Q&A with Mayor Brandon Johnson to mark 100 days in office

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson sat down with Tribune City Hall reporters Gregory Royal Pratt and Alice Yin last week to talk about his time in office as he approached the end of his first 100 days in office. Here’s a transcript of their exchange.

Gregory Royal Pratt: You know, you’re different than Mayor (Lori) Lightfoot in a variety of ways. You know, when I joke about it, I like to say that she wakes up in a bad mood and you wake up in a good mood as a personality barometer. But one of the ways that you’re different is, she was very hands on, she was a very micromanager. She wrote a lot of emails and texts, and in June, you didn’t send a single email, according to your office. I want to talk about your leadership style. How would you describe your management style? Are you a delegator? And what topics do you engage most with, and what do you leave to others?

Mayor Brandon Johnson: Yeah, so, you know, as I’ve said repeatedly, bringing people together is a part of my value system. Collaborating, working with folks who are competent and compassionate, right? Those are my standards. And what I’ve experienced over these last few months in office is that that is the most effective way to actually get stuff done, quite frankly. And over these last 100 days, I’m very excited about what we’ve done around public safety. So we talk about public safety quite a bit. And this is why for the first time in the history of the city of Chicago, we have a deputy mayor who is committed to community safety. For the first time in the history of the city of Chicago, a deputy mayor for immigrant, migrant and refugee rights. You know, bringing the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union together, right? Creating a school board that is made up of parents, business leaders, philanthropy. A special education committee to actually address these critical needs. But particularly around public safety, you know, I spend a great deal of time talking about how we actually can layer our response to the critical needs that people are facing every single day. The fact that 24,000 young people were hired for the summer, working to expand that for year-round positions. And then finally, you know, I spend a lot of time talking about, again, the full force of government. As you know, the unprecedented downpour of rain that happened within a month of my being sworn in, we administered government in a brand new way: Clearing alleys, going into people’s basements, you know, having more of a hands-on approach to how we actually deliver government. So I’m grateful that people are committed to the style of leadership that I bring to the city of Chicago. Bringing structure, calm and a more collaborative approach — that’s what people elected me to do. And I’m grateful to have this opportunity to actually lead in that capacity.

Pratt: Do you see yourself as more of a delegator?

Johnson: I see myself as someone who appreciates the expertise that people bring to the conversation. And there are a lot of experts in the city of Chicago around a variety of issues and again, collaborating and bringing people together is what the city of Chicago wants. You know, some people have become accustomed to more of a combative approach to play out publicly. Some people prefer that. Most people — in fact, the people that I speak to of the city of Chicago, they’re coming up to me either thanking me for the work and the leadership, or asking how they can be helpful. And because it’s important that people know that, it’s going to take all of us to build a better, stronger, safer Chicago, leading through that lens is critical for the direction of the city and really it gives us the ability to experience the full soul of Chicago because the diversity of the city is really where our strengths are.

Pratt: Well, we have some vacancies at the commissioners’ levels. You have (Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison) Arwady, you have (Housing Commissioner Marisa) Novara, Human Resources (Commissioner Christopher) Owen, you have (Planning Commissioner Maurice) Cox. You’ve talked about being deliberative and patient, and I understand that —

Johnson: Thank you.

Pratt: There is a difference between deliberative and unprepared, and for people who — and I’m not saying you are unprepared — but for people who think you are unprepared, or people who think they don’t have it together, because they haven’t filled —

Johnson: Yeah, no one is coming to me saying, ‘Mr. Mayor, are you prepared to lead the city of Chicago?’ No one asks me that. When I talk to people, and I’ve been all over the city of Chicago, people are asking how they can be helpful. Government is fully functioning right now. And it was on display, you know, over the course of these last several weeks. We have, what, 10 more shelters that we’ve stood up since I was sworn in? We’ve had 90 buses of migrants coming from the border, here. And again, the full force of government on display when it came to the flooding. We had businesses step in, step up. We had Streets and Sanitation, Department of Transportation, (the Department of Family and Support Services), (the Office of Emergency Management and Communications), the Fire Department, the Police Department. Our government is fully operational.

Pratt: Let’s take housing as an example, though. What is the delay in appointing someone to replace (Commissioner Novara) and what’s the timetable for that?

Johnson: Well, one of the things that I think is important — that since I’ve been sworn in, the amount of affordable housing units that we were able to put on the board within my first City Council meeting, I believe at 1,000 additional affordable housing units. We also are collaborating and working to Bring Chicago Home. I mean, that’s something that was in delay for what? The last four or five, six years? And so the move to actually see housing as a real human right, our work has not stopped. And in fact, we have expedited housing justice within the first 90 days of my administration, and that’s something that it’s important to note because it speaks to the collaborative spirit and collaborative nature of my administration.

Pratt: I understand that, but do you have a timetable for when you’ll have a commissioner?

Johnson: It’s important that our focus is on actually delivering services for the people of Chicago, and we’re doing just that.

Alice Yin: And then moving on to legislation, your most concrete 100-day promises, Treatment Not Trauma and Bring Chicago Home, they’re not going to happen by the 100-day mark, obviously, and probably not by the end of the year. Do you think when you made that promise on the campaign trail — that it’s gonna pass in the first 100 days — that you might have underestimated the legislative process or just how these things go about?

Johnson: You know, again, both of those pieces of legislation, there were no hearings. There were no conversations. In fact, for the last several years, many folks didn’t even say that was possible. The fact that we have brought all of our stakeholders together to Bring Chicago Home, the fact that we brought our stakeholders together to pass Treatment Not Trauma, the fact that we actually have a police superintendent, who was saying what I said on the campaign trail, that we need Treatment Not Trauma, that is an incredible shift from where we were and where we are. And I’m grateful that there is a real collaborative spirit in the city of Chicago and there’s a great deal of excitement to actually pass progressive legislation. And I’m looking forward to getting that done.

Yin: What do you think is a fair way to judge a mayor on how they do tackling crime?

(Johnson laughs)

Yin: And by that, I mean what timeline is it reasonable to start seeing if violence is receding, and how much of a drop would you consider progress versus just fluctuation?

(Johnson laughs)

Pratt: I almost want to hear the answer to the first half of that sentence, but you can —

Johnson: No, look, I’ll just say this: I know what I inherited, right? And the city of Chicago is the best city in the world, right? And we do have our challenges, and we have a lot of work to do. But again, the fact that we are committed to smart policing, constitutional policing while also getting at the root causes of crime, that is a shift, a dramatic shift from where we’ve been as a society, as a nation. Again, 24,000 people, young people who were hired, thousands of people across the city benefited from the investments that we made in young people. Hundreds of thousands. We have corporations that put money into our work to make sure that there were programs available between the dismissal of school and the start of Park District programs, and the same thing on the back end, the closure of Park District programs in the start of the school year. And so I am grateful that people are committed to doing something that we have not made a strong commitment toward since 50 years ago, when President (Lyndon) Johnson said that we should get at the root causes. And so clearly there’s benefit of electing Johnsons.

Yin: Well to follow up on that, the reason I ask that is because at the end of the year when CPD releases its annual statistics — and you know, at the end of this year, it might be higher for shootings and homicides — but I think a lot of people would say one year, or even less than a year, is not enough to make a dent. What would be a fair time to examine progress under your term?

Johnson: Look, we have to start talking about progress today. Look, it’s not a secret of what we’ve had to deal with in the city of Chicago for a very long time. I mean, several administrations ago, you had 900 people murdered a year. Just within the last administration, you had as high as 700 people being murdered a year. And this was just not a challenge for the city of Chicago, this is a problem from all over the country. And as you all know, that violence is happening in every city, across the country, and the real dynamic that we’re confronted with in the city of Chicago is the fact that our Black boys have been targets. And as someone who is raising Black boys, someone who is raising a family in Austin — one of the more violent neighborhoods in the entire city — making progress as fast as possible is a commitment that the full force of government under my administration, or in my administration, is committed to delivering for people. And a better, stronger safer Chicago is going to require all of us. Not one person can actually solve the decades of disinvestment, but I’m grateful that we have the philanthropic community, the business community to step it up. You have, the labor movement is in full force. Obviously, my administration is in full force, we’ve dedicated resources to investing in people and we’re going to continue to do that.

Yin: If I could get one more, just a personal one.

Johnson press secretary Hannah Fierle: No, I’m sorry. We gotta keep a schedule, but —

Johnson: It’s a personal one?

Fierle: OK.

AY: I just wanted to like ask since assuming office —

Johnson: Alice and I go back. (Ed. note: Yin covered Johnson when he was a commissioner on the Cook County Board.)

Fierle: You got one more.

AY: Yeah, since assuming office, has there been a high point for you and a low point, maybe even like a twinge of regret that I’ve signed up for this job?

(Johnson laughs)

Johnson: No, first of all, there are no regrets. I’ve had multiple high points, you know, again, from going to block clubs, and running into Black boys who have mohawks, intentionally, right? And their father and their mother telling me repeatedly how they cannot leave the house until it comes to an exact point. Sueños, Lollapalooza, the Bud Billiken parade. We had, a couple of weeks ago I believe it was, where 900 young people, mostly Black — they’ve been deemed as hard to educate. So some of these young people have dropped out, and they’re kind of in-between. Nine hundred of them participated in the culmination of an end of six weeks program, and one young Black boy followed me around the entire room. And by the time I was able to respond to him, kids were asking for photos. He didn’t want a photo. You know what he wanted? He said he wanted to shake my hand because he said, ‘Whatever you have, Mr. Mayor, I want that to rub off on me.’ That’s what we’re fighting for. Thank you.

Yin: And a low point?

Johnson: A low point? Oh, it’s Chicago. There’s no low point. The Cubs are at two games out of first place. We’re good.