Breaking: Lori Lightfoot is officially out as Mayor of Chicago. As Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson advance to a runoff. (calculation, lawsuits)

[Cool Arrow]

Originally Posted by aga412

It might have undercounted, but that doesn't mean that the population still isn't shrinking...

Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. Only way to know is to do a count and nobody has done one since 2020.

[UptownGuy3]

Chicago's population trends are weirder than people let on. The population is defintely declining on the south and west sides but seems to be growing in the central and north side neighborhoods. Just from my office I can see 3 cranes for new apartment towers, and maybe 8 new apartment buildings are going up in my far north side neighborhood. From what I can see real estate inventory is getting scooped up quickly, and these new apartment buildings are getting filled.

I hope for the best with Johnson, I don't think he'll make progressives happy though. He's already walking back some of his more progressive taxation and police ideas. It's my sense he'll play nicer with others than Lightfoot did but we'll have to wait and see!

[personone]

Originally Posted by UptownGuy3

Chicago's population trends are weirder than people let on. The population is defintely declining on the south and west sides but seems to be growing in the central and north side neighborhoods. Just from my office I can see 3 cranes for new apartment towers, and maybe 8 new apartment buildings are going up in my far north side neighborhood. From what I can see real estate inventory is getting scooped up quickly, and these new apartment buildings are getting filled.

I hope for the best with Johnson, I don't think he'll make progressives happy though. He's already walking back some of his more progressive taxation and police ideas. It's my sense he'll play nicer with others than Lightfoot did but we'll have to wait and see!

I truly hope this is the case.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by personone

I truly hope this is the case.

The cries of treason from the leftists will be fun to see if true. But the man is a deadbeat that wouldn't pay his taxes, I have very little hope for the city.

[Kmanshouse]

Well, Chicago is almost 200 years old. Each mayoral term is 4 years.

Chicago takes awhile to change in any direction, and has a huge political machine that no one person can control.

The problems that the city faced during Lightfoot, honestly, likely would have happened under most mayors, including Vallas or Johnson. Covid and the George Floyd thing set off crime and protests and looting etc in many major cities across the country. No mayor was going to fix that.

Several reasons the CPD struggled lately are:

1) Lightfoot's don't chase on foot rule (WTF was that)
2) Mandating vaccinations - I think that might be over now?
3) Combative behavior to the aldermen seeking help (guessing Johnson will be much better on this one)
4) Progressive F the police populace (that's the citizenry, not the mayor)

I might be missing others.

My concern with Johnson is that he may instill some taxes that could drive companies out or prevent others from coming. I do think that is self-correcting, but it could mean a dip for awhile, which we don't need.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by Kmanshouse

Well, Chicago is almost 200 years old. Each mayoral term is 4 years.

Chicago takes awhile to change in any direction, and has a huge political machine that no one person can control.

The problems that the city faced during Lightfoot, honestly, likely would have happened under most mayors, including Vallas or Johnson. Covid and the George Floyd thing set off crime and protests and looting etc in many major cities across the country. No mayor was going to fix that.

Several reasons the CPD struggled lately are:

1) Lightfoot's don't chase on foot rule (WTF was that)
2) Mandating vaccinations - I think that might be over now?
3) Combative behavior to the aldermen seeking help (guessing Johnson will be much better on this one)
4) Progressive F the police populace (that's the citizenry, not the mayor)

I might be missing others.

My concern with Johnson is that he may instill some taxes that could drive companies out or prevent others from coming. I do think that is self-correcting, but it could mean a dip for awhile, which we don't need.

Great read on what happened here...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-b...b001e12d72dd5c

Most simply, Vallas came across as an old curmudgeon who was going to flood the streets with cops and act Republican, while Johnson was young, fresh, hip, and equitable. He even got the musicians, appearing at the city's hip (north side of course) venues! Vallas' older voter base, on the other hand, stayed home, whether because they were intimidated or demoralized. The black voters also rallied around Johnson, though really, it was the progressive vote which got him here. I don't know how old you are or if you have younger friends, but it's surprising how many white upper middle class Millennials and Gen Zers really dislike the police and the current power structure.

The problem is that if Johnson doesn't to some measure get tough on crime (whatever form that may take), he's going to see high homicide and shooting totals this summer. That'll undermine his administration and make things difficult going forward. Very curious to see how he balances this!

As to taxes, we can only hope he gets (or keeps) competent people on his economic development team and then listens to them. Poverty is usually solved through job opportunities and economic growth (to fund social services). But you don't get those with high taxes. So Johnson's messaging sounded very contradictory to me.

[Kmanshouse]

Im in my early 50s. This is a telling map.

My precinct was roughly 60/40 for Johnson

https://interactive.wbez.org/chicago...nct-map/#mayor

[quigboto]

Originally Posted by Kmanshouse

Well, Chicago is almost 200 years old. Each mayoral term is 4 years.

Chicago takes awhile to change in any direction, and has a huge political machine that no one person can control.

The problems that the city faced during Lightfoot, honestly, likely would have happened under most mayors, including Vallas or Johnson. Covid and the George Floyd thing set off crime and protests and looting etc in many major cities across the country. No mayor was going to fix that.

Several reasons the CPD struggled lately are:

1) Lightfoot's don't chase on foot rule (WTF was that)
2) Mandating vaccinations - I think that might be over now?
3) Combative behavior to the aldermen seeking help (guessing Johnson will be much better on this one)
4) Progressive F the police populace (that's the citizenry, not the mayor)

I might be missing others.

My concern with Johnson is that he may instill some taxes that could drive companies out or prevent others from coming. I do think that is self-correcting, but it could mean a dip for awhile, which we don't need.

They're not supposed to chase on foot? I didn't know that. CPD may not be adhering to that so well. I actually had a foot chase occur through my backyard a couple of weeks ago. (My back gate got damaged in the process) My office window looks out into my yard so I saw it unfold with a bit of disbelief tempered with a bit of "Meh, I've seen pretty much everything"

I do truly hope that Johnson improves relations with the CPD. I wish he was pushing an agenda of hiring more cops rather than shuffling resources. It seems to me that CPD resources are already spread pretty thin, and they need support from the community and City Hall to be able to do their jobs effectively.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by Kmanshouse

Im in my early 50s. This is a telling map.

My precinct was roughly 60/40 for Johnson

https://interactive.wbez.org/chicago...nct-map/#mayor

He stole the hearts of the young progressives, ala Bill Clinton with the saxophone back in '92. He was as smooth as butter, and of course had the CTU and SEIU behind him. Hard to beat those boots unless you are truly committed.

And Vallas failed. He won the predictable working class Hispanic belt below I-55 and of course the more conservative northwest and southwest side white wards. But many of those voters were for some reason demoralized or afraid to come out in Round 2. Their turnout was way down from February, which was fatal. I feel bad for them in many ways. They've really taken a beating over the past decade or so. Easier to stay in and dream of Florida.

Vallas did not do well with Lakefront Liberals or, especially, the younger hipper North Siders. They likely found him to be an ancient establishment curmudgeon who looked and sounded like the Grim Reaper and represented the old outdated way, and, worse, was probably a closet Republican. And his campaign behaved that way, eschewing voter contact in hip venues and (inexplicably) and failing to advertise on social media. The only YouTube ads I saw were for Johnson. Newsflash - this is how people under 45 get their media now.

And of course Vallas got clocked in the black wards. That was probably a bit surprising given the endorsements of Wilson, Jesse White, and other tested black politicians but clearly, those endorsements did not help.

[whatintarnation]

Originally Posted by SonySegaTendo617

Are you sure about that? I just worry if Johnson were to enact some of his tax ideas(like bringing back the head tax Rahm eliminated while mayor), that it'd really slow down the flow of new jobs to Chicago. JB already did say one of Johnson's tax ideas was a bad idea(the tax on securities trading contracts, where such stock exchanges would likely relocate out of Chicago to avoid paying that tax), so maybe not every silly tax idea Johnson has considered enacting would necessarily be enacted: https://archive.ph/cmKso

Let's not forget Rahm was better at recruiting new companies to Chicago, and I don't think Lori did much(if anything at all) to attract new companies to Chicago. I know she did the Invest South/West initiative, but not sure if she did much else except for that.

Totally agree that Rahm did much better on that account. And I imagine/hope Pritzker does prevent Johnson from implementing those taxes (at least the ones that aren’t straight up illegal). I know he walked it back already, but the idea of a metra tax made my head spin (and what exactly is progressive about taxing public transit riders?)

I think if he continues to lean on Johnson like he is now then things won’t be too nuts in that regard. But we’ll see.