Political retaliation

31st Ward Alderman Thomas Keane, City Council floor leader in the 60s and 70s, remapped the headquarters of the 40th Ward Regular Democratic Organization one block inside the neighboring 39th ward in 1971.

He did it not so much to punish renegade Alderman and Democratic Committeeman Seymour Simon for daring to ally with Mayor Richard J. Daley’s City Council foes, but to pay Simon back for refusing a Keane request years earlier.

Simon relocated his office, but his new HQ was later demolished for construction of a McDonald’s and the ward organization had to move once again.