In our windy, wonderful Chicago, the only thing more powerful than a politician is a newspaper. Specifically, the Chicago Tribune being read every day by hundreds of thousands of people. Which means that what the Tribune says matters. A lot. Three days ago, on page one of the Tribune’s opinion section, its columnist Laura Washington, one of the best Chicago newspaper and television commentators, flexed her considerable muscle on the subject of Chicago’s annual Pride Parade. Time to move it, she said, out of the peaceful Lakeview neighborhood, where it’s been marching for more than 30 years and often causing bad behavior by a million alcohol and now marijuana-using parade watchers. Move it downtown to State Street or Columbus Drive, said Laura Washington’s Tribune editorial, where it can be better monitored by police. The Pride Parade last week was described by the Tribune editorial as leading to fights and arrests, charging assault and battery, and obstructing and throwing bottles at police and unlawfully bearing firearms. When the parade ended, hundreds of the people watching turned back into the bars on Clark Street. So why, asked the Tribune, does City Hall continue to march the great Chicago Pride Parade in Lakeview? At the end of the parade, said the Tribune, it was replaced by an aftertaste of chaos. How sad but accurate.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective: