Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
Being mayor is an utterly thankless job with very little upside. I'm not surprised that big names have stayed far far away.
If you have a good reputation, a stint on the 5th floor will sink it. If you need to build a reputation, it's a terrible place to start. You have to own all of the dysfunction that the city has accumulated over the last century thanks to the machine, but you have very little power to fix anything since growth and tax revenues are anemic. You cannot go onto statewide or national office. Etc etc.
Even Rahm Emanuel, who did a great job as mayor, got sucked down by it and had nowhere to go afterwards except a powerless ambassadorship appointment.
Note this is true of mayors generally, NYC has not had any mayors go on to higher office either in a very long time. But NYC has lots of diverse political factions, and lots of independently wealthy folks who have a Bruce Wayne complex and don't necessarily care about higher office.
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Was Rahm really a good mayor? Or did he benefit from a pre-Covid world and his connections to Barack Obama. During those days practically ALL the guys - every single one of them - that were connected to the Obama administration rode the fast train to uber success in private/public life, including politics.
As a lifelong INDEPENDENT I can take this view and look at him with a fair, objective and relative non-biased eye.
Moreover, I submit that a credible argument can be made that ANY MAYOR who caters to one group/one sector/one part of the city over other parts,
by definition, cannot be categorized as a "good mayor".
Moving on.... mayors today (particularly in big cities) have a much more difficult job in a post-covid world/with the influx of migrants/Maga nuts/polarized politics devoid of reason... and with respect to Brandon Johnson - cleaning up the mess left by Rahm due to backlash in certain communities, resulting rising crime from being overlooked/neglected, etc.
In short, Rahm
created some of the major problems Brandon Johnson is now faced with.
That said, if I had to rank the job that Brandon Johnson is doing... looking at it fairly and objectively... I would rank him at somewhere around average to below average.... leaning more in the direction of below average.
He does get a major feather in his cap for slowing violent crime and murders in the city. As someone who travels quite a bit I have distinctly noticed that crime and Chicago is not something I hear nearly as often being talked about -- on the news or while out and about -- during my travels. He is doing something right with respect to this and he deserves credit. That said, this does not change my view that he has to start stepping it up with tangible results -- he gets a below average from me AT THIS POINT in his administration.
https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-viol...rime/14241408/
However, it is still somewhat early. And I do see the vision for what he is trying to do and I know that many of his plans are more long term and will not result in quick resolutions. But today's world does not wait -- we want what we want NOW and most do not have the patience or vision to wait for what may or may not come in the future.
Long story short -- Brandon Johnson has faced, and continues to face, ENORMOUS challenges -- a good chunk of those challenges he needs to change from "potential" resolutions that he is working to resolve.... into resolutions that have fixed the problem -- past tense.
He needs to start putting more W's on the scoreboard.
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