It’s that time of the season where I measure a year’s worth of political progress by comparing steps forwards and steps back, in the hope that overall we’ve made progress. I could fill this issue with many examples of elections, budgets, and spending plans from 2022. But I’ll settle on a few items. Starting with […]
Tag: Lori Lightfoot
Posted inOn Politics
Good riddance
As my mother used to tell me, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. Wonderful words of wisdom that she herself rarely practiced, though often preached. So I was tempted not to write a word about 14th Ward alderperson Ed Burke, who decided not to run for reelection after over 50 […]
Posted inCommentary
Op-Ed: Referendum results show Chicago wants treatment, not trauma
In the midterm, communities voiced overwhelming support for public mental health centers and crisis responses that don’t involve police.
Posted inNews & Politics
Was ‘We Will Chicago’ the People’s plan?
The public comment period closed November 1, but some Chicagoans are still asking whether south and west side residents actually helped shape the plan.
Posted inPress releases
The City of Chicago Commits to Advertising Equity in Local Media
Today, Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot signed an Executive Order designating that City of Chicago departments allocate at least 50 percent of their annual advertising spending to community media outlets. More than 153 languages are spoken in households citywide, in addition to other diversity factors.
Posted inOn Prisons
Shooting ourselves in the foot
Harsh penalties for gun crimes don’t make communities safer.
Posted inNews
A century of guaranteed income
The push to solve poverty through government-backed cash grants is nearly 100 years old.
Posted inOn Politics
Hocus-pocus
As the years roll by, mayors and aldermen come and go but the great Tax Increment Financing scam stays forever. Oh, TIFs, TIFs, TIFs. Haven’t written about them in awhile. But they’re always on my mind, to paraphrase the great Willie Nelson. They’re particularly on my mind as I follow the falsehoods advanced by both […]
Posted inOn Politics
Biased driving
It was a mixed-message week on the homefront. Mayor Lightfoot rolled out the red carpet for NASCAR the day before she arm-twisted the alderpeople into cracking down on speeders to make our streets safer. So one day the mayor is cheering on stock car racers to go faster. And the next she’s sternly demanding motorists […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Young people dream up a safer summer in Chicago
After Mayor Lori Lightfoot expanded the citywide curfew in response to a shooting, teenagers spoke about Chicago’s gun violence crisis and their relationship to the city.
Posted inNews & Politics
False alarms
Ankle-monitor alerts garner phone calls and visits from sheriffs officers—but more than 80 percent are bogus, according to a University of Chicago analysis.
Posted inOpinion
Op-Ed: Chicago doesn’t need more curfews and criminalization
Instead, we need to address the root cause of violence: inequality.
Posted inOn Politics
False equivalence
So there I am at my kitchen table, drinking my morning coffee and reading the latest column in the New York Times by Tom Friedman, who I disagree with more often than not. I read pretty much every column by Friedman, Bret Stephens, David Brooks, and other writers with whom I disagree, on the outside […]
Posted inNews & Politics
CPD requested thousands of vaccine exemptions
Nearly half of Chicago police employees applied for exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine.