Brandon Johnson reflects on first year as Chicago mayor
CHICAGO — Wednesday will mark one year since Brandon Johnson, initially an underdog on the campaign trail, embarked upon his journey as Chicago’s 57th mayor. He can tout several progressive victories such as expanding paid time off for workers and phasing out sub-minimum wage, but significant hurdles remain, including funding for Chicago Public Schools students, settling migrants and curbing violence.
From pouring money into underinvested neighborhoods to fixing the Chicago Transit Authority and tackling an infinite number of safety concerns, Chicagoans want to see change in their neighborhoods.
Asked about public safety, the mayor said called it “heartbreaking” whenever someone falls victim to crime but said data shows homicides and shootings are down. Robberies, however, are up slightly since last year. On the campaign trail, Johnson pledged to hire 200 new Chicago police officers. He said the department has so far hired about 120 or 130 of that goal.
Johnson said he has complete confidence in his choice of Larry Snelling to lead the Chicago Police Department and dismissed critics who say he lacks support from rank-and-file officers.
“As far as criticism is concerned, that just comes with the territory,” he said. “You know, I’ll say it this way: If I wake up in the morning and I’m not being criticized, it means I’m no longer the mayor of the city of Chicago.”
One of the mayor’s major challenges is the ongoing migrant crisis. Since August 2022, more than 41,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Chicago from Texas. As the city scrambled to find more space for migrants, thousands of them slept in police districts as well as O’Hare and Midway airports. Late last year, Johnson proposed building a winterized tent near West 38th Place and South California Avenue in the city’s Brighton Park neighborhood. The heavily criticized plan was shut down by Gov. JB Pritzker after hazardous chemicals were identified on site.
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“Has it been a challenge? Well, Congress can’t get their act together. The governor of Texas is determined to create chaos. We have brought calm structure to a very volatile situation,” he said.
When it comes to public education, the former teacher and community organizer went to Springfield last week to request more than $1 billion for the city, an amount Pritzker’s office has already challenged.
“Look, the $1.1 billion that Springfield owes the city of Chicago, that’s not my number. That’s the number based upon the algorithm that Springfield calculated,” he said.
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Johnson also faced major opposition at the statehouse regarding a proposed, multi-billion dollar lakefront stadium for the Chicago Bears using taxpayer dollars, a plan the governor has said he doesn’t support.
“The solution that’s on the table now is to build a stadium, 72 percent of it financed by ownership, the other 28 percent financed by visitors,” he said. “If someone has a better solution than that, they should speak.”
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Johnson said one of his proudest wins this past year was passing a $1.25 billion deal for neighborhood development.
“We’re going to hyper-concentrate, though, on neighborhoods that have historically neglected in,” he stressed.
Asked about any concerns he has related to the potential for mass violence at the upcoming Democratic National Convention, the mayor responded by saying that with the help of police and the secret service, he envisions a safe and peaceful convention.
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