Last Harbor Boss

by R.J. Nelson

A wry, no-holds-barred memoir of Nelson’s time controlling some of Chicago's most beautiful spots while facing some of its ugliest traditions.

In 1987, the city of Chicago hired a former radical college chaplain to clean up rampant corruption on the waterfront. R. J. Nelson thought he was used to the darker side of the law—he had been followed by federal agents and wiretapped due to his antiwar stances in the sixties—but nothing could prepare him for the wretched bog that constituted the world of a Harbor Boss. Dirty Waters is the wry, no-holds-barred memoir of Nelson’s time controlling some of the city’s most beautiful spots while facing some of its ugliest traditions. Nelson takes us through Chicago's beloved “blue spaces” and deep into the city’s political morass, revealing the different moralities underlining three mayoral administrations and navigating the gritty mechanisms of the city’s political machine. Ultimately, Dirty Waters is a tale of morality, of what it takes to be a force for good in the world and what struggles come from trying to stay ethically afloat in a sea of corruption. 
 

304 pages, Hardcover

Published October 31, 2016

Reviews

[Keenan Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dirty Waters is a memoir about Chicago corruption and the subsequent "clean-up", specifically related to the Chicago Marine and Harbor department. This is an interesting read for anyone who enjoys the lakefront, frequently sails out of the harbors, plays golf, or who just enjoys Chicago history. One of the things Chicago did right was refusing to sell the lakefront land, and instead keeping it for public use, but the corruption within the department is what this book focuses on.

[Jays · Rating 3 out of 5]

Look, at its core, this is a book about the byzantine functions of a large city bureaucracy, so no one's going to blame you if that doesn't sound like fun reading. If you live in Chicago, particularly if you're a long-term resident and have personal memories of the Washington and Daley administrations, you're probably more apt to find some amusement here. If you're none of those things but still think you might want to take a shot on a more-or-less breezy take on how Chicago's harbor system became a center of graft and corruption and what the process looked like to start to clean it up, boy have you found the right book.

Nelson as an author uses some creative license to recount his time working for the city in such a way as to possibly raise your eye a bit. You don't get the sense that he's lying in any way or being false about his recollection events, though he and his worldview of a well-intentioned bureaucrat who breaks the rules only for public good has a whiff of hero-making about it. Each event he details may not have happened exactly the way he describes it, but you get the sense that he's telling you that's how he remembers it.

If nothing else, Nelson comes off as a bit of a Rosencranz/Guildenstern, recounting big events occurring in the second half of Chicago's 20th century history, from the riots at the Democratic National Convention in 1968 to the Chicago Flood in 1992. Even if he's not the central player of these stories, we're seeing them through the eyes of someone who was there.

[Tory Cross · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay listen. I was so excited to read this book, as a lover of Chicago history, plus I got it to read after a trip to Chicago, the city that has my whole heart. But this came with… other things? The information about Chicago itself was fascinating - I learned a lot about my city that I hadn’t known before, going all the way back to Daniel Burnham. And if the book had only been about the history of the harbors, the rivers, the tunnels under the city, the beauty of our city, I would have given it a high rating.
Instead I’m giving it only one star, because, whew. The racism. The ableism. The white saviorism. The abled saviorism. The anti-union sentiments, as though unions aren’t equally as much a part of our city as the water itself. Every mention to his “love affair with the black experience” sure was something. Also the fact that he wanted to buy plots in the same cemetery that Harold Washington and Jesse Owens are buried in so he could sail in the cemetery lake??? What???
He certainly does not have the range or the nuance to comment on so, so many aspects of Chicago’s “racial politics” as he weirdly referred to them.
There was a LOT of more than cringe worthy moments that make this book worthy of it’s 1 star rating.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the inside scoop on Chicago harbors! So many connection points for me. It's fascinating to learn recent history of the spots we frequent as we enjoy our slip at Burnham and sail among the other marinas. The author sounds like a principled, thoughtful, courageous, and capable administrator who made important changes that we benefit from today.

And as usual books like this just make me want to know more.

[Arcela Arredondo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good memoir read! I. Typically shy away from these types of reading I believe that this o e came from a recommendation from a college clas I took many years ago? If you are interested in Chicago history, add this one to your reading list! Chicago harbors are part of the landscape of the Chicago's portion of Lake Michigan and lakefront!

[ba · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I didn't find the author's writing ability quite up to professional standards, he had both enough of a perspective and a rich enough library of anecdotes of classic Chicago shenanigans that I found this to be an entertaining read anyway.

[Garrett Gust · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look into the politics and bureaucracy involved in Chicago's Park District and Harbor system. Details the efforts of a dedicated public servant who believes in access to public land and the common good.

[Steven desJardins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anecodotal account of a reformer's tenure in a corrupt city government gradually becoming somewhat less corrupt. Most interesting in the accounts of how he handled his day-to-day duties, such as figuring out how to replace Chicago's existing buoys with better, more durable ones.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.5

[Lasha Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful story and insight to an honest man's experience with Chicago's coruption.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fleet 21 book discussion. Some interesting info about Chicago Harbors.

[BMR, LCSW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about old Chicago.

Recommended for: fans of Chicago history only.