CHICAGO | Politics and Current Events

[the urban politician]

^ Ald Ramirez Rosa, what a tool

I can’t wait till that racist bozo gets kicked out and he’s back to working at McDonalds

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by pip

Kinda of off topic and not looking for a fight. Northside lakefront liberals has been replaced with the Near North west

This definitely rings true, so many anti-progress “progressives”. Although I don’t agree with this part of the analysis:

As lakefront neighborhoods on the North Side have become some of the wealthiest in Chicago, they've also become the most right-leaning in the city, and were by far the most supportive of Rahm Emanuel during his two campaigns for mayor.

Lakefront neighborhoods are not by any stretch the most “right-leaning” neighborhoods in the city. Maybe the author has never visited Beverly, Mt Greenwood, Jefferson Park, Edison Park, Norwood Park, etc.

[thegoatman]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Ald Ramirez Rosa, what a tool

I can’t wait till that racist bozo gets kicked out and he’s back to working at McDonalds

that whole group is awful. they think any type of development is gEnTriFiCatIoN. They like keeping neighborhoods shitty, I remember one of the alderman said these bad ass kids carjack and kill innocent people cause they dont have enough resources in their neighborhood, what an idiot.

[left of center]

Yup. Any econ 101 class will tell you that the market works on supply and demand. If you restrict supply and it does not match demand, prices will go up. By downzoning/blocking development, they just increase the prices of the neighborhood. Owners of existing buildings will kick out their low price tenants, remodel, and go on the market for double the rate. Had they allowed dense development on empty lots, those new housing units would absorb incoming demand and not displace existing families.

The good thing is this is a self-solving problem. The existing voter base that elected these alderbeasts will be priced out of the ward by the very policies that were meant to keep gentrification away, and the aldermen will be voted out by a new electorate that does not identify with them or agree with their policies.

[LouisVanDerWright]

I actually heard a rumor that Mr TOD himself, Joe Moreno, that slimey scallywag, is considering making a comeback run at LaSpata. There are also several other potential candidates, including at least one closely allied with Rosa, who are considering going up against him. LaSpata has been pretty incompetent so far, the bike lanes he just pushed through on Logan have resulted in a perpetual traffic jam at that intersection. I'm all for bike infrastructure, but not when you are going to kneecap a critical intersection like Western and Logan with it.

Ironically a battle between the white gentrifiers and woke Latinx folks that the Reader article talks up could wind up becoming a bitter split in the First Ward.

[the urban politician]

Well, at this point I think even Moreno is an improvement because he at least allowed development in Logan Square, despite the fact that he is otherwise a criminal asshat who’s been indicted(convicted?)

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Handro

Who needs a socially liberal Republican when a guy like Rahm can run and win? A "centrist Democrat" won't scare away Lakefront Liberals but can still be pro-business and potentially "tough on crime".

What exactly do we do about crime when the most violent crime seems to be following a national trends likely following a federal crackdown on fentanyl, opiates in general, and meth? I think this is similar to what happened to when the Feds cracked down on cocaine, especially freebase/crack in the 1990s.

I honestly don't get the popularity of fentanyl. Heroin is so much better.

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by emathias

What exactly do we do about crime when the most violent crime seems to be following a national trends likely following a federal crackdown on fentanyl, opiates in general, and meth? I think this is similar to what happened to when the Feds cracked down on cocaine, especially freebase/crack in the 1990s.

I honestly don't get the popularity of fentanyl. Heroin is so much better.

heroin destroys enough lives on its own. the issue with fentanyl is that it is cheap/easy to produce in black market labs in other countries, and that it is so incredibly potent. the crackdown in the over-prescription of opiate painkillers has pushed people into other options. every drug on the street is cut with something, and fentanyl has become an easy way for distributors down the funnel to stomp on the product. when toxicity is measured in micrograms, you can see where the problem arises when other drugs are getting cut with this stuff. its become a selling point for people who are very deep into addictions and have tolerances built up; if word on the street is people are dying from a particular batch, addicts will rush to get it because it means the stuff is potent.

its also incredibly difficult to stop this stuff at the border as even a pound of the stuff can make its way its an absolutely massive amount of final products. now youre also seeing it make its way into counterfeit pain killers in Mexico, as the cartel can easily wedge its way into distribution. this is why people are dropping dead left and right, most dont even know theyre consuming it.

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by emathias

I honestly don't get the popularity of fentanyl. Heroin is so much better.

That's wonderful. . .

. . .

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by thegoatman

^ Fuck no, and she's right to laugh him off. The easiest way to guarantee a second Lightfoot term would be for Catanzara to run as her opponent. He has made himself incredibly unlikable and the only people that support him are severe cop bootlickers.

His childish antics and far right rhetoric wouldn't garner even 5% of the vote in Chicago, this isn't Alabama or Kentucky. I would say Chicago could do well with a sensible socially liberal republican like Bloomberg or Charlie Baker, too bad the modern Republican party is an absolute joke and keeps propping up losers like him.

Both parties are a joke. Criminal coddlers and riot/looting supporting on the left and mean spirited bigots on the right.

[Steely Dan]

how awesome would it be if the alder-beasts can't come to a map agreement and we the people get to directly vote for a new ward map!

a man can dream.

Fight over ward boundaries appears headed for costly referendum after Lightfoot fails to forge weekend compromise
After months on the sidelines, Mayor Lori Lightfoot jumped into the fray over the weekend, trying to bring the two sides closer together. It didn’t work, and now the mayor sounds almost resigned to a referendum.

By Fran Spielman Nov 29, 2021, 3:14pm CST



Chicago’s once-a-decade struggle to craft a new City Council ward map appears headed for a costly referendum after Mayor Lori Lightfoot tried — and failed — to forge a weekend compromise.

“I was invited by a number of different folks to get engaged — and I did. I convened a meeting over the weekend. We spent several hours putting issues on the table, trying to narrow those issues and get to some kind of consensus,” Lightfoot said Monday.

“Obviously, it was my hope that that would have happened over the weekend. Sunday at the latest. That didn’t happen. Those discussions continue. … It’s unfortunate that it’s coming down to the last minute. But there has to be transparency. People have to see a map.”

Lightfoot refused to say what she proposed, nor did she reveal whether she urged the Black Caucus to give up a second African-American ward to allow the creation of a 15th majority-Hispanic ward.

But she did sound almost resigned to a referendum — Chicago’s first in decades.

full article: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/11...oot-referendum

[Steely Dan]

i fully support "The People's Map" proposal for a new ward map.

it removes a great deal of the asinine gerrymandering that the current ward map uses for the alder-beasts to protect their little racial/ethnic division fiefdoms.

it ain't perfect (no map could ever be), but at least it's millions of times more sensible.

https://chicagoswards.org/final-map



i urge all other chicagoans interested in having a non-stupid ward map to sign the petition to support The People's Map here: https://chicagoswards.org/take-action

[Bonsai Tree]

Anyone see the new proposed map?

[left of center]

Looks like I will still be in the 1st Ward. Excellent. I am too lazy to change my title in my account settings



Interesting the ward map does not include the DuPage portion of O'Hare. The population there is zero, but still I find it interesting that the map basically treats it as outside of city proper.

[Steely Dan]

while i understand that the black caucus doesn't want to give up too much poilitcal power in the rempapping process, i still find it hard to believe that they are digging their heels in on saying that they will only accept a map with 17 black wards and 14 latino wards when in fact latinos now outnumber blacks in the city as of last census.

the latino caucus map which has 16 black wards while upping the latino wards up to 15 seems pretty fair in light of the census results. i'm not latino or black, so i don't have a dog in the fight*, i'm just looking at the math. the two macro-demos are now more or less at parity with each other within the city, and 16-15 is a lot closer to parity than 17-14 is.



(*) i live in the 46th ward (lincoln square/north center) which is majority white, but currently has a black alderman and prior to him had an asian-american alderman, so i do look a little sideways at all of this racial ward mapping stuff, while still understanding why it takes place.

[the urban politician]

^ I love this implosion in racial identity politics.

It reveals the stupidity and hypocrisy of it all. ("I claim to be victim of racism yet....I am also racist myself").

People more advanced than all of the Neanderthals holding political office today need to wise up to the simple concept that there is no reason why I can't be represented (politically) by a person of a different color than myself, as long as I agree with his (or her) IDEAS.

The fact that there is mistrust of a political representative of a different race reveals all--these Black and Latino (and I guess Asian too now) caucus types are not in it to do a fair and balanced job, they are in it so that they can continue treating their own ethnicity as a special interest group.

That's the Democrats in a nutshell, and why I'm way the hell turned off by them.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

there is no reason why I can't be represented (politically) by a person of a different color than myself, as long as I agree with his (or her) IDEAS.

i would certainly agree that should be the ideal.

and it is my personal reality in the 47th.

but we ain't there yet as a city.

not by a long shot.



the only hope to see that reality change is for less residential segregation along racial/ethnic lines.

and while that phenomenon is ocurring, it moves at a snail's pace in this town, and only in very specific areas.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

People more advanced than all of the Neanderthals holding political office today need to wise up to the simple concept that there is no reason why I can't be represented (politically) by a person of a different color than myself, as long as I agree with his (or her) IDEAS.

In our system the only way to ensure that each ethnic group is represented fairly is to give them a proportional number of majority wards.

It's well known that aldermen don't tend to give a shit about minority groups in their ward; this is how Walter Burnett gets away with approving tower after tower in white West Loop, because his Black voting base on the West Side doesn't care. Or Byron Sigcho who has fought a vendetta against a small locally-owned bar because the customers are white instead of Latino (this isn't actually true, but he thinks it is). Or Patrick Daley Thompson, who pushed for a ban on new nail salons along Halsted because the salon owners were Asian and the customers non-white.

If you don't give proportional representation, then a whole ethnic group citywide gets screwed over with this same kind of injustice by the other groups that hold more council seats. It is precisely because our elected officials are Neanderthals that we need proportional representation on Council.

[moorhosj1]

From Crain's today

In a “special pension briefing” released yesterday, it said unfunded liability in the five state pension systems that cover university employees, state workers, and most teachers outside of Chicago shrank by a hefty $14.2 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30, dropping from $144.2 billion last year to $130 billion now.

The unfunded liability of $130 billion, is now lower than when Pritzker took office. They are now 46.5% funded, compared to 40.2% at the beginning of his term. Think this will be noticed by our fellow citizens calling themselves "fiscally conservative"?

From 3 years ago, right before Pritzker took office:

Illinois’ already huge unfunded pension liability grew bigger in fiscal 2018, rising to $133.5 billion from $129 billion at the end of fiscal 2017 mainly due to inadequate state funding, according to a legislative report released on Friday.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by moorhosj1

From Crain's today


The unfunded liability of $130 billion, is now lower than when Pritzker took office. They are now 46.5% funded, compared to 40.2% at the beginning of his term. Think this will be noticed by our fellow citizens calling themselves "fiscally conservative"?

From 3 years ago, right before Pritzker took office:

This is almost enough to get me to sign up for Crain's subscription. I am super curious to know exactly how this happened (as someone who is new to the scene). Great to see some progress on that front, regardless of which political party is in power.