CHICAGO | Politics and Current Events

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Garynewman

Remember when this city had mayors that would deliver grand projects? Daley gave us Millineum Park, Rahm with the 606, Riverwalk, West Loop boom, made Chicago a corporate relocation magnet, etc.

BJ hasn't been a good mayor, but this idea that things were great with Daley and Rahm doesn't match reality.

The two biggest, lingering, problems the city faces are high crime and poor finances. Daley did more to create the current fiscal scenario than any other individual. Rahm was mayor for 8 years and made almost no progress on crime (with almost 20% more murders in his last year vs. his first year).

[Bonsai Tree]

That's a lie with Rahm. During his tenure the city saw the lowest crime in decades- (2014). The end of Daley's tenure and most of Rahm's tenure witnessed some of the lowest homicide numbers the city has seen. The rise in crime from 2016-18 was a direct biproduct of the Laquan McDonald trial and the resulting soft-strike by CPD, and general resentment of CPD by some in the city. Rahm is certainly responsible to this- but to say he made no progress is to forget most of his tenure.

All that we've seen from the past few mayors is stubbornly high crime, which while decreasing, is not decreasing as fast as peer cities (looking at Philly here).

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Bonsai Tree

All that we've seen from the past few mayors is stubbornly high crime, which while decreasing, is not decreasing as fast as peer cities (looking at Philly here).

Chicago had more murders in Rahm's last year than his first year. You can come up with a million reasons, but in almost a decade as mayor, he didn't really make progress on this.

2011: 431 murders
2019: 496 murders

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Garynewman

Meanwhile crime is up from last year here in Chicago.

Where are you seeing this? The CPD data has overall crime down 17% and shootings down 20% through 2/23.

[pip]

How are murders doing this year so far compared to last year?

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by pip

How are murders doing this year so far compared to last year?

Roughly the same.

62 so far year compared to 63 YTD last year.

[pip]

A few months ago an approval rating of Mayor Johnson at 14% was posted here and I questioned it but was given a source. At the time I thought an approval rating that low is unheard of after seeing it sourced. But he is now at 6.6% approval rating "one of the worst showings for any major political figure in the country's history."
https://www.newsweek.com/chicago-may...rating-2036026

[pip]

I've been out of the loop with Chicago. Been in Boston the past 2.5 years with quick side trips back to check on my place. I've been back now for almost two months so I have no opinion formed on the mayor aside from what I have read here.

[Handro]

Originally Posted by Garynewman

https://x.com/EricAbbenante/status/1895711070976618742

Rahm Emmanuel appeared on the Real Time with Bill Maher and scolded Johnson for his 6% approval rating and progressives for destroying Chicago and other blue cities. Really hope he runs for mayor again in 2027. We need common sense, moderate, democrat leadership back in power.

Rahm was an ok mayor and in another league compared to what we’ve had since but let’s not ignore his blatant opportunism. He loved playing lip service to progressive causes when he was mayor.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Garynewman

"Progressive causes" have doomed Chicago. How do you not see that after these past two mayors? Chicago peaked when it was ran by centrist, pro-business democrats (Daley/Rahm). Save the "progressive causes" for the national level, it always fails on a city level.

How do you not see that Daley and Rahm laid the foundation for our major problems today (high taxes, underfunded pensions, high crime)? You keep lauding their “pro-business” approach without acknowledging how they kicked the can down the road and gave us today’s financial reality.

Daley sold some of our greatest assets to balance the annual budget and started the concept of skipping pension payments. Rahm continued many of those bad financial practices and left with violence rates higher than when he entered.

They borrowed from today to build that “peak” Chicago. Now we are paying the bill, literally.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by moorhosj1

How do you not see that Daley and Rahm laid the foundation for our major problems today (high taxes, underfunded pensions, high crime)? You keep lauding their “pro-business” approach without acknowledging how they kicked the can down the road and gave us today’s financial reality.

Daley sold some of our greatest assets to balance the annual budget and started the concept of skipping pension payments. Rahm continued many of those bad financial practices and left with violence rates higher than when he entered.

They borrowed from today to build that “peak” Chicago. Now we are paying the bill, literally.

While you have a point, it's not exactly as though Johnson is doing much of anything differently than previous mayors. The only difference is he went full throttle on identity politics and the progressive voters turned out to vote him in because we had a weak pool of candidates.

A true progressive would try to tackle some of these problems once and for all. Kicking the can down the road is the opposite of progressive as it will end up hurting the poor people in the city the most - Reduced public service, reduce police presence, reduce job opportunities, etc. etc.

Our problems could get fixed pretty easily in Chicago, we just choose not to address them because we constantly have just enough wiggle room to let problems slide. This is the same city that reversed the Chicago River over 100 years ago but somehow we can't manage our finances?

Give me a break......

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by twister244

While you have a point, it's not exactly as though Johnson is doing much of anything differently than previous mayors.

This is my entire point. He is doing pretty much the exact same things as Rahm and Daley, but for some reason we hear over and over again about how great those Mayors were for the city. I don't think any of them were/are particularly good.

Rahm is a master of self-marketing. If the Quantum Campus or 1901 Project were announced during his tenure, you better believe he would have been first in line to pat himself on the back for making it possible. Johnson and his admin are too inept to even communicate the wins they do have. I'm not saying he made those things happen (he didn't), but that wouldn't have stopped Rahm from taking credit.

[sentinel]

Not Chicago-specific, but pretty amazing for the entire state, if this passes:

Short Description: IL UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE ACT
Synopsis As Introduced
"Creates the Illinois Universal Health Care Act. Provides that all individuals residing in the State are covered under the Illinois Health Services Program for health insurance. Sets forth the health coverage benefits that participants are entitled to under the Program..."

https://ilga.gov/legislation/billsta...SessionID=114#

[moorhosj1]

It's pretty telling that the only people who can make BJ look competent are Congressional Republicans. Kind of makes sense why Vallas lost to BJ, considering Vallas now works for Illinois Policy Institute.

For those unaware: IPI has received financial support from charitable foundations associated with the Koch, Mercer, Uihlein, and Rauner families.

[left of center]

Originally Posted by sentinel

Not Chicago-specific, but pretty amazing for the entire state, if this passes:

Short Description: IL UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE ACT
Synopsis As Introduced
"Creates the Illinois Universal Health Care Act. Provides that all individuals residing in the State are covered under the Illinois Health Services Program for health insurance. Sets forth the health coverage benefits that participants are entitled to under the Program..."

https://ilga.gov/legislation/billsta...SessionID=114#

Interesting. I wonder how this will be funded. Will it be a private/public partnership? Will this work with existing private insurance, compete with them, or offer some sort of Illinois-only single payer system?

The uninsured in this state already receive medical service for free by law in the form of ER visits, which are prohibitively expensive. By allowing preventable health services, which are considerably cheaper and prevent chronic illnesses from becoming much more expensive health emergencies, this might be a zero revenue initiative.

That said, considering the state's financial situation, unless there is a guarantee that this initiative will not draw funds from the state's budget, it might be tough to get passed.

[left of center]

I found some information on this bill online:

https://www.pnhpillinois.org/311summary.php


At the top they claim that the savings alone from "paperwork" will be able to pay for this initiative, which sounds a bit dubious. However at the the bottom of the page there is a small section that explains the financing a bit:

The program would be paid for by combining current sources of government health spending into a single fund with modest new taxes that would be fully offset by reductions in premiums and out-of-pocket spending.

I would be interested to see some of their number crunching on this. While I am averse to new taxes considering the already heavy burden for taxpayers in this state, this would definitely be a worthy cause that we should pursue.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Garynewman

Find yourself the least popular politician in state history and need to pay for clout? Pass an $830 million bond deal with no payments on the principal for 20 years. The latter is what Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson did on Feb. 26."

I think this is bond deal is a very bad idea and have told my Alderperson as much. That said, 10 years ago, Rahm proposed borrowing with an even longer deferred payment schedule.

The latest general obligation bond proposal from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel could have the cash-strapped city selling up to $500 million of capital appreciation bonds (CABs), a form of debt that government finance experts say could be costly and risky.

Richard Ciccarone, president and CEO of Merritt Research Services, said Thursday the move would allow the city to "kick the can down the road" by deferring debt service payments for as long as 40 years.

[Steely Dan]

^ yes, the neverending can kicking in this town is now mulit-generational, and it needs to fucking stop!

But the dipshit citizens of this city have decided that they'd rather be governed by children who really do believe that money grows on trees.

[Steely Dan]

So the census bureau released 2024 metro area estimates today, and they say Chicagoland reversed course last year and added ~71K people, with 40K of that in Cook County.

Which I guess is good from a PR and media narrative perspective, but we all know ridiculous CB estimates are.



But the best part is the Illinois Policy Institute's contortions to spin it negative, which basically boils down to:

"Well, like, ok....... so Chicagoland actually grew by 71 thousand people according to the census bureau....... but, but, but........ it was like...... all brown people...... so, ya know....... that's still not like......... good......... man."

https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chica...8k-since-2020/


What sad fucking clowns.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Which I guess is good from a PR and media narrative perspective, but we all know ridiculous CB estimates

They also updated last years numbers to show growth.

The Census Bureau now says the Chicago metro area grew in each of the past two years. Previously, it estimated that the Chicago area lost 16,602 residents in 2023. The Census Bureau did not explain the revision.

According to Crain’s they have changed their methodology, although we don’t know how.

The Census Bureau said it is using new methodology that better estimates immigration, including humanitarian migrants, such as Venezuelan refugees.