I first met Spencer Byrd in a Chicago diner one afternoon in 2018. Sitting across from me, he told me an outrageous story about how he’d been battling the city government for two years to get his 1996 Cadillac DeVille out of impound.
Byrd’s story would help lead to reforms to Chicago’s impound program and an ongoing federal class action lawsuit against the city. But despite fighting in court for nearly a decade, he never got his Cadillac back. I learned this week that Byrd died in February, while that lawsuit was still pending.
I’ve often considered it something—if not fate, then at least fortuitous—that Byrd and I connected…