The city of Chicago once had a mayor who could move mountains with just a whisper. Richard J. Daley was a fearsome presence at city hall, and he was able to get what he wanted through the sheer force of his personality (and some real leg-breakers from "The Outfit").
Those days are long gone. The political organization that Daley built is less than a shadow of its former self. Efforts to revitalize "The Machine" have ultimately failed, largely because the city has become more diverse. The Hispanic wards and black wards vie for power and influence, too busy fighting among themselves to unite and take the city.
Into that power vacuum rode the Chicago Teachers Union, now the most powerful political presence in the city. In 2023, they elected their very own mayor. Brandon Johnson is an idiot but he's the teacher union's idiot, and they rarely allow him to forget that.
Time and again, Johnson has proved to be not only incapable but horribly out of his depth. His major accomplishment so far has been to strong-arm his allies on the city council to pass a ceasefire resolution on Gaza.
He has alienated the black community by pouring tens of millions of dollars into services for illegal aliens. He went to war with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, accusing him of abandoning Chicago by refusing to fund migrant shelters. And when Pritzker offered to fund a shelter, Johnson picked a location on a toxic waste dump.
He has blamed Washington, D.C., Springfield, Cook County, Republicans, and the people of Chicago for his incompetent mismanagement of the crisis.
Here's a prime example. Johnson got it in his head that he should move the migrants living in shelters in and around the Loop out of the way so convention goers wouldn't see them. He decided to move them a few blocks from Guaranteed Rate Field, home of the White Sox, on the South Side, and he planned to use an empty building to house most of them.
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced Monday he is pulling his proposal to move migrants from downtown to a new shelter in the South Side 11th Ward before the Democratic National Convention in the face of stiff opposition from the local alderman and the building’s owners, the latest setback in the administration’s attempts to house asylum-seekers.
The change came after the owners of the property said Johnson never informed them of his plans to use the building at 3951 S. Canal St. for a shelter. When the Tribune asked the city about that apparent disconnect, the Department of Family and Support Services released a Monday statement saying the city is “no longer considering” doing so.
“We were surprised to hear news reports of the City’s plan to possibly use our property as a migrant shelter,” Bajaj Medical, the pharmaceutical company that owns the building in the New City neighborhood, said in a Sunday statement. “Bajaj Medical has not been contacted by City officials, and has not approved, and does not intend to approve any public use of this property.”
Johnson flunkies said that they had spoken with Bajaj Medical's property broker. It still came as a surprise to the owner that his building was even being considered to house migrants.
Ald. Nicole Lee (11th Ward) told the Tribune earlier that the “pretty shocking” communication breakdown is indicative of the mayor's incompetence during the migrant crisis. “What’s going on? What’s going on that nobody was in touch with the owners?” Lee asked. “This shines a big light and calls into question how this is being managed, and the people that we have working for the city … That just is mind-blowing to me.”
Us too, alderman.
Trying to get illegal aliens out of the shelters had been a particularly tortured process. One 30-day deadline turned into another and then another as Johnson couldn't bring himself to issue the order to displace dozens of people.
I'm sure the Biden campaign is beginning to fret about the incompetent boob running Chicago. When the stuff hits the fan and the protests begin, who will Johnson blame for the clusterfark?
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