CHICAGO | Politics and Current Events

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by Halsted & Villagio

We all have our issues.... the things that we truly care about. For me, it is crime. The increase in property tax issue did not rankle me too much but that's me. My thing - crime.

My first job out of law school was working briefly as a Public Defender before moving on to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office back before Kim Foxx - back when cracking down on crime and enforcing the law meant something. Not overzealous but fair... simply enforce what the law requires! These days I guess I would be considered "old school" that way. We now have a convicted felon for President (something I thought I would never see).... so yes... I guess I am old school.

My point is, I made my bones as a State's Attorney where I got much needed courtroom experience before moving on to private practice and other areas of a law. But I will never forget my days as an ASA and I carry them with me even now. States Attorneys and Police are synonymous - we are, essentially, cops... just in a different form.

Enter Kwame Raoul... a personal friend of mine. When I was a young State's Attorney, he was like a mentor to me... and our friendship grew from there. I have immense respect for the man and his integrity. If he is now saying that Mayor Johnson is on the wrong track with his Police reform budget cuts, then I believe it. Granted, I do believe in reform. If something is broken, then doing more of the same thing over and over is NOT a solution. But my view is, do the reform... but keep the Police force happily paid and fully stocked. It should never be one.... at the expense of the other.

I take everything I read from the Trib/SunTimes/Crains with a grain of salt - knowing that the written word is often skewed from the prism of those doing the writing. But when somebody I know and trust is ringing this alarm bell, that passes my own credibility/believability test.

This is unacceptable. Mayor Johnson is on the wrong track. He is trying to hit home runs without hitting singles and doubles. Every good batting lineup has both. He needs to build consensus and build up to the home run by getting men on base first, drive in a few runs, then maybe go for the homerun or even the grand slam. Analogy in short - its a process. And you can't go for it all without taking care of the basic things first - such as keeping our Police force paid well and fully stocked.

He is looking more and more like an unmitigated disaster.............

Thank you for providing a thoughtful and meaningful response. I think it's great having input like this from folks like you who are 'in the trenches' and understand how things work behind the scenes.

Your statement above that I emphasized in bold, about Foxx...I cannot get it out of my mind now; simple but her tenure has had profound implications, for worse.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

LOL! ������

The city council voted 50 to 0 to shoot down Mayor McMoron's proposed $300M property tax increase!!!


"You'll get nothing and like it"

It's clear that he has absolutely no support in City Council, and by extension, the rest of City government is giving a big fuck you to the CTU, which is appropriate.
I fully support unions and union workers who need protection from employers that would easily exploit them otherwise. But the CTU is different because they cannot see the forest through the trees, or refuse to because of inconvenience.
Chicago's population is stagnant, schools with a fraction of the number of students from even 10 years ago should be closed, mothballed, etc. If the population rises again and there is need for schools, then so be it. But new school construction may also be relatively cheaper than renovating school buildings that are 50-60+ years old; the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and interior renovation work alone is far too cost-prohibitive in older buildings...sell those buildings to private residential developers, or create public-private partnerships to do the same and reap the money for the benefit of taxpayers. A pipe-dream perhaps, but it's realistic and there is precedent.

At this point, Johnson has no mandate, and he really REALLY needs to start from scratch...and if he can't, I hope he's smart enough to resign, because he's not going to be able to get anything done by the time of the next mayoral election.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by sentinel

At this point, Johnson has no mandate, and he really REALLY needs to start from scratch...and if he can't, I hope he's smart enough to resign, because he's not going to be able to get anything done by the time of the next mayoral election.

Politicians with his kind of "type A" arrogance never resign.

NEVER.


He either dies in office for some reason or our city has 2.5 more years to suffer through his gross incompetence.

[twister244]

Yeah, It sucks we have this mayor, but very very happy our Alderman are giving him a big FU middle finger right now.

That shows you how bad our mayor is when every single Alderman votes against his proposed budget.

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by Halsted & Villagio

Enter Kwame Raoul... a personal friend of mine. When I was a young State's Attorney, he was like a mentor to me... and our friendship grew from there. I have immense respect for the man and his integrity.

Not that it matters, but I'm just here to register my strong disagreement with this Pro-Raoul propoganda.

I too have personal experiences with him from his time at the City Colleges and the word 'integrity' does not describe him, as he abetted flagrantly racist hiring practices and retaliatory actions in his role as an attorney.

Doesn't mean he's right or wrong about the consent degree or police budget, I just feel so strongly about Raoul and a sense of embarassment that he's our Attorney General that I felt it necessary to post.

[aaron38]

This one graphic explains why Illinois is such a financial mess
https://wirepoints.org/this-one-grap...ss-wirepoints/

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by r18tdi

Ditto. Not as tall, but the old design was way more interesting.

Maybe it's a placeholder design, and Sterling Bay is hoping to upzone and then sell?

Yes, Sterling Bay is borderline insolvent having bet the farm on office buildings all over the place. Lincoln Yards is a total disaster for them with the current entitlements worth $0 and the Home Depot tower fully vacant.

Dark days for development in Chicago and the city in general. Not only is the current mayor a nincompoop, but the assessor is wildly incompetent and his stoogette on the board of review just got rolled up by CPD for driving totally wasted with half a bottle of red wine belted into the passenger seat after sideswiping a bunch of cars on Ashland.

It is absurd that people like this are in control of serious business like tax assessments and the whole city for that matter, but it's also incredibly damaging to the business environment here. The fact is no one is building because there's zero certainly about what the laws will be or even whether the assessor will just triple your taxes without warning.

Unfortunately it's gotten so bad that businesses are actively demolishing old buildings to escape the tax bill. Ozinga is about to take down a big loft building by their plant on Cermak that's currently full of artists because Kagei juiced their tax bill. Easy peasy, kick the artists out, flatten the historic buildings, use it for concrete truck parking. They are gonna need it for all their trucks to sit idle on while we build nothing for the next three years until all these "progressives" get the boot.

Really depressing TBH, but what do you expect. Shame on anyone in this forum who voted for any of these clowns.

[LouisVanDerWright]

No posts about Samantha Steeles DUI and drunken racist berating of an Asian officer for having "a small dick"?

You know, Fritz Kagei's one vote on the Board of Review tasked with preventing anyone from getting a fair shake.

Yet another grossly corrupt and incompetent politician at the helm of this city. It's getting increasingly difficult to justify remaining here. The negligence is gross and it's to the point of disaster. There's a massive wave of demolitions happening to loft buildings right now because of Kagei's incompetence and meanwhile his plant on the Board is rolling around town wasted with a half drank bottle of wine in her car. Does she apologize? No. Will she resign? No.

Oh and BTW it turns out she is also on the board of review for Lake County Indiana. Something she did not disclose to cook county as required. She's over employed and working two jobs. Only showed up at 55% of the Lake County Board meetings last year. How is she possibly paying attention to the mess of cases Fritz is creating in Cook County while also doing double duty in NW Indiana?

She's not. This whole city is run by clowns. The FBI needs to come in and round the whole lot of them up again.

[mh777]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Yes, Sterling Bay is borderline insolvent having bet the farm on office buildings all over the place. Lincoln Yards is a total disaster for them with the current entitlements worth $0 and the Home Depot tower fully vacant.

Dark days for development in Chicago and the city in general. Not only is the current mayor a nincompoop, but the assessor is wildly incompetent and his stoogette on the board of review just got rolled up by CPD for driving totally wasted with half a bottle of red wine belted into the passenger seat after sideswiping a bunch of cars on Ashland.

It is absurd that people like this are in control of serious business like tax assessments and the whole city for that matter, but it's also incredibly damaging to the business environment here. The fact is no one is building because there's zero certainly about what the laws will be or even whether the assessor will just triple your taxes without warning.

Unfortunately it's gotten so bad that businesses are actively demolishing old buildings to escape the tax bill. Ozinga is about to take down a big loft building by their plant on Cermak that's currently full of artists because Kagei juiced their tax bill. Easy peasy, kick the artists out, flatten the historic buildings, use it for concrete truck parking. They are gonna need it for all their trucks to sit idle on while we build nothing for the next three years until all these "progressives" get the boot.

Really depressing TBH, but what do you expect. Shame on anyone in this forum who voted for any of these clowns.

Well said. A perfect explanation of today’s development picture.

[sentinel]

I’ve noticed nothing but crickets from Johnson’s past supporters in this forum, which says a lot.

Kaegi is the idiot kid in the front of the grade school class who asks the teacher about the additional homework they forgot they mentioned at the beginning of class.

The only current silver lining in Chicago/Cook politics is that Kim Foxx is GONE. Hopefully, there will now be the slightest amount of accountability for serious criminal activity in the area.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by sentinel

I’ve noticed nothing but crickets from Johnson’s past supporters in this forum, which says a lot.

Because we live(d) in an era where anyone who dared not tow certain political party lines were cast out as Republicans. This is exactly what happened to Paul Vallas....... He probably leaned right in some ways, but because of tribal politics, he was dismissed by swaths of progressives/liberals in the city.

And I say live(d) as I feel like the tides have shifted after this past month..... Hopefully more people decide to speak up more next time we have a candidate that doesn't adhere to rigid political ideologies.....

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by sentinel

I’ve noticed nothing but crickets from Johnson’s past supporters in this forum, which says a lot.

Well, with an utterly abysmal approval rating of only 14% (LOL!!!), I think we can safely say that a significant percentage of BJ's past supporters can now be accurately recast as ex-supporters.


Candid and quiet admission from our lefty neighbors over dinner the other night: "we regret voting for him".


I mean, unless you're some higher-up in the CTU, who actually would still support this useless clown?

Even his own progressive caucus allies on the council gave him the middle finger over the property tax hike debacle. And he then had the bewildering and totally counter-productive gaul to publicly demonize them as toddlers throwing a tantrum after that epic 50 - 0 bitch-slap.

Dude is beyond tone-deaf.

[marothisu]

Johnson sucks - how could anyone not have seen that when he ran? Anyone will vote for a guy who says some shit that ends up on sound bites. He has to be one of the worst "why the hell would you say that!?" politicians I have ever seen and that's a LOW bar.


And now there's a new SA in town. Crime has been decreasing for months now and more in line with years like 2018, 2015, etc now. I'm looking forward to it going down even more.

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by marothisu

And now there's a new SA in town. Crime has been decreasing for months now and more in line with years like 2018, 2015, etc now. I'm looking forward to it going down even more.

Based on long-term secular trends in CPS enrollment statistics over the past 10 years, we might expect continued improvement in crime levels in coming years, as there is a smaller and shrinking cohort from which tomorrow's criminals will blossom.

[sentinel]

I think all Chicago and Cook county politicians (and even at the state level) need to accept the fact that the state population is stagnant, which is still better than shrinking rapidly. But because of that current scenario, people will unfortunately need to be let go, or asked to retire early. The is an absurd abundance of over-governance at the City, County and State levels, and headcount cuts would do a lot of good, especially if it alleviates both fiscal budget issues at each of those levels, as well as long-term pension funding - cut people now in order to stop kicking that can down the road, because that road leads to a pretty steep cliff.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by sentinel

I think all Chicago and Cook county politicians (and even at the state level) need to accept the fact that the state population is stagnant, which is still better than shrinking rapidly. But because of that current scenario, people will unfortunately need to be let go, or asked to retire early. The is an absurd abundance of over-governance at the City, County and State levels, and headcount cuts would do a lot of good, especially if it alleviates both fiscal budget issues at each of those levels, as well as long-term pension funding - cut people now in order to stop kicking that can down the road, because that road leads to a pretty steep cliff.

Yep - It's an easy solution. Well, one of many solutions to repair our broken system. Once the city/state begin clawing back population numbers, then we can have a conversation about new government spending.

[twister244]

Getting closer to a budget solution, but the mayor is still being a jackass when it comes to cutting staff or spending....

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/..._content=alert

But the pro-labor mayor has vehemently refused to consider personnel cuts such as layoffs, arguing Chicagoans do not want reduced services.

Which can come across a great political talking point until you realize how much our budget increased from pre-Covid to now.....

One of Johnson’s staunchest critics, Southwest Side Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, swiftly came out with a statement after Friday morning’s briefing demanding Chicago return to pre-COVID-19 spending levels. The city’s budget grew from $11.65 billion in 2020 to over $16.77 billion this year, which was Johnson’s first spending plan as mayor.

[Steely Dan]

^ yep.

Time to start reining in the insanity.

Unfortunately, the idiots of this city decided to make one of its craziest inmates the warden of the entire fucking asylum.


But it's all good. I have it on good authority that money does grow on trees, so you can just spend it as recklessly as you want. It'll just grow back.

#clownbudgeting

[sentinel]

https://x.com/Austin__Berg/status/1864028110313984074

I would agree that public education in a city as big as Chicago is vitally important, but NOT when the mayor is a stooge and puppet for an organization as unhinged and corrupt as the CTU. They live in a bubble fantasy world where all schools should be kept open, even if they're only at 20-30% capacity (or less!). They have no idea how much overhead it costs to keep those schools open.
I would call myself a progressive liberal, but when there is no appetite or desire for compromise of any kind, just like how Johnson is behaving, they've lost me even further. He needs to resign because he has no support, especially when he acts like this. The City, CPS and CTU need to cut, and cut and cut some more; consolidate, mothball, sell assets to private developers. THIS IS NOT HARD.

[CrazyCres]

New Illinois State Flag Finalists

https://www.ilsos.gov/special/IFC/10finalists.pdf

Thoughts?