Alderman wants the city to negotiate against itself
Robinson's intentions may be good but aren't needed
Fourth Ward Alderperson Lamont Robinson is apparently caught up in the euphoria over the news that the Chicago Bears are giving a hard look at building their new stadium on the Lakefront; and decided he will embark on a one-man campaign to influence the outcome.
It is obvious from Robinson’s comments to Crain’s Chicago Business he wasn’t dispatched by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Administration to test the waters with Bears President Kevin Warren about an alternative site for a new stadium. Robinson’s pitch of the former Michael Reese Hospital site is ill-conceived at best. In all of the previous discussions about a location for the Bears, this is the first time that site was mentioned publicly.
Discord between the executive and legislative branches is customary and expected. However, there was no sign of disagreement here; but Robinson ran the risk of unnecessarily creating it. Robinson’s first move regarding the former hospital grounds should have been a conversation with the administration. If the mayor and whoever is negotiating on behalf of the city saw that it fit the current strategy, then fine.
Robinson’s approach to the Bears was even further off base because he has no authority to enter into or sign any agreement on behalf of the city. His move was nothing more than self-aggrandizement-something certainly not needed during multi-billion-dollar negotiations. The shallowness of the alderperson’s idea runs even deeper when we look at the reality that the information, he took to his Bears’ meeting was not nearly as extensive as the city’s dossier. Hopefully, no other alderpersons will turn into one-person negotiating teams and further muddy the conversation.
Johnson is simply treading water on the violence is
Looks like Mayor Brandon Johnson and his team are out of ideas for addressing Chicago’s relentless violence; so, they have decided to borrow and repackage some strategies from the legion of anti-violence organizations in the city. The pathetic part is he wants Chicagoans to think it is something new.
Earlier this week, the schoolteacher turned mayor announced a grand plan to address Chicago violence by targeting 10 blocks in Englewood, Little Village, West Garfield Park and Austin. In presenting the plan, he was quoted as saying “the full force of my administration is coming to your front door. That is what true fifth floor organizing looks like.”
That’s great campaign rhetoric however, the “full force” of the fifth floor should be ensuring all departments are operating at an optimal level, the city budget doesn’t run further in the red, and determining how to fill the staffing gap in CPD. And in addressing the issue of violence, shouldn’t the fifth floor be engaging with the dozen or so organizations, such as CRED, Accilivus, Englewood Heroes, Metropolitan Family Services, Institute of Nonviolence, the University of Chicago Lab, and others who have a million hours in doing this work? Any there anything other issues than hubris and ignorance of these organizations that would make him think he has the solution that keeps evading experts? We can toss this up as yet another Johnson Administration red herring. Like all of his innovative plans previously pitched we will not hear any results from this one.
Didn’t Chicago hire a health commissioner?
After the fumbling of the firing of Dr. Allyson Arwady late last year, Chicago was without a Commissioner of Public Health. Apparently, that void was filled in January with the hiring a New York physician. Unlike Awady who provided daily updates on the status of COVID 19 cases in the city; and became respected for her point-on assessments we have yet to see the new commissioner -Dr. Olousimbo Ige, publicly address the latest health concern in the city-measles.
Part of the reason may be Ige works for a mayor who operates under the delusion all television news cameras are meant to record his utterances-regardless of his level of understanding of the topic. He wasted no time at a recent news conference on the outbreak of measles to step up to the mics and how the outbreak was something that didn’t travel here with the migrants but was “an infectious disease” that already was here. Had he allowed Ige to speak on the matter it is doubtful she would have classified measles as a disease with it is actually a virus.