Dear Black Chicago…
The Chicago mayoral race of 2023 is historic. Have we ever had so many candidates in the race? There should be candidate limits. The mayoral race has nine candidates. Too many. There are aldermen, a Congressman, a businessman, a State Representative, a Cook County Board Commissioner, and a community organizer. There are two women and seven men. There is one white candidate, one Latino candidate, and seven Black candidates. Diversity and democracy are working. The Black vote will be split rather than united, causing voter confusion and disrupting the power structure. For sure, the government of City Hall will change with fresh face aldermen. The mayor’s work is with vision, with change, with a long-term view. Her projects are not for next week. Lori Lightfoot is the only Black candidate that can win at this time. She deserves a second term to complete the work she has in the pipeline. Let’s keep the seat and not defeat.
The polls suggest that Mayor Lori Lightfoot might lose. To win, she requires 50% of the Black vote. The polls show Paul Vallas, Chuy Garcia, and Lightfoot mere points apart; in other words, a dead heat Willie Wilson, forever running, ranks fourth. Believe the polls depending on who took them. The pundits missed the political outcome of the midterms, so read the polls gently. The actual poll is Tuesday, February 28, when the people speak and the tally is made. The polls indicate that there will certainly be a run-off between the top two vote-getters. Who will they be, is the question.
Voter Apathy
People are confused with the multiple candidates, the forums, and the dominant TV commercials. So, many are saying they will opt out of voting. Mr. Apathy and Ms. Undecided will play a consequential role in the campaign. The Black vote remains a determining vote, but splintered and unpredictable. A non-vote will strengthen Paul Vallas. Hispanics will vote for Garcia. Whites will vote for Vallas as he promises white power to return to City Hall. The aldermen are not registering in the polls, and some are running to raise money for future efforts. The primary issue in this race is crime in the city, crime out of control, and crime all over the city.
Paul is the police candidate, and people are looking to him for the solution to the city’s biggest problem. Crime is not a new problem in Chicago. It is new to exist everywhere. Crime in Lincoln Park is different from crime in Garfield Park. White crime differs. Crime on the Magnificent Mile is different from crime on King Drive. The mayor of Chicago is not committing the crime. The crime is being committed by kids who play crime stories out on social media and take them to the streets; poor kids and returning convicts create the crime. Let’s tell the truth. The real answer to crime is education and jobs. And then, if that doesn’t work, let’s try jobs and education. The public requests solution to crime but don’t hurt anybody. Police are not social workers; they are protectors.
The Role of Media…
One of the significant problems with the elections is the media. Major media in the city of Chicago has drastically changed. John Kass summed up the media landscape in a column “City of Lobsters.” He writes, “Too many television newsrooms are filled with graduates of colleges with safe spaces, who don’t understand the world and how functioning societies work. They are filled with too many people who are not from here and don’t understand the history or culture of our city. They are filled with too many people who think their job is to change the world and not simply report on it.”
You can’t get the right answers if you don’t ask the right people the right questions. Your newscasts are filled with crime, fires, promos for network shows, and consumer reports pulled from network feeds because budget cuts have gutted newsroom staff. Instead, you should be getting real stories about healthcare, food prices, taxes, education, the economy, transportation, and affordable housing. Things that matter.
I worked in television news in Chicago for 40 years. Back in the day, there was vigorous debate over what stories were covered. Mayor Rahm Emanuel was invited into our newsroom one day and took tough questions from the entire newsroom because he didn’t think he was getting a fair shake. Lori might want to give that a try. Police superintendent Garry McCarthy would come into our newsroom at Fox every week, good news or bad, to answer questions about the crime. We invited newsmakers instead of entertainers. We asked the questions that mattered.”
A Look at the Candidates…
The Man WHO Would Be Mayor
Willie Wilson is on his third run for the fifth floor. He is a revenge candidate. He is angry at Lori because she would not give him a City Hall office after her first election. He was pivotal in helping her campaign as he hushed the minister’s storm about her being a lesbian. She refused his phone calls after she won the election. She did not comply with his power-like demands. Perhaps she was not politically correct. He prides himself as a businessman with his business located in China rather than on Chicago soil. He runs with his own money and plays plantation politics with gas and groceries handouts. Willie’s giveaways have made Arab gas station owners rich. How about being smart and opening up a Black-owned gas station? He does not have the intellectual fortitude to run a government with $16.7 billion, serving over 2.5 million citizens stretching over 77 communities. The City of Chicago does not come with a McDonald-like manual. Can you see Wilson conducting a city council meeting? Chicago, the third largest city in America, would become a laughing stock, ready for a Tyler Perry Show. Sorry folks, somebody has to tell the truth.
Chicago requires a mayor with more than a grammar school runaway. There should be a law to say candidates should have a college degree. Willie is tenacious and an American success story by all measures. But to Wilson’s credit, he may very well be the swing vote that pulls enough votes to determine the election with his small church devotees. His statement of hunting the bad guys down like they are rabbits assures that Black and Brown men would be at high risk moving about on city streets. Willie is on his third run for the Mayor’s seat; he ties with the late Late “America First” Daley. He ran unsuccessfully 30x for various political offices.
Congressman Garcia has had multiple runs for the fifth floor and touts his involvement with the Harold Washington Campaign as a real credit for his contribution to Harold’s winning coalition. The truth is his career was furthered by his involvement with the late Mayor Harold Washington. The problem with the Hispanic candidates, at large, is that Hispanics forget the Black community after the election. Blacks run inclusive races, saying “Black and Brown.” But the Hispanics say “Brown” exclusively and mean it. I don’t see a Chuy win being extensive or inclusive to the Black community. Also, Garcia proposed a women’s plan to include restoring midwives giving birth at home and selling women sanitary goods on the CTA lines. Is he serious? Infant mortality would probably rise, and rather than giving homeless women sanitary goods, how about providing a home and a bed to sleep in? Garcia should return to Congress to continue his legislative work.
Brandon Johnson is a shining star in the campaign. He rises to the top with great ideas for education as his major backer is the Chicago Teachers Union. He is a family man, with children in public schools and living on the west side. He is very likable, but perhaps not at this time. But he will provide new leadership to Chicago, which is a breath of fresh air. He emerges as a new leader in Chicago, and I predict he will be mayor one day because he’s young enough to run again and win. But for now, let Lori return to the hall.
Paul Vallis is the threatening candidate. He is the one to beat. He brags about his path, but his record is also his problem. Is he electable? He has run for governor and mayor before. He is a formidable candidate in this race, with proper financing. He speaks with a republican voice, “Taking back our city,” this has racist overtones and sounds Trumpsonian. He is a numbers guru with no peers and an unapologetic nerd. He knows the budget, he knows CPS, and he knows the culture of Chicago. He now has white, wealthy backers. His problem is the police. He is from a police family. His wife is a retired officer. His natural political tendency is to fall in line with the police mentality. This is spine-chilling to the Black community. It was recently revealed that his policeman son, Gus Vallas killed a Black boy on a bike in San Antonio, Texas. Really. Will he lock them up, and will the lives of Black and brown boys on the street be put in excessive danger as they interact with the men of blue? His record at CPS developed the “Zero Tolerance Policy,“ which fueled the “Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Pipeline.“ His administration in New Orleans eliminated public schools. The schools are now all charter. The other dominant question arising about Paul is whether he is a democrat or is he a republican. Does it matter? He is being supported heavily by wealthy republicans. His agenda will be law and order in Chicago, but will it fare well in the Black and Brown community, his campaign driven with a “Before It is Too Late” mantra? With crime ranging in Chicago, his rhetoric is food for thought and may carry him into the run-offs. And if so, Chicago will play a dirty game of racial politics in a new mayoral election. The not asked question for Vallas is will the police department run City Hall?
The other candidates are running interesting races but do not promise to go to the fifth floor.
So Where Are We?
Lori Lightfoot should have a second term to complete the work she has started. She has not been the most likable candidate; she has created enemies all over the city with a wrong attitude and a weak staff. But she has risen to the office of the mayor. No mayor could prepare for Covid. She provided strong leadership during the pandemic as she kept the city safe. I endorse “Lori Lightfoot for Mayor” for a second term. Keep the seat, don’t defeat, don’t repeat. If Blacks lose this seat, I predict it will be twenty years before it becomes a reality again.
She raised the bridges when the out-of-towners came to bring violence to the city with downtown and neighborhood riots. Her single issue has been crime; she is blamed even though the numbers have come down. Maybe she didn’t fire staff as she should have. Perhaps she picked the wrong ones in the first place. Out-of-town police chiefs tend not to work in the city where whom you know matters. City context is important.
Here’s what she has done. Her work has been structural and long-term with vision and purpose. She is the architect of a Chicago renaissance. Her administration has been the first to invest an upfront and unprecedented amount of $2.2 billion in public and private investments in the South/West initiative. Some of these neighborhoods are blighted on the South and West side and have been overlooked and underserved since the riots of 1968, with the murder of Dr. King. At best, previous mayors have played band-aid politics. i.e., Whole Foods in Englewood, a failing proposition from the beginning. The store didn’t match the demographics of the neighborhood. Period. As a leader, she has taken on the hard stuff and rolled up her sleeves with a plan for the development of the Black community, which adds to the greater city. This initiative will change Chicago for years, and the quality of life will alter from desperate poverty to middle class. She brings a brighter day to Chicago. Think about it. Let’s walk through Chicago streets.
Lori Brings Delivers a Chicago Renaissance…
Chicago is postured to be the “Hollywood of the Midwest.” Regal Mile Studios on 77th and Stony Island is coming to the South Shore community. It has been vacant for over two decades. It will create 250 construction jobs and 300 plus permanent jobs as a film studio. It fosters a new industry on the South Side. Crews just broke ground on a new film studio in the South Shore area, intending to make Chicago the Hollywood of the Midwest. It’s a $100 million project, and crime will be reduced in the neighborhood by two men who know the area, Jim Reynolds and Derek Dudley.
Lightfoot has provided the largest investment in affordable housing in the history of Chicago with $1 billion. And Marcia Fudge, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, recently provided $60 million for the homeless in the city.
Come north; let’s go downtown. The mayor has brought forth a new industry with the casino. Other politicians, mayors, and governors have tried for the past 30 years to bring a casino to Chicago, but she pulled it off, and the windy city will welcome tourists of a different stripe than just conventioneers. The new casino brings $6 billion in new revenue and will contribute to the pension fund, pulling our city workers out of the hole. The casino will create about 6000 new jobs. Lightfoot has invested in Chicago’s future in a big way.
Let’s visit the mid-city. There will be a new Museum Campus, the Museum of Science and Industry, the DuSable Museum, and The Obama Presidential Center. Jackson Park changes. This is a real game-changer.
This area will prosper with innovation and new businesses, with the University of Chicago as a backdrop. The city will change with the Obama Presidential Library on the South Side and the casinos on the North Side. The convention traffic will grow, and visitors will come to a new city. Chicago has become quite a restaurant town, with the best chefs coming with new eateries. Let’s go far south. Transportation is about to get better with the Red Line Extension Project, taking the trains to 130th Street. This will provide greater access to the city. Think jobs.
And then there is O’Hare Airport Terminal 5. It is the airport for the future. It provides international travel with one-stop air flights to any continent in the world, keeping Chicago, America’s transportation hub. The airport started under Rahm Emanuel’s administration with an $8.7 billion budget. Lightfoot delivered it, and it is now at $12.1 billion. The airport was Rahm’s final big deal.
Move to the Westside’s Garfield Park, 4301 West Chicago Avenue, opens a new Police/Fire Academy for the training of city workers and first responders with assimilation of real neighborhoods; it will be the talk of America, as it is a model training institution. The project under Emanuel met protest and Lightfoot completed the Academy remarkably. The area of Garfield changes.
Let’s come downtown. This summer, GOOGLE will assume the State of Illinois Building, which will be a boom in the central business district. If the Chicago Bears decide to leave Chicago, Solider’s Field will be redeveloped with new jobs, and a new community will be created in the South Loop along the Lakefront with a venture called One Central, another economic boom with jobs and development. And Chicago is up for the Democratic National Convention in 2024. The Westside will buzz at the home of the Bulls, Chicago United Center.
My point is simple. These projects, and there are others, will bring revenue to Chicago in the form of renovation, jobs, and revenue. And it promises a drop in crime. Chicago is planning for a renaissance. Mayor Lori Lightfoot brought it forth.
These are but a few of the accomplishments of the mayor with intent and purpose. It’s a lot in four years, with a pandemic with an invasion of rioters. I am endorsing “Lori Lightfoot for Mayor.” Let’s keep the seat.
Power.
