By Bill Cameron, WLS-AM News

(CHICAGO)  Mayor Rahm Emanuel is hitting back at his challengers who say he’s only interested in helping his fat-cat developer pals who fund his re-election campaign.

Most of Rahm’s challengers say Chicago is a Tale of Two Cities because he neglects the neighborhoods in favor of downtown.

At a forum in Bronzeville, he defended taking care of downtown, “This may not be politically correct but no world class global city has a failing central business district. Our challenge is to make that central business district work for all parts of the City of Chicago not some parts.”

And in that way the mayor said his Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, financed by downtown developers, has targeted $11M for new small businesses in at-risk communities with 10M more on the way.

At this event he also said his #1 new priority is to persuade the state to approve a transportation program so  he can extend the CTA Red Line south to 130rd St.

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