Chicago's deepest problems can no longer be ignored
Even before the two-year anniversary of the inauguration of Mayor Brandon Johnson, potential mayoral challengers were weighing a run against him in 2027.
In a February poll from M3 Strategies, Johnson, who was elected mayor of America's third-most populous city despite having no executive experience, was found to have a 6.6 percent approval rating. At the time Newsweek said Johnson’s approval rating was “one of the worst showings for any major political figure in the country's history.”
Johnson performs slightly better in the most recent M3 Strategies poll, but he looks like the 2025 Chicago White Sox, who only seem to be playing well because last year’s team was historically bad.
If it seems that Johnson has been mayor for much longer than two years, you are not alone. Time passes slowly when you are suffering. Think of that long-term migraine or toothache.
A better, more competent mayor is needed, but an even worse one could win in 2027. That “worse” one could be an emboldened Johnson who somehow finds a way to win a second term. Or a Zohran Mamdani type. Don't laugh: In 2022, many Chicagoans couldn't imagine anyone worse than Lori Lightfoot. And few Chicagoans had heard of Johnson then.
For the better men and woman considering a bid for mayor, here are some issues they need to run on. These mayoral wannabes can skip the expensive polling and the hiring high-priced consultants, at least for now. It’s time for them to plant seeds with the electorate.
Promise not to appoint a relative to succeed a departing alderman
This suggestion costs taxpayers nothing. As discussed in this writer’s last essay for Contrarian, Chicago has a corrosive tradition of political dynasties. Those petty royal houses usually fade away when at least one member of those families transitions from being a ward politician to being a ward of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Rather than the mayor appointing aldermen to vacant seats, special elections should be called. That might cost taxpayers a little bit. Or perhaps not. In the case of last month’s resignation of City Council dean, Alderman Walter Burnett (27), a special election instead could be held next March on primary Election Day. If no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, a runoff would be held five weeks later. Okay, that might cost a smidgen.
Appointing members to the City Council gives City Hall’s fifth floor too much power. At one point during Richard M. Daley's 22-year reign in office, one-third of the body’s members were appointed by him.
Regarding such special elections, state or municipal law may have to be tweaked.
Pledge to serve only two terms
Here's another freebie.
Nine of America's 10 largest cities have term limits. The exception? Of course, it’s Chicago.
Chicago's next mayor — Brandon Johnson can do it now — should champion legislation for not only mayoral term limits, but also for members of the City Council. Hanging around for too long breeds corruption. The dean of the City Council prior to Burnett, Edward Burke, was convicted of bribery, extortion, and racketeering charges in 2023. His predecessor as dean was Anthony C. Laurino, who died before being tried for his alleged role in a massive ghost-payrolling scheme.
Barring a change in municipal law, a self-imposed two-term pledge will have to suffice.
Eliminate the vice mayor's staff and budget
Chicago has had vice mayors for many years. However, following the City Council post-election committee chair reassignments, the aforementioned Burnett was left without a committee to chair.
To remedy this, Johnson pulled strings among his progressive allies on the City Council to get Burnett named as vice mayor, a largely ceremonial position — that is unless the mayor’s office becomes vacant, as it did when Alderman David Orr served as acting mayor for about a week following the death of Harold Washington in 1983.
But Burnett was gifted $400,000 for his vice mayor’s staff — for no apparent reason. Prior vice mayors persevered only with their aldermanic salary. How did they survive?
Adding to the farce, last year Burnett was chosen as a committee chairman again, taking charge of the powerful Zoning Committee.
Cut the number of deputy mayors
Lightfoot had five deputy mayors. Johnson has nine. Big city mayors probably receive 100 invitations a day to attend this convention or that annual gathering, so a deputy mayor can show up instead because mayors of major municipalities are usually quite busy. Even Johnson is busy sometimes.
Johnson’s deputy mayors usually represent some aggrieved group, left-wing cause, or join protesters in the streets.
At the very least, candidates to replace Johnson should cap the deputy mayors at five. Zero is even better.
Besides filling in for the mayor occasionally, what do these deputy mayors do all day?
Prosecute street takeovers
The constituency who favors the drag races and stunt driving that are euphemistically called street takeovers is small, but in Johnson’s Chicago they are for the most part allowed to run amok.
For the uninitiated, a street takeover occurs when drag racers and stunt drivers, alerted by social media, force law-abiding drivers off busy street corners so they can recreate the mayhem of the Mad Max and The Fast and Furious films.
And that constituency consists of the drivers themselves, who often don't live in the city, and Chicagoans with empty lives who use their smartphones to record the motorized hooliganism — hoping for fatal accidents that will make them a popular influencer.
When asked this spring on X about a solution to end street takeovers, Alderman Raymond Lopez (15), a possible mayor candidate, replied: “Corral them with larger assets like garbage trucks, impound the vehicles, arrest participants. Repeat as necessary.”
Perhaps the utilization of spike strips could end this menace.
And once police officers follow this advice, officers won’t have to repeat their actions for very long. Because those videos of muscle cars running over spike strips will gather many views. The sparks will fly. Really, they will when the bare wheels of those cars scrape the asphalt.
Driving an automobile, as your driver’s education instructor explained to you, is a privilege, not a right. And driving a car, even when someone is diligently following the rules of the road, is the most dangerous thing most people do on a regular basis.
Why do Johnson and his progressive allies tolerate street takeovers?
Allow the Superintendent of Police to call snap curfews to stop teen takeovers
Flash mobs of youths, again driven by social media, running wild on downtown streets and blocking traffic, are known as teen takeovers. They’re a close relative of street takeovers.
Only Johnson prefers to use a more genteel term, teen trends.
Past takeovers have led to massive street brawls, looting, stabbings and shootings. But shortly after winning his mayoral runoff election, Johnson dismissed the mayhem because young people sometimes "make silly decisions.”
Last month, the City Council passed legislation by a narrow margin that would have given Chicago's Superintendent of Police the power to declare temporary “snap” curfews downtown.
But Johnson vetoed the bill — the first mayoral veto in 19 years. And the Council was unable to override it.
End the gerrymandering of wards
As of this writing, dozens of Texas Democratic state legislators are performing protest agitprop in Illinois over Republicans in that state redrawing congressional maps. This has brought attention to Illinois’ ridiculously partisan gerrymandered congressional and General Assembly districts.
While a candidate for governor in 2018, J.B. Pritzker promised to veto partisan gerrymandered maps. He lied.
Chicago’s current ward maps have taken on weird, twisted shapes. In the most recent City Council redistricting, signed into law by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago's growing Hispanic population was slighted to bolster black wards. The city’s African American population has been shrinking for over 40 years.
Chicago is a heavily Democratic city, so partisan gerrymandering can’t possibly be anyone’s goal when drawing new districts. But to shortchange Hispanics, some oddly shaped wards were created. The most egregious example, the 36th, represented by a Hispanic, Gilbert Villegas, sprawls along, snake-like, along Grand Avenue, from Belmont and Oak Park on the edge of the city to Ukrainian Village on the Near Northwest Side. The 36th Ward, geographically, is an insult to democracy.
Other contorted wards include the 7th, the 27th, and the 29th.
Chicago's next mayor should take the lead of J.B. Pritzker's 2018 call for legislation to appoint an independent commission for the 2030 reapportionment and beyond.
Yes, the next redistricting won’t apply to elections until 2031 at the earliest. But that is all the more reason to start changing the process when tempers are cool.
No additional pension obligations
Chicago's unfunded pension mandates are a combination of the metaphorical two-ton elephant in the room and the crazy aunt in the basement everyone wants to ignore.
Earlier this month, in a Friday news dump, Pritzker signed a pension “sweetener” bill for Chicago police officers and firefighters, one championed by far-left state Senator Robert Martwick (10) of the Northwest Side, that instantly brought funding levels from a paltry 25 percent to an anemic 18 percent.
Johnson was oddly silent about the sweetener. His successor needs to speak out against such reckless Springfield mandates.
Institute a property tax freeze
Johnson campaigned on not raising property taxes. He blinked last year when he proposed a $300 million property tax increase, but Johnson backed off when the City Council unanimously rejected his tax hike.
Four years — and eight — is a long time. A forthright candidate for mayor should say that property taxes won’t be hiked — until cost saving measures including layoffs, furlough days, and selling unused assets have been exhausted.
Slash housing regulations
Chicago ranks quite low compared to other cities in housing starts, red tape is a big part of the reason. Less housing means higher prices for buyers and renters.
Block Club Chicago recently reported on the high cost of building affordable housing in Chicago. Regulations are a big part of the problem.
Chainsaw time has arrived for many of these regulations.
Hire more police officers
Last year, Chicago Police Department Larry Snelling said the city is short 2,000 officers.
So, hire 2,000 more cops.
More cops will mean less crime and faster response times, and a happier city. And hopefully, a slowing of the exodus of businesses from the city.
And it will lead to lower CPD overtime expenses.
Are there more hot-button issues for 2027 candidates to run on? Possibly.
What about a hiring freeze? Except for public safety positions, sure, make that a "yes." Although when Chicago has issued hiring freezes, there were emergency exceptions included in those directives. So, hiring freezes have traditionally been hard to track and enforce.
The time to prepare is now. The left, especially the Chicago Teachers Union, has been on permanent campaign mode for decades.
