First Ever Mayor Richard M. Daley Legacy Award To Go To ... Mayor Daley

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Sep 29, 2010 9:40PM

As Mayor Daley prepares to leave office after nearly 22 years on the Fifth Floor of City Hall, we figured the honors would start rolling out sooner or later. And the first one to go to Hizzonah is one that's actually named for him. The award - whose full title is actually The Mayor Richard M. Daley Legacy Award for Global Leadership in Creating Sustainable Cities - is being given out by the U.S. Green Building Council which also made the decision to both name the award after Daley and give the first one to him. According to said Council: "This award is in recognition of the mayor's visionary and planet-changing leadership that has created the amazing legacy of a green city." (Read the whole statement here [PDF].) As for the mayor's contributions to greening the City? According to the Tribune:

During Daley's 21-year tenure as mayor, Chicago has planted more than 600,000 trees, constructed more than 85 miles of landscaped medians and built more than 7 million square feet of planted roofs — more than any other city in the U.S., city officials have said.

Well, we'll hand it to the Mayor there. Mayor Daley will receive the award at this fall's annual Greenbuild conference right here in Chicago in mid-November.