The question remains: Will Chicago's gains outlive current Mayor Richard M. Daley, who's now gearing up to run for an unprecedented sixth term?

Even as the city has thrived, Plunktt-ism has continued unabated, which makes it a telling day for Dorothy Eng, the Executive Director of Chicago's Board of Ethics to suddenly resign, after five terms serving with Mayor Daley, according to a piece entitled "Head of paper-tiger ethics board quits" in today's Sun-Times that absolutely drips with contempt for Eng and her office.