CHICAGO | Politics and Current Events

[left of center]

^ Great! Sounds like he is well connected and experienced at different levels of government and business. Vast improvement over what we got!

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by ardecila

I'm mostly ok with Conway's politics, from what little I've heard, but man the guy is *ambitious*. Real Master of the Universe vibes.

Dude really did the whole cursus honorum here:

-HS at Latin
-undergrad at Wharton
-JD at Georgetown
-MBA at Booth
-6 years in the State's Attorney's office
-4 years as investment banker at Chase
-5 years in military intelligence

Not just mayor, but this person should be President!!

[lakeshoredrive]

Conway or Mendoza would be my choice. I like Buckner a lot because of his focus on public transit so maybe he could be a dark horse.

[twister244]

So, Yesterday there were three (?) main commissioners that "retired" from the city. As in, they were likely pushed out. This overlaps with the ORD thread, but Jamie Rhee was one of them, who was the aviation commissioner. Does anyone know the beef between here and Johnson?

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/poli...paign=20250214

[Kngkyle]

I'm excited for Pastor John Paul to become our new aviation commissioner.

/s

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

I'm excited for Pastor John Paul to become our new aviation commissioner.

Hopefully he brags about not ever needing to use commercial aviation because he's wealthy enough to always fly on private jets!

[Kngkyle]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Hopefully he brags about not ever needing to use commercial aviation because he's wealthy enough to always fly private jets!

Shockingly it seems the likely replacement is someone who has some experience in the role... if that happens then I'll withhold further judgement. I don't think the O'Hare modernization project has been handled particularly well since COVID - everything is delayed by 5-10 years.

The front-runner to replace Rhee is Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Chief Operating Officer, John Roberson, who served as aviation commissioner under former Mayor Richard M. Daley.

https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/ch...randon-johnson

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

Shockingly it seems the likely replacement is someone who has some experience in the role... if that happens then I'll withhold further judgement. I don't think the O'Hare modernization project has been handled particularly well since COVID - everything is delayed by 5-10 years.



https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/ch...randon-johnson

Yeah.... I'm hearing a lot of anger from Alderman on this dismissal, and on paper, it doesn't appear to be a good move on Johnson's part. Until.... You realize that ORD planning since 2019 has been a complete disaster. It still boggles my mind that S1 hasn't gotten off the ground. You're seeing all of these taxiway projects, which could have easily been done during Covid, suddenly taking priority over getting S1 off the ground.

Not saying she was justified to be let go, but I will also hold my breath to see if someone else can do a better job.

[left of center]

https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-ha...ic-development

Johnson's $830 million bond issue stalls in City Council

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $830 million general obligation bond issue to upgrade Chicago’s aging infrastructure stalled in the City Council on Wednesday amid claims the back-loaded repayment schedule is “fiscal insanity.”

Ald. Bill Conway (34th) is so concerned about the size of the borrowing — and a financing structure that saddles Chicago’s taxpayers with $2 billion in added costs — that he tried and failed to send the matter back to the Finance Committee he co-chairs for additional discussion.

....


The structure calls for the city to make only “capitalized interest” payments — using borrowed money — for the first two years and make interest-only payments until 2045. Annual payments will balloon from $47.6 million in 2028 to $136.9 million in 2050, remaining there until the bonds are fully retired in 2055.

[Steely Dan]

I shudder at the decades of misfortune this buffoon is going to leave in his wake until we can boot his sorry ass out in 2 years.

At first I thought he was content to have his legacy as merely the worst mayor in Chicago history.

But it seems like he might be reaching for the global all-time crown of the worst mayor of anywhere, ever.

[SIGSEGV]

I dunno mayor Adams in NYC is trying his best for that honor

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Garynewman

What good has Johnson done for this city? Seriously?

I think he could legitimately get credit for two things.

• Hiring Larry Snelling - violent crimes (specifically shootings, robbery, battery) are down pretty significantly so far this year.
• Passing two budgets with extra pension payments and no property tax hike - council did a lot of the work here

The Cut The Tape initiative seems to have stalled, LaSalle redevelopment was a Lori program, CTA expansion was already in the works, we've made progress on cutting TIFs--but locked the savings up in bonds, migrant spending wasn't as bad as feared (he arguable handled this well on the balance), and on and on.

[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.

[Bonsai Tree]

Originally Posted by moorhosj1

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

And? Sure he didn't make progress- but I'd rather have 496 homicides than the 618 we had last year. I find this argument ridiculous- since homicides in the 400s is the lowest the city had in generations.

[IrishIllini]

I thought I read something about crime being down across the city. I've noticed an increase in social issues related to housing, drug use, and mental health, but that's a national issue.