What exactly 'a city that works' looks like (or doesn't)

A quick review of the last few months of Brandon Johnson's tenure

First, a quick note - as we enter 2024 my goal is to increase the amount of content on this Substack. Much of that will keep the same general format as I’ve had so far, with longer articles covering specific policies or topics in Chicago, but I’ll also try to supplement that with some shorter posts on timely events or topics not broad enough for a full deep dive. As always, please feel free to reach out at any time at citythatworksnewsletter@gmail.com for any thoughts, suggestions, criticisms, or other feedback.

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Thus far in writing about Chicago, I’ve really tried to keep my focus on substantive policy issues. I think I’ve made it as clear as possible that I view our pension and debt issues as the most important challenges Chicago’s facing, and I’ve tried to avoid too much coverage that distracts from those issues. I largely plan on keeping that focus going forward. That said, the new year seems like a good chance to review the past couple months of our new mayor’s tenure. In particular, a lot of recent events exemplify what I mean when I refer to “a city that works.”

Unfortunately, that example comes in the form of many, many lessons on what not working looks like.

Take, for example, the city’s handling of the large homeless encampment near Clinton and Lake in the West Loop. In October, Alderman Bill Conway tried working with the mayor’s office to get help addressing the camp, highlighting a trend of overdoses, robberies and a few shootings in the area as posing a significant public safety concern. Rather than doing anything about the issue, the mayor’s administration¹ decided this was a good opportunity to play politics, offering to address the camp only if Conway supported the Bring Chicago Home and One Fair Wage ordinances (he did not). The Tribune and others rightly denounced this game of attempted horse trading over public safety, and Conway referred the matter to the city’s Inspector General, but no action was taken on the encampment itself.

In the weeks following, in early December a man was arrested nearby the encampment with $60,000 in drugs and a gun. A few days later, another man was shot and killed. Only then would the city finally decide to act, clearing the encampments and pushing residents to accept rapid rehousing from the city.

In an entirely separate space, the mayor was also forced to do an abrupt about-face last month over public meeting access, after instituting a policy making it much harder for the public to attend City Council meetings.² This was quickly met with pushback from aldermen and others in the public, who pointed out the stark contrast between this and Johnson’s campaign promises for transparency. The Better Government Agency was also quick to point out that the new rules were likely illegal under the Illinois Open Meetings Act, and the entire kerfuffle lasted less than a week (though the administration’s efforts to avoid transparency seem to continue into the new year).

Just this week, yet another story has surfaced about dysfunction inside the mayor’s office, with the Tribune publishing an account of three staffers in the press office who were fired a few months ago after being berated by Jason Lee³ for not sufficiently updating the mayor’s social media accounts because they were focused on livestreaming a police officer’s funeral.

Even setting all these particular instances aside for a moment, we’d still be left with the administration’s biggest albatross to date - its handling of Chicago’s ongoing migrant crisis. It’s hard to cover the entire crisis both succinctly and in detail, but to cover some the broad highlights:

• First, the Brighton Park site:

  • In late October, the city starts leasing a vacant lot at 38th and California in Brighton Park for nearly $100,000 a month, with the lease stipulating the lot comes “as-is” despite residents having raised prior environmental safety concerns about the lot, which used to host a zinc smelter. They do so without telling anyone, including the local Alderwoman Julia Ramirez, and the lease only becomes public once FOIAed by resident Anthony Moser.

  • In mid November, Governor Pritzker announces that the state will be stepping in with $160 million to help migrants in Chicago - including $65 million to help build a temporary shelter at the aforementioned lot - because the city hasn’t been moving fast enough to address the migrant housing issue before winter gets here.

  • In early December, the mayor’s office declares the lot “safe for temporary residential use” and promises to publicly release the full environmental impact report on the site by the end of the week. By the end of the week, the report is not released, with reporters - and members of the city council themselves! - having to file FOIA requests to receive a copy⁴:

• The mayor’s office finally releases the report Friday night. It states that investigators found high levels of mercury in one section of the lot, as well as elevated levels of arsenic, lead and manganese. Despite this, the mayor still proceeds with construction on the site.

• Next Tuesday (December 5th), the State of Illinois again steps in, blocking construction given the results of the report which the mayor’s office tried to wave away. Pritzker’s office makes it clear that they are not comfortable placing migrants on a potentially toxic site. The mayor’s office complains that the state didn’t provide any guidelines on how to assess a site, to which Pritzker’s office points out that the guidelines are basically “follow the law.”

• The whole thing gets scrapped, and it’s unclear exactly how much of the failed project’s bill will end up being covered by the city.

• Meanwhile, reports on some of the city’s other temporary sites show pretty terrible conditions, and it’s entirely unclear whether there’s any city oversight whatsoever. This eventually leads to the tragic death of a 5 year old boy staying in one of the shelters, along with a number of other hospitalizations.

• Finally, there’s the city’s efforts to find other new sites for migrants. A Block Club story covers their efforts in detail, outlining a process of paying well above market rent for convertible office space in the West Loop, along with - stop me if you’ve heard this one before - very few details or records that they’re able to pass on to the public:

Johnson administration officials won’t detail how the West Loop shelter sites were chosen, instead providing a general overview of how the Mayor’s Office and other departments work with contractors to identify suitable properties.

The overview shows the city did not undertake a competitive bidding process before renting the properties. Buses from Texas began bringing migrants in August 2022, but officials consider the shelters part of an ongoing emergency response, allowing the city to bypass standard contracting rules.

City officials also said they don’t yet have records showing how much they’ve been billed for use of the West Loop properties.

Johnson aides told Block Club they don’t have copies of the West Loop rental agreements because contractors handled that work. The contractors and building owners declined to comment, wouldn’t provide figures or documentation or didn’t respond.

These episodes obviously vary in their level of importance, but the broad picture here is not one of a well operating administration. It’s instead one that moves too slowly, seems insufficiently concerned with details, isn’t forthright with the public, and doesn’t like to address or acknowledge problems until they’re too late to ignore. Importantly, those aren’t inherently ideological shortcomings - they’re instead failures of mismanagement, incompetence, and poor execution.

This is the most important thing I want to convey - when I talk about wanting to have a city that works, I don’t mean a city that does what I want it to. I mean a city that’s governed by people who obviously know what they’re doing, have thought about the best way to do those things, and then do those things well. Unfortunately it seems increasingly clear that that doesn’t reflect the current mayor’s office.

The easy contrast to make here is with Governor Pritzker. I’ve never viewed him as someone in over his head. I can think of any number of issues or policies Pritzker has instituted which I didn’t agree with, but it’s pretty hard to find decisions he’s made where he hasn’t fully thought things through, or where he’s done a poor job of executing on their implementation. He’s fundamentally good as his job, and is a competent manager who can get things done. That‘s the kind of leadership we should be requiring - and which we seem to be sorely lacking today - for the city of Chicago. Perhaps it’s not surprising that the Sun-Times is reporting that the Pritzker-Johnson relationship is increasingly governed by tension.

I understand not everybody may agree on my policy priorities, and that’s fine. But I trust we should all want a city that’s governed competently, and an administration that is capable of doing what it wants to without stepping on rakes every time it tries to get something done. This quote has circulated pretty widely by now, but I think Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor - a progressive who was one of Johnson’s first endorsements in the 2023 election - put it well on the Ben Joravsky Show recently (via Block Club):

“We should not be on the fifth floor,⁵ and I’m speaking my whole heart,” Taylor said. “… We were not ready, because we haven’t been in government long enough to know how government really runs.”

Rather than pouring their efforts into securing the mayorship in 2023, progressives should have rallied behind securing a veto-proof, 34-seat majority in City Council, Taylor said.

“I felt like we not ready and it’s showing out in the wash. I don’t got to say it, people see it,” she told Joravsky. “We’re pretending like now we got the power, let us show you how it’s supposed to be done. And we look real stupid right now.”

Well put. Here’s hoping for a city that works better in 2024.

1. Specifically, Senior mayoral advisor Jason Lee

2. This was done, ostensibly, to crack down on public protestors who had more frequently been disrupting council proceedings over the past few months.

3. Yes, the same Jason Lee I referenced in the first footnote.

4. Notably, the governor’s office apparently also does not receive the report.

5. The fifth floor is the location of the mayor’s office within City Hall.