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Cook County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of 2000, the population was 5,376,741, making it the second largest county by population in the United States (after Los Angeles County, California). The county seat is Chicago, the principal city of its metropolitan area, Chicagoland; Chicago makes up about 54% of the population of the county, the rest being provided by various suburbs, and Cook County itself makes up 43.3% of the state population as of 2000. Cook County is the 19th largest government in the United States. Cook County has by far more Democratic Party members than any other Illinois county, and is one of the most Democratic counties in the United States. It has only voted once for a Republican candidate in a Presidential election in the last forty years, in 1972, when county voters preferred Richard Nixon to George McGovern by 53.4% to 46%. Cook County's current County Board President is Todd Stroger.
History
Cook County was created on January 15 1831 by an act of the Illinois State Legislature. It was the 54th county established in Illinois and was named after Daniel Pope Cook, one of the earliest and youngest statesmen in Illinois history who served as the first U.S. Representative from Illinois and the first Attorney General of the State of Illinois. As mandated by state law, Cook County government has principal responsibility for the protection of persons and property, the provision for public health services and the maintenance of county highways. The obligation to protect persons and property, commonly called public safety, is fulfilled by the provision of county judicial and law enforcement services. The Circuit Court of Cook County, which is the largest unified court system in the world - disposing over 6 million cases in 1990 alone, the Cook County Department of Corrections, which is the largest single-site jail in the nation, and the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, the first juvenile center in the nation and one of the largest in the nation, are solely the responsibility of Cook County government. The Cook County Law Library is the second largest county law library in the nation. The obligation to provide public health services is fulfilled by the provision of comprehensive medical services to the citizens of the county, regardless of their ability to pay. The Bureau of Health Services administers the county's public health services and is the second largest public health system in the nation. Three hospitals are part of this system: John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Provident Hospital, and Oak Forest Hospital of Cook County, along with over 30 outpatient clinics. The Cook County Highway Department is responsible for the design and maintenance of over 578 miles of roadways in the county. These thouroughfares are mostly composed of major and minor arterials, with a few local roads. Although the Highway Department was instrumental in designing many of the expressways in the county, today they are under the jurisdiction of the state. The Forest Preserve District, organized in 1915, is a separate, independent taxing body, but the Cook County Board of Commissioners also acts as the Forest Preserve District Board of Commissioners. The District is a belt of 68,000 acres (275 km²) of forest reservations surrounding the City of Chicago. The Brookfield Zoo (managed by the Chicago Zoological Society) and the Chicago Botanic Garden (managed by the Chicago Horticultural Society) are located in the forest preserves. In the 1980s, Cook County was ground zero to an extensive FBI investigation named Operation Greylord. "92 officials had been indicted, including 17 judges, 48 lawyers, 8 policemen, 10 deputy sheriffs, 8 court officials, and 1 state legislator." Secession movementsTo establish more localized government control and policies which reflect the often different values and needs of large suburban sections of the sprawling county, several secession movements have been made over the years which called for certain townships or municipalities to form their own independent counties. In the late 1970s, a movement started which proposed a separation of six northwest suburban townships (Barrington, Hanover, Palatine, Wheeling, Schaumburg, and Elk Grove) from Cook to form Lincoln County, in honor of the native former U.S. president who ironically does not have an Illinois county named after him. It is likely that Arlington Heights would have been the county seat. This northwest suburban region of Cook is moderately conservative and has a population over 500,000. Local legislators, led by State Senator Dave Regnar, went so far as to propose it as official legislation in the Illinois House. The legislation died, however, before coming to a vote. In 2004, Blue Island mayor Donald Peloquin tried to organize a coaliton of 55 south and southwest suburban municipalities to form a new county, also proposing the name "Lincoln County." The county would include everything south of Burbank, stretching as far west as Orland Park, as far east as Calumet City, and as far south as Matteson, covering an expansive area with a population of over one million residents. Peloquin cited that the south suburbs are often shunned by the city and blamed the Chicago-centric policies of Cook County government for failing to jumpstart the long-depressed local economy of the south suburban region. Pending sufficient interest from local communities, Peloquin planned a petition drive to place a question regarding the secession on the general election ballot. Timeline
Population History
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