At issue with the issues: Chicago’s next mayor?

Jesus Garcia

In one of the more bizarre sights that Chicago has seen was the recent projection of a giant mustache on downtown buildings, reminiscent of an immediate takeover from space aliens in a Grade B horror film, or one of the many Hollywood films shot on location in the Windy City -- instead, it was a visible push for Jesus “Chuy” Garcia to reconsider running for mayor, after his stated run for Congress to replace Luis Gutierrez, who has tendered his resignation in a move to Puerto Rico, where he owns a home.

As we’ve said before, “Holding an elected office in Chicago has become akin to either death by a thousand blows, or sheer masochism, and those are during the good times. Certainly, the job of mayor falls under that category.”

With the recent news of incumbent Rahm Emanuel decision not to run, the door opened wide to others to run, and the number of candidates has grown to 17, and it is apparent that someone, or many “someones”  will drop out, or be forced out of the race, but the current top slate has been expanded to include, to the horror of many locals, Bill Daley, brother of Richard M. Daley, and son of Richard J. Daley, and who was also chief of staff for President Obama.

Daley’s announcement brought grief to many in the city for the much ballyhooed, and costly, parking meter sale, arranged by his brother, and its management to J.P. Morgan Chase in New York; a move, that, some critics say, resulted in a loss for much needed local jobs, and economic development for Chicago. 

And, this is just one of  the many controversies associated with the Daley name.

Just one step away was Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, announcing her candidacy. She has developed a reputation for many social reforms such as drug sentencing, as well as prison reform, but whose name as a “do-gooder” was embittered by a recent sweetened beverage tax that left Chicago residents reeling from yet one more burdensome tax including a bag tax, and one of the highest sales tax in the nation. And, while the tax was later repealed, it will leave a taint of suspicion, among many voters.

Toni Preckwinkle

Lately, some have questioned, as discussed in a Chicago Sun-Times analysis if there is more spin, than substance, in her position as the de facto frontrunner.

“They point to polls conducted for other Democratic campaigns showing Preckwinkle with an approval rating lower than Emanuel’s and negatives “through the roof” that have never been fully exploited.

Most of all, they anticipate the mayoral candidacy of Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who is 25 years younger than Preckwinkle and a proven vote-getter along the lakefront and among younger voters now dominating the political scene.

Mendoza can’t enter the mayor’s race — or even talk about it — until she is safely re-elected as state comptroller. But after the Nov. 6 election, she’ll have 20 days to gather the 12,500 signatures needing to get on the mayoral ballot.

“Toni starts out in a good place with a sizable base. But it’s not enough to avoid a runoff or make this an inevitable outcome for her,” said one Democratic operative, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of alienating Preckwinkle.”

“She raised the sales tax after saying she wouldn’t and tried to impose a soda tax, only to have it repealed. It’s gonna be hard to convince that same group of voters you’re the person to elect as mayor after two of the most regressive tax increases in history,” the source said.

Preckwinkle does have her supporters, and one of them, is Richard Clough, of Edgewater Beach, who said of his support, “She's run a large local government organization before, and it's about time again we had someone of color and a woman in the office.”

A brief conversation, overheard on the subway, between two middle-aged, and grizzled, African-American veterans, concerning the election said a lot about past behavior: One asked the other who he was going to vote for. The other replied, “I’m going to vote for the sister.”  “Huh”?, responded his friend, then correcting himself, the other said, “Preckwinkle”, but his friend countered with, “Yeah, but she raised the taxes on my pop, so I feel that if she can do that, she can tax anything.”

Another supporter, a retired government worker from West Ridge, said this, in her support for her: “If the election were held next week, I'd vote for Toni Preckwinkle, she doesn't grandstand and I voted for her most recent re-election  Although, the soda tax wasn't successful, I gave her credit for trying SOMETHING to get the budget balanced.”

  

The specter of police reform

Of course, whoever takes the top job, has to contend with long standing problems, and a significant one is the long history of police abuse, stemming from the early days of the 1968 Democratic Convention, to the brutality, and torture of black men, by the late Cmdr. Jon Burge, and the multiple shots fired at the teenaged Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times as he walked away from police, in the by now, infamous video; and whose shooter, policeman Jason Van Dyke has just been found guilty of second-degree murder.

Trying to deal with the perception that all Chicago police are bad, when the reality is that only some of them are, is like wrestling with an alligator, that has been greased before the fight begins..

Coming on the heels of a sunset DOJ investigation, by the Obama administration, that was later rejected by the Trump administration, in the person of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has led to a consent decree constructed by Emanuel, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, to try and heal past wounds, and that has as one of many core issues in Chicago’s long history of racial segregation.

Lightfoot, in particular, has a strong sense of what is needed in light of police reform, and, “She’s got a long track record on police reform. She’s not viewed as being part of the establishment. She has positioned herself to be a change-agent,” said Victor Reyes, the former Daley political operative who ran the now-defunct Hispanic Democratic Organization at the center of the city hiring scandal.

Other residents seem to be distrustful of politicians in general says one senior living in Lakeview, who said, when queried, “I don't believe any politician can be believed, [that] doesn't have hers/his own interests at heart, is beyond being susceptible to bribes ($$$ or in-kind) or doesn't use the patronage system.”

Chicago public schools: making the grade

Moving to another long-standing issue is the quality of the public schools which has seen deterioration, in a system that has changed to a majority of brown and black students, and at best, has led to some vocational success, but less to academics, and in a weakened state, is low fruit for the picking.

While it has faced a dwindling high school graduation rate; yet, this has changed and there has been marked improvement in both areas.

With a proven track record, Troy LaRaviere, turned around a failing school, with increased test scores, and now, after working tirelessly on behalf of students, as well, as parents to give students an equal footing with their suburban cohorts he wants to take that passion and energy to City Hall.

Troy LaRaviere

The enrollment was just under 900, and the school, Blaine Elementary, was recognized by Chicago Magazine in 2010 as the 16th best elementary school in the city, and also the 6th best “neighborhood school.”

But there were obstacles he said that prevented it from reaching the number one slot. And, in this struggle, public enemy number one, at least according to him, was Emanuel, whose tenure has been marked by what he has often failed to do, more than what he did: close city schools in mostly black and brown neighborhoods, and turn some into luxury condos, only to open, or build some, in areas that were being gentrified, or on the brink of; while failing to develop a strong revenue stream to give them equity with suburban schools, not to mention necessary improvements to maintain the physical plant required for a healthy environment.

Taking the mayor head on, with a pointed figure, albeit a virtual one, made LaRaviere a leader outside of City Hall. And, as we wrote, then: “While the mayor has touted charter schools as having the best test scores, the opposite has been true, and the former principal  has “published research that revealed public schools produced significantly more academic growth in students than charter schools; exposed filthy conditions in Chicago schools that were the result of botched custodial privatization deal; and uncovered the manipulation of charter school test score data by CPS officials.”

A vital issue, for many, is a change, from a mayoral appointed, to an elected school board, which as we’ve shown before, has as many pitfalls, as it does gains, especially with racial divisions, trumping other benefits.

As former alderman Dick Simpson, now an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has said: “Ninety percent of the students in the system are black and Hispanic, but most of the elected board could be white. Second, with more than 600 schools to supervise, it is unclear how much any school board -- appointed or elected -- can do to really govern the system.”

Follow the money, or lack thereof

The big kahuna in Chicago city politics is economic:  an overburdened pension system that took on added debt under Emanuel as interest cost, from borrowed funds, soared as he created debt to cancel debt, what a generation ago, we called, “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Mired in debt, after a series of pension holidays, and robbing the teacher pension fund to pay for the CTA, was yet another blunder from the Daley legacy, and Bloomberg News did later report on the mixed results: “Emanuel has made progress, pushing through higher property taxes and utility levies to shore up the city’s retirement funds that were on track to run out of money. His plan has the public safety pensions on track to be 90 percent funded by the end of fiscal year 2055, and the municipal and laborers pensions at that level by the end of 2058. As of Dec. 31, the four funds were only about 27 percent funded, after years of inadequate contributions.”

Rahm Emanuel

“As mayor, I will be upfront about the cost of good government, end the practice of indebting taxpayers to big banks and raise enough revenue to adequately fund city services,” LaRaviere says on his website. He did not specify, however, what taxes he would raise, or create, to raise enough money to wipe out such debt, bringing a stinging rebuke from Emanuel’s office that he had no plan.

The financial analysis shows that the Chicago, in 2023,  will need more than $2.1 billion to make its required contributions to the city’s four worker pension funds, up from about $1.2 billion in 2019.

“All in all, the city of Chicago is in a better structural position than prior years,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, which monitors state and local finances, “but it will continue to face revenue and expenditure pressures resulting in projected growth in future deficits.”

That too has changed with the recent stock market free for all, as Crain’s Chicago reported Thursday:  “With his time in office down to just a few months and the credit markets moving the wrong way, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his financial team have decided to at least temporarily shelve plans to borrow up to $10 billion to refinance a part of the city’s yawning pension debt.

Officials insist the idea is not dead but merely set aside while the administration focuses on other financial priorities, such as passage of Emanuel’s proposed 2019 city budget that will be introduced Oct. 17. But with Emanuel's clout fading as the reality of his lame-duck status sinks in, that means he’d have to gather City Council votes in the midst of a heated aldermanic election or leave the final decision to his predecessor—either alternative politically problematic.”

It will also need a mayor that needs to take in more than the proverbial wind from backroom meetings, and to bring in the needed “shock” economic troops to prevent, such mistaken efforts, like regressive taxes, to help fill empty coffers.

Another added criticism is that much of the monies being spent, are in the Loop, the city’s business area, and other parts of downtown, and not in the neighborhoods, and not entering the deeply impoverished areas of the city’s South and West sides; home to much of the black population, and whose level of disinvestment is high.

Back to the schools

Adding to the area of economic development requires an investment in social capital, that is centered on education, and this may be an area for a younger candidate to lead, and one of the less known candidates is Neal Sales-Griffin, whose appearance on WBBM “At Issue” with host Craig Dellimore seemed to give a firm nod in that direction from the self-made man, who at age 31, and who cited the hunger strike to preserve the Dyett high school from closure, as an example of community involvement, especially in light of the 50 school closings by Emanuel in mostly black communities.

Sales-Griffin notes the importance of “preserving and investing in neighborhood schools,” and cited the failure of leadership, without mentioning Emanuel by name, but stressed that “we have to reimagine our community members.”

Neal Sales-Griffin

Without mentioning the debacle of having two school CEO’s leave, in scandal and one serving prison time for bribery and embezzlement, Sales-Griffin, expressed support for new CEO Janice Jackson, but did not reveal that many were not happy with her promotion, and that she was the right hand of the now disgraced, and former, head, Forrest Claypool, and that many of the closings, and the cat and mouse games Emanuel has played with opening schools with lowered enrollment, she was his co-director.

CPS’s Executive Officers have one job: “To get their talking points from the Mayor’s education people, memorize them, and repeat them at every opportunity,” LaRaviere, now president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, said in an email to Chicago Tonight.

“That was Ms. Jackson’s job as (chief education officer), and the only thing that will change as CEO is her salary.”

There were also some that said she might, in fact, hurt black children’s educational opportunity -- and some going further criticized her in 2017, reported the Chicago Tribune, saying that “she has been a vocal supporter of the district’s plan to close four under-enrolled Englewood and West Englewood high schools next year, despite the fact a nearby replacement won’t be completed until 2019.

That proposal has already sparked protests by those who say students have been driven from the area not by a lack of quality options, but by CPS’ own disinvestment in the existing schools in their communities.

“When I look at Englewood, at the experience some kids are getting, I can’t make the case they’re getting a good high school experience,” Jackson told Chicago Tonight earlier this month.

Multiple teachers took issue with that comment, saying Jackson understands what schools need to succeed and “should know better” than to claim there simply aren’t any good high school options in that area. They’ve questioned her involvement in the Englewood decision and are holding out to see if she’ll continue standing by that plan moving forward.”

As previously noted, Emanuel, skirted, or tried to, with these school closings, unlike before, by that cited disinvestment, only to invest, anew in areas soon to be gentrified.

Whoever is elected, besides city finances, and crime, has a looming disaster in dealings with opportunities for educating black school children. Who will it be?