Bring Chicago Home faces judicial hurdle

“Bring Chicago Home” advocates faced a hurdle in their efforts to increase the real estate transfer tax as a dedicated revenue stream to fight homelessness in the city, a long standing problem further exacerbated by the increase of over 182,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela.

On Friday Cook County Circuit Judge Kathleen Burke invalidated the ballot referendum that was to appear on the March 19th Chicago primary ballot, in a ruling pending from a lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Elections that she labeled vague and unconstitutional, and was welcome news to those opposed to the proposal, namely the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago, the Chicago Apartment Association.

The proposed ordinance  had long faced opposition by these groups and others and the ruling now removed the question from the voters, but since the ballots have already been printed, any votes will not be counted.

While an appeal is expected by supporters, the dilemma of how to begin to solve a long standing problem hangs in the balance with 682,000 unhoused people, not counting the migrants, who are living on the streets, sheltering on CTA buses and El trains, and doubled up with others and family members or other places not designed for human habitation.

The $100 million dollars in expected revenue leaves supporters including Mayor Brandon Johnson, in a bind to solve the social dilemma.

As CBS News Chicago reported, “Specifically, the Bring Chicago Home proposal would create a tiered system for the real estate transfer tax for property sales in Chicago:

• The transfer tax for properties valued at less than $1 million would drop from 0.75% to 0.60%

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• Properties sold for between $1 million and $1.5 million would pay a 2% transfer tax, nearly triple the current rate

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• Properties sold for $1.5 million or more would pay a 3% transfer tax, four times the current rate.

Meanwhile those bringing the suit are elated, and according to THe Chicago Tribune: “In a statement Friday, BOMA Chicago Executive Director Farzin Parang said the group was “gratified” by the ruling, which “underscores the necessity of presenting policy questions to the public with fairness, detail, and transparency.”

“This referendum would be a backdoor property tax on all Chicagoans, and it is important that our elected officials not mislead voters otherwise,” Parang said.

Earlier he had also the The Chicago Sun-TImes, ““The way that they worded this question was just sort of politics and it was vague and it was trying to manipulate people into thinking that they were getting a tax cut when this is, functionally, a property tax increase on everybody," and, "We’re just gratified that the judge agreed with us.”

In a revealing statement, Parang also “said that, had the binding referendum remained on the ballot, Johnson and his allies would likely have won.”

The Times also gave a reality check on local politics when they opined, “That’s because the March 19 turnout is expected to be low, and the person the mayor assigned to quarterback the campaign — Emma Tai, former executive director of United Working Families, a group affiliated with the Chicago Teachers Union — marshaled field operations for Johnson’s winning mayoral campaign.”

Framed in terms of racial disparity the mayor said in November, in a statement to the Tribune, “"We know that homelessness is up since 2019, and that Black Chicagoans account for 69% of our city's unhoused population, and one in four Black students in the Chicago Public Schools, unfortunately, will experience homelessness at least once during their lives. Bring Chicago Home is an important measure that I believe will help rectify this wrong,"and furthermore, "My administration will continue our mission to support Chicago's unhoused, and I will remain resolute in my belief that housing is truly a human right."

In a long racially segregated city, race cuts deeply, but others have fought back from some of the same communities affected, and one in opposition was the Southland Black Chamber of Commerce, and according to the Tribune:

"I think they just assumed that since the $1 million price tag was put on there, this is a rich person's tax to help poor people,'' said Cornell Darden Jr., chairman of the Southland Black Chamber. "But we didn't see it that way."

He said, as others have noted, “ if property owners paid the increase, they would simply pass it on to renters.”

"It can help increase the problem of homelessness by raising rental prices," said Darden.”

It was evident that the opposition has planned, organized and funded a formidable opposition, and the Tribune also reported that. “The group’s website, “Protect Chicago Homes,” states that the decrease for lower-value sales is a distraction from the hike borne by other property owners. “With no plan for how to spend this New Property Tax, they’ll be coming after your house next” to adequately fund affordable housing developments.”

Supporters state that while there would be a dedicated revenue stream, the monies would be governed by an advisory board.

In a statement after Burke’s ruling, Baker called for the city to “sit down together to develop a real plan for better homelessness prevention and to further housing stability.”

Until then, he said, the group would continue its campaign to inform voters “how tax burdened Chicagoans are and the need for policy solutions that do not rely on real estate taxes.”

Critics charge that those opposed had years, (dating from the Lightfoot administration, when the plan was first broached and later abandoned, by the mayor, who then developed an alternative tiered tax cut plan of hers, but no revenues to help the homeless) to develop an alternative plan for discussion, but this was never done.

Hovering in the background, like a many headed hydra, there are reports of “Other opposition groups . . . . One is Keep Chicago Affordable, which appears to be an extension of the 501(c)(4) nonprofit group Chicago Forward. Both are led by Resolute Public Affairs. It has not yet raised or spent any money.”

A noted leading advocate is Ald. Maria Hadden of the 49th Ward told local media:

"These are the same companies raising your rents and deconverting your condos, displacing you and your family from our neighborhoods," she wrote in a statement. "Chicago voters should be furious."

While Hadden has led a group of 19 like minded alders, it is important to note that the effort has been led by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, but also the aforementioned SEIU Healthcare, United Working Families, Communities United, ONE Northside and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.  But, despite their collective effort they have had to face the powerful, and wealthy Chicago real estate owners, and, of course, a larger budget to fight with, plus political fire power, as Friday’s ruling has shown.

On March 6th an appellate court ruled that the referendum could stay on the ballot, overturning the appeal by the Building Owners and Manager's Association, with weeks to spare before the March 19 primary. In essence, Presiding Judge Raymond Mitchell said that his court's decision was to not interfere in the legislative process, stating specifically that "Courts do not, and cannot, interfere with the legislative process." BOMA has not made a decision as of this writing whether or not to appeal to the Illinois State Supreme Court. DG

10 March 2024 9:34 CDST

Chicago charter schools examined by school board

On Thursday the Chicago Board of Education voted on extensions for the city’s charter, selective enrollment, and magnet school contracts, and especially the 49 charter schools. Ahead of the vote protestors demonstrated with the familiar hand lettered placards asking that the Board preserve school choice.

The result of the vote was to extend the charter contracts between one and four years and not the usual, and expected 10 years, bringing questions from the heads of some of those schools, and some hand wringing on what has become a worrisome concern for the leadership of those schools.

In a larger sense the issue is a focus on privatization of the nation’s public schools which we have seen under the Trump Administration, when Betsy De Vos was the head of the Department of Education, bringing the issue to the forefront.

It will be tough sledding for charter leaders with the election of Brandon Johnson as mayor and his former roles as teacher and organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, as they favor strengthening neighborhood schools, and the Board agreed in December with a resolution  to do just that.

It’s no secret that Chicago public schools, especially in low income neighborhoods, have been underfunded, and suffer from inadequate resources, aging physical plants, and often inexperienced teachers; but, with a student population that is predominately Black and Brown, in a city that has long suffered from racial segregation, the lack of political will by prior mayoral administrations has exacerbated those problems.

Notably the closing of over 50 schools in those neighborhoods by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2013 did not help the perception that the city was disenfranchising Black students.

Caught in the middle, say some educators and parents groups, are lower income Black children whose neighborhood schools are felt to be inadequate. And, in a protest held the day before the Board met many of those parents were there to express their frustrations and fears, that they might lose their favored charter schools.

“How could we possibly eliminate a family's ability to choose the best school for their child?" Noble Schools CEO Constance Jones said. ""How can this board claim to support a quality public education when it is actively trying to get rid of schools exactly that, “ reported ABC7 News.

Of the total of 49 schools, most did receive 4 year contracts, with one receiving a one year contract, and the Board cited those on the shorter end, but overall needed to meet benchmark standards of special education, and students who are English language learners.

For the leadership of the Board a central concern is that the charters are essentially a private school system in a public system funded by public monies and should be held accountable to do the very best for students with taxpayer money.

Elizabeth Todd Breland, board vice president said at Thursday's meeting,“I still maintain that as a private operator getting public money, there should be a higher level of scrutiny,”

The areas of focus for them are academics, finances and operations, corresponding also to state and federal law, points which are not always held in the public arena. And, none of the schools met, or exceeded in those categories at this time.

The end result was that over half of those schools received a contract extension for four years, and forty percent for three years, and none got 5 years.

Taking a closer look at the numbers, we see claims that 75 percent of Chicago public school children are educated in charter schools, but there is also the dwindling population of school age children, especially in Black neighborhoods, due to out migration, has shown a corresponding reduction in student population; and, for some the question of evaluation, and contract extensions is critical, as it is with neighborhood schools. 

An ongoing debate is whether students do better in charter schools, socially, and academically, and a decades old media discussion showed that on standardized testing charter school Chicago students performed no better, or worse than public school students. While some objected to that, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, was one.

The Washington Post, in 2014 coverage found that to be the case, but supporters now say that has changed in favor of the charters.

Diffen.com reported this:

“A 2013 study by Stanford University's Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) concluded about two-thirds of charter school students perform the same or worse than students in traditional public schools, while about a third of students perform better in a charter school setting. CREDO's director told NPR that African American and Latino students, as well as students whose first language is not English, experienced particularly impressive gains in performance while enrolled at charter schools. However, critics have countered that charter school policies like fines for misbehavior drive students from poor families to drop out. Charter schools also tend to have fewer accommodations for students with disabilities such as autism.”

It’s sure to be an ongoing debate, and both sides will undoubtedly be forced to examine their stances, but as of now, Chicago charter schools are under the microscope.

Chicago: The Midwest Epicenter of the Migrant Crisis

2.8 million migrants have come to the United States seeking asylum, mostly from Venezuela seeking freedom from political corruption, a ruptured economy, and financial extortion, and, reaching the border state of Texas, they have been used as political pawns by Gov. Greg Abbott, beginning in 2022 has bused them to Democratic strongholds such as New York City and Chicago, who earlier declared themselves sanctuary cities.

In moves calculated to get the maximum bang for their political buck, the optics are strong, and a target was the much maligned Vice President Kamala Harris, who has seen busloads dropped off in front of the gates of her home in Washington, DC.

As we have noted before the asylum seekers have made dangerous journeys from their homelands facing robbery, and extortion from those purporting to help them, only to make them even more vulnerable; and, many of them are women with children, some in various stages of pregnancy with little more than the clothes on their back.

Deliberately not coordinating with the aforementioned cities, Abbott has seemingly enjoyed the ensuing panic in Northern cities to find them shelter, food, and clothing, (especially for the coming winter months), and also the firestorm of resistance among many Americans.

Growing Resistance

This summer residents of the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago fought hard, but to no avail, to prevent the Broadway Armory being used as a migrant shelter, and in Brighton Park, another neighborhood seemingly destined for a winterized base camp to house them, residents attacked Ald. Julia Ramirez, and the ensuing melee sent her assistant to a local hospital for injuries.

These and other incidents across the country, have created another political and social rupture to an already divided country;  and, taking sides against the migrant arrivals has become increasingly prevalent, and also a high degree of ignorance, with some seeing asylum seekers as illegal immigrants, and not through the legalized system of admission that the United States has created.

Irony also abounds as some of the most vocal opponents have family members that have been, or are recent migrants, and in some cases, illegal immigrants from some South American countries. And, while the political landscape has become a minefield of issues, this one is threatening to the social fabric of many major American cities.

Republicans are markedly singling out President Biden as responsible for the increase in migration and not the political and economic battles that have ensnared Venezuela.

For many Americans the role of the presidency is misunderstood,and they forget that in America we have the rule of law; and that Biden is not an autocrat, and Congress is the lawmaking body with duly elected representatives.

A primer on immigration in the U.S.

Efforts at regulating immigration began shortly after our independence from Great Britain, and have waxed and waned with the first laws imposing “limits that favored Europeans” as the Pew Research Center has noted.

In 1965 a law was passed, expansionist in scope, that “opened doors to immigrants from other parts of the world. In more recent years, laws and presidential actions have been shaped by concerns about refugees, unauthorized immigration and terrorism.” 

Looking back we see that in 1790 a naturalization law limited those who could become a citizen to free whites, of the ill defined “good moral character,” and who had lived in the country for at least two years. And, it was not until 1870 that the right was “extended to those of African origin.”

For the Chinese, a law was passed in 1943 to give them limited access, and in 1952 race was eliminated as a reason for exclusion.

In 1965 the Immigration and Nationality Act favored skilled immigrants and family reunification rather than a country quota, and in 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act legalized “millions of unauthorized immigrants, mainly from Latin America, who met certain conditions.”

Since that time Congress has failed to pass comprehensive immigration law and new rules for asylum seekers, bringing us to this current juncture.

Seeking shelter

Affordable housing is at a premium for most of the nation, but especially in New York and Chicago, and proposals for even temporary shelters in unused buildings across the latter have resulted in angry public meetings, such as those in Edgewater and Brighton Park, but also hinges on long histories of racial segregation against Black and Brown people, versus Northern European whites. As one wag told us, “this would not happen if the immigrants were from Sweden.”

Current figures show that since August of 2022, there are 8,367 migrants living in city shelters, and nearly 3,000 are sleeping on the floors of police stations, often whole families, with limited access to bathroom facilities, food and water.  There are also 12,251 migrants living in shelters, plus another 2,175 staying at O'Hare and Midway airports.

City officials are struggling with the daily arrivals and coordination has been fraught to provide adequate coordination of efforts, and volunteers are burnt out trying to meet the needs of even adequate nutrition, to name but one need.

In their frantic efforts,Chicago seems to have been ripped off by vendors providing security, case workers, janitors and others. In a recent investigative report by The Chicago Tribune,they described a security guard working 56 days in a row, 12 hours a day.

He is employed by Favorite Healthcare Staffing, a national employment firm, the lead contactor for these services, with pay rates of $60 to $150 an hour; and records show that hundreds of these workers “logged 84 hour work weeks with the overtime, paid at a 50% premium, helping ballon bills that topped at least $56 million.”

Perhaps out of embarrassment, the city has not released most invoices and media and volunteers are not allowed into the shelters, but the Tribune said that “the $56 million billed by Favorite Staffing from September 2022 through June 2022, reflected roughly two thirds of all funds the city spent on all migrant services.”

While the hours logged are questionable, the conditions of the facilities are less than optimal, say some, and others feel that the company is bleeding both the city coffers as well as burdening the staff, to gain more revenue, and Ald. Maria Hadden has noted that audits need to be done to monitor expenses.

Ald. Brendan Reilly whose downtown ward houses a former hotel, the Inn of Chicago, which is now the city’s largest shelter, told the Tribune that the charges were “insanity” and added, “The conditions that exist there are deplorable,” saying he has also had reports of intoxication, drug sales and prostitution outside the shelter doors.

Brandon Johnson, already under the microscope as the city’s third Black mayor, shortly after his election, has had to face down a number of his most ardent critics, first on increased crime, and now on his handling of the migrant crisis.

In September he inked a new contract with GardaWorld Federal Services to put up winterized tents or “yurt” base camps to deal with the nearly daily arrival of buses of migrants.

Brighton Park residents once again, voiced their opposition to migrants being housed in their neighborhood, this time at a standing room only meeting this past week; and, most were in an ugly mood, but there were some that questioned the wisdom of building the tents on land previously used for industrialisation, citing safety and environmental concerns.

Weeks later the mayor's office announced that there was a series of assessments carried out by an independent environmental group, yet there has still been opposition, and some confusion since construction has begun, but the final reports on any toxic materials left by the prior use of the site, will not be release until a week later.

This has prompted concern by some neighborhood representatives question the wisdom of the timeline, but also the fears that there will be thousands to be housed at the site in the future citing lack of transparency from the Johnson administration in previous discussions, and actions. They also say that the city has not done due diligence.

Critics have noted that these concerns are really objections to the tents couched in the language of concern. And, in an 111th hour reprieve by the Illinois state government and statements from Gov. J.B. Pritzker, they have now squashed the tents as being built, due to environmental concerns about dangerously high levels of mercury by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and voiding the $91,400 monthly lease, which was to have been funded by the state, but operated by the city.

While the city did have its own its own environmental study, Pritzker said that they "do not satisfy IEPA standards," and had earlier said that, "we're stepping in here to try to help accelerate the process. It is not moving fast enough." adding "that is why you are seeing people still on the street, and we just can't have people on the streets."

This is still the case and Friday's announcement that 350 migrant families would be housed in the previously shuttered St. Bartholomew's Catholic school in the Portage Park neighborhood has elected mostly positive reactions among neighborhood residents, but some have cautioned that they hope that the Archdiocese of Chicago does not gouge the city coffers.

In Brighton Park most, however, feared crime, and decreased property values,and perhaps presaging objections, the city has said there would be no single men, only families, to assuage resident those fears.

With a mixture of various Latino citizens, and some Asians, these fears were met head on, and local media reported that one person, Ada Zhu, reading from a script, said that Johnson’s actions, “clearly showed the mayor’s disrespect for our district. You are taking our rights away. This is not right.”

Protestors then tried to block the entrance to the construction site for builder assessment and one woman received a minor injury in the melee, and police had to be called in those early morning hours to clear them away.

City deputy mayor for immigrant, migrant, and refugee rights, Beatriz Ponce de Leon has said, “This is not a Chicago issue, This is a national issue,” but you would not know it from resident ire, with its potent mix of xenophobia, as well as racism.

Not all is rosy with Portage Park residents and as nbcchicago.com reported on their website, Friday:

"Outside of the former St. Bartholomew Catholic School in Portage Park, a group of residents and community members shared their concerns and complaints with city leadership, now that the building could be slated to become a temporary migrant shelter. “They have no clue what they are doing,” said Patrick Gibbons. “They have to take care of their own people before they take care of anyone on the outside.” Residents said a lack of safety is their main issue with the plan. “I really don’t feel safe with any new strangers walking around the neighborhood,” said Wally Prusko, a longtime resident. “I wish things wouldn’t go in this direction and I hope things can worked out.” People want to see the school used for children in the community or to help house some of Chicago’s homeless residents, but that likely won’t be the case."

This and other planned efforts is a planned partnership between the archdiocese and the city of Chicago.

As the winter cold approaches, there is concern on both sides for the safety and well being of the migrants, but with many residents refusing to house them in their neighborhoods, the dilemma is apparent.

The local NBC News affiliate interviewed volunteer Lydia Wong who said, "We have significant fears of things like frostbite [and] hypothermia," and added speaking of the migrants, "People here aren't used to the cold at all."

Racial Conflict

Race is never far from the surface in Chicago, and its Black residents, many from long disinvested and disenfranchised communities on the West and South sides, are up in arms at any proposals to house migrants in their areas.

Misinformation is rampant, and one elderly Black woman told us that the migrants, “are getting $7,000 a month and we get nothing.” And, a middle aged Black man said, falsely, “Last week the mayor went to Washington to get more money for the migrants and that shows me who he is,” and uttered an expletive. Johnson is scheduled to meet with White House officials, and possibly Biden, in early November.

At that meeting Johnson was joined by the mayors of Los Angeles and Denver, and Eric Adams, the mayor of New York who had to return to his city for an internal emergency.

Meeting with White House senior staff, they practically begged for more money for housing and care of the migrants, far beyond the $1.4 billion that Biden has asked Congress for. and most importantly, "accelerated approval of work authorization and a more coordinated entry process for migrants," reported Cbsnews.com.

Johnson told reporters that "The 40 million that it's costing the city of Chicago every single month to provide care for those individuals who are seeking asylum, that is not sustainable."

Current monies spent are $270,000 for the Park District, $1.4 million for Chicago Public Schools, and $15.8 million for the Cook County Health System, resulting in a funding gap between $158 to $201 million.

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Annette Guzman, Budget Director for the city of Chicago all but admitted in an interview with Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun Times that there was no plan B if the Federal Government did not provide more money for migrant aid. The only other source, absent that, would be a property tax increase.

Last week Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that the state will give $160 million to address what he called were the "bottlenecks" in the "pipeline" of housing the asylum seekers, plus $65 million for case management and legal services.

Long simmering resentments between Black and Brown residents have bubbled to the surface with the arrivals of migrants, and perception has bumped against reality.

Much of that reality has been that historic disinvestment in Black neighborhoods, but also they have lost the anchor of many of their neighborhoods, schools when the Rahm Emmanuel administration closed nearly 50 of them.

Local ABC affiliate included this in their earlier coverage of a public demonstration:

"For them to be sympathetic to their needs, saying it's a humanitarian issue crisis when Black people have had a humanitarian crisis for housing, employment and everything else," community organizer Jessica Jackson said. "How do we get pushed to the back?"

"We are taxpayers. We are property owners," Jackson [also] said. "Our money should be going to our communities, not supporting people who haven't put a dime into our communities."

To note, as of that date, a month ago, the coverage said: “According to data analyzed by the ABC7 I-Team, there are more than 20 active migrant shelters across the city, seven of which are located on the South and West sides.”

In a statement, the mayor’s office said in response: “"We are committed to continued investment for all residents, but especially communities on the South and West sides that have long experienced disinvestment. We are the City of Chicago, and our shoulders are big enough to support both new arrivals and those who have long called this city home."

Tensions are reaching a fever pitch between newly arrived migrants and longtime immigrant and minority communities over perceptions of unfair distribution of government benefits.

The Hill recently reported that, “as new arrivals become eligible for work permits, and in many communities of color, spending on shelter for asylum-seekers is viewed in contrast to scarcity in other social programs.”

“Mixed-status families, people who have lived here for 10, 20, 25, 30 years, who have been working, paying taxes, sending money back to Mexico, abiding by the laws, laying low — probably being better citizens than most Americans — are frustrated,” said Illinois Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D)."

Linking urban violence with with perceived threats of lawless asylum seekers has also created tension and further division, and each time one commits a crime, all migrants are seen as community threats.

García, in his interview with The Hill, also discussed that other refugees were much more easily assimilated, and said:“We’ve been able to, in Chicagoland, integrate about 30,000 Ukrainian immigrants who came to Chicago, and they did not get this much reporting over that period, much less stories about crime and drugs and prostitution.”

Absent from his remarks is that the Venezuelan asylum seekers are people of color and the Ukrainians are white.

Challenges to cultural assimilation 

These efforts are not going to go away quickly, say most observers, and concerned residents are worried about cultural assimilation, as well as educating and supporting students; and, this has become a huge challenge with only 5 percent of area social workers speaking Spanish, forcing some students trying to harness learning by using Google Translate on their phones.

To make matters worse there was a physical altercation in early October when two Venezuelan migrant teens were attacked with a baseball bat after school, resulting in broken ribs, a black eye, and kicks according to local media reports.

The fight was with students from Afghanistan, and after initially being thought of as a hate crime, Hadden, their alderperson, said it was “over cultural differences” and that the Venezuelan parents thought that it was because of their immigration status, and went to the media instead of talking to Sullivan school officials.

She also said, in her statement, “The school is adept at helping newly arrived students adjust to their new home and culture, but it’s not a process without conflict.”

Indeed citywide conflict in Chicago seems to be the norm, as migrants arrive in droves each day.

Updated 8 December, 2023 at 11:18 p.m.. CSDT.

New Chicago Police Chief Larry Snelling's challenges

A popular advertising slogan in the 1960s and 70s was that “sex sells”, as voluptuous female models cavorted across double spread magazine ads, purring with delight over a range of products from cologne to cars, and even designer jeans. Now, over 50 plus years later, in a politically divided country, crime sells, especially in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, where many a dollar is earned in the media as crime headlines blare danger lurking on practically every corner. 

There are real numbers behind those headlines, and crime nationwide has increased, and is of grave concern to residents and lawmakers alike.  The words “law and order” might seem benign enough but they have also been a dog whistle to white voters in majority Black urban areas, and that fear, followed by panic, has fueled a narrative designed to not just make media bucks, but also to score votes among the electorate, and especially, but not wholly, on the local level.

This was especially seen in the recent mayoral election in Chicago between the “tough on crime” candidate Paul Vallas and his progressive opponent Brandon Johnson; and, then adding race to the mix, with Vallas white, and Johnson Black; the result was a mixture of racial politics designed to not only appeal to each other’s political base, but also to voters in this long segregated city.

The win by Johnson has galvanized the political and racial rhetoric of the city, even weeks after he was sworn in, with many white residents claiming that he was “no good”, a mere pawn of his former employer, the Chicago Teachers Union, and other unprintable names, the kindest being that he was a socialist.

Johnson’s latest, and most targeted, appointment is Larry Snelling as Chicago Police Superintendent to replace former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s chief, David Brown, who faced a barrage of criticism, from all sides, after a series of missteps that cost her, and him, national negative headlines, (including her primary loss, and his subsequent resignation) as the city’s crime rate soared, especially after the looting following the death of George Floyd, when after peaceful demonstrators went home a rag tag force of looters swarmed downtown shops on posh Michigan Avenue, as well as State Street.

Snelling who has garnered rave reviews from within the force as well as without, was confirmed by the Chicago City Council in a 48 to 0 vote, and the 54 year old Chicago native earned a strong approval rating during the NATO meeting in 2012 when world leaders gathered in the city among a swarm of protestors, and news cameras, anxious to catch any disturbance of the meeting. By all accounts Snelling coordinated the security efforts with the Secret Service to great acclaim.

That success behind him, he has promised to make accountability his watchword for police actions, and to be fair in its application, and after being sworn in he told those gathered in the hall, “Anybody will tell you this. I hold officers accountable. [B]ut when our officers are held accountable, they have to be held accountable fairly.”

Snelling also said that he needed the public to understand that police officers often face dangerous situations, and, in that vein, to judge them fairly. He asked listeners to imagine, “five, six officers in the middle of a crowd who want to hurt you, and you’re outnumbered 100 to 5, you don’t really know what that feels like.”

Chicago crime was once primarily seen in Black and brown neighborhoods on the West and South Sides, has now spread to the more affluent areas Lincoln Park, Lakeview, and River North, where armed gangs, using stolen cars, suddenly appear to rob citizens walking their dogs, going to and from work, or exiting their vehicles. 

Subsequent resident fears have notably enlarged the racial rhetoric, and on X, formerly known as Twitter, those fears have reached a fever pitch, fueling an already heated atmosphere.

The Chicago Police Department, for the month of August of 2023 reported that murders decreased to 37 percent; criminal sexual assault increased by 35 percent; non violent thefts increased to 29 percent, with year to date murders reaching 26 percent; and robberies to 20 percent, and motor vehicle theft, to 22.8 percent.

Perception, as many a sage has said, is one tenth of the law, and local media, the Chicago Tribune, as well as the Chicago Sun Times, and especially CWBC Chicago have given priority to crime news, but often do not show that other large American cities face the same dilemma, and many residents are led to feel as if their city is the only one traumatized by crime.

Looking at those other cities, The New York Times recently reported that other large cities have seen their largest increases "in modern life." but while some readers might have considered this hyperbole, the stats do show that violent crime is still higher than before the Covid pandemic, said the nonprofit Center on Criminal Justice, showing that Chicago joins Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Denver in increased rates.

There are exceptions: in the first half of 2023 there were fewer homicides, across the nation, a 9 percent drop, and assaults have also dropped to 5.6 percent in the ten cities that the Council examined.

The Brookings Institute has noted that “while stoking fears on crime is an age-old American election tactic, something feels different about its salience in the pandemic era landscape. Faced with slow recovering urban cores,” there is a redeployment of crime “as the primary cause of a host of complex and interconnected issues,” be they pandemic office closures, general mayhem, or fear itself.

Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, seemed to have hit the accelerator when he moved headquarters from downtown Chicago to Miami, followed by Boeing, Inc., moving its headquarters to Texas from the nearby suburb of Deerfield. While these moves are a “fraction of Chicago’s 1.3 million jobs, the fact that it happened scored national headlines, reported Bloomberg in September 2022.

Rebranding, as well as reallocation, will be a monumental task for the new chief, as he faces the hot lights of the media, as well as those social media voices.

Brookings did say that the perception of crime was a major concern and fear in downtown areas was growing, their qualitative analysis of Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Seattle., not helped by “high profile incidents of violence that occurred downtown as exacerbating factors.”

These incidents notwithstanding the study also told only one part of the story, and while “Respondents overall perceptions of rising crime were not wholly unfounded, but they tended to reflect national and citywide crime rhetoric and sensationalized media coverage rather than understanding of where and how crime actually occurs within their cities.”

Notably for Chicago, the Brookings staff found that in 2019 and 2022, “there was a 48% increase in property crimes in Chicago” and similar increases in other cities, Philadelphia, New York and Seattle, but ”downtown Chicago accounted for just 6% of the citywide increase in property crime and less than 1% of the citywide increase in violent crime.”

Likewise a small change in downtown crime can have an outsized public perception.

A significant impact on public perception is that of burgeoning retail crime, but history has shown that surges are not unique to this time, and while political conservatives and liberals disagree on what measures should be taken: tougher sentencing, versus, addressing poverty, investment in poorer areas, or tougher sentencing, among other steps, the numbers that we see may not always be accurate.

As Yahoo News pointed out in August, “Skeptics say there’s strong reason to doubt that the supposed shoplifting surge is even real. They point out that the only data to support the idea comes from retailers themselves, who have a strong financial incentive to blame underperformance on theft rather than mismanagement or poor business strategy.”

Taking another look at retail crime that has plagued cities like Chicago, and other cities is this from themessenger.com: “. . .  solid figures are elusive, and a lack of good data isn’t just a headache for statisticians. Information scarcity means misdiagnosis of the problem and misallocation of resources, experts say.”

“For example, if a store owner mistakenly believes shrink is the result of theft when the real issue is a delivery problem, they might squander money on extra security when a stern conversation with a supplier is the more constructive solution, experts say.”  And, add employee theft, and a misreporting of smash and grab type robberies, after hours, which are often mistakenly recorded as shoplifting not the robberies that they are.

It’s going to be a tough haul for Snelling, and it will take his legendary humility, skill, and patience to conquer both the perception and the reality of crime in Chicago..