Chicago - My Kind of Town

I mean, you can look up his accomplishments yourself but it’s telling you’re not aware of any (thanks shitty state of media today!) and dismissive of the ones that I posted. Crime being down in big cities nationwide doesn’t also translate to every big city and if we were an outlier city the bootlicking media would be shoving it in our faces every chance they got. So let’s not pretend that it isn’t dishonest to act like it’s not an accomplishment when if the opposite were true it’d be painted as a failure. The curfew veto may feel meaningless to white male adults, but it was not to anyone who knows history and knows exactly how abusive CPD would’ve been with that authority.

Just the other day he surpassed his goal of 30k youth jobs during his term, well ahead of schedule. Again, probably doesn’t seem like a big deal but that is something that helps us all and will pay dividends in the future. He got rid of the subminimum wage for tipped workers, reopened some of the mental health clinics Rahm’s evil ass shut down, and reopened the Department of Environment that was one of Daley’s signature accomplishments (and I beleive Rahm also shut down).

A quick search brings up this piece from rhe always reliable The Triibe that shows he has the support of his base, which makes me think he is doing what the people that elected him elected him to do.

https://thetriibe.com/2025/04/mayor...ohnsons-base-evaluates-his-campaign-promises/


Again, he’s not perfect, I definitely have my issues, but it is obvious that the rich and powerful don’t like him and their voice has an outsized impact on not only the media, but also (through the media and socially) on the not so rich and powerful, so I try not to form my opinion just based on what the traditional media pumps out. I also try to not to be a cheerleader for politicians, so I do consume that media as well, but i take it with a grain of salt and also try to compare the results to my own expectations for a candidate. He’s doing fine, could be doing better, but he’s doing fine.

 

So he has mostly delivered symbolic gestures while handing out patronage positions to political allies. Given the magnitude and urgency of Chicago's challenges, that hardly qualifies as doing OK to me.

 

Again, maybe “mostly symbolic” to you, but just the things I mentioned alone are not ‘symbolic’ to a large number of Chicagoans and help all Chicagoans whether they realize it or dismiss it as ‘mostly symbolic’ without any actual specifics whatsoever clarifying what ‘mostly symbolic’ could possibly mean.

 

Lollapalooza 2025 Draws Massive Crowd of 115,000 Daily, Matching Pre-Pandemic Attendance Levels

 

Is this a good thing?!?

I don't know.

 

Agreed, but they need a better venue for the festival.
I have been arguing it should be Northerly Island for the past 20 years.
Build a festival grounds like Meier Park in Milwaukee and move the various events there.

 

So that’s a lot of money being spent, but it’s always tough to gauge this because of two factors that also apply to large sporting events (think “if we build a domed stadium for the Bears we can host the Super Bowl/Wrestlemania/Final Four/etc), coincidentally. One is the ‘replacement effect’ which is that yes, this brings a lot of money in but it’s not like people have access to extra money to go to Lolla, so it will take money away from other attractions that they’ll forgo in favor of this event. The other is the Yogi Berra ‘it’s so crowded that nobody goes there anymore’ effect, which is basically, people staying away from downtown (and not spending money there) because of all of the people attending Lolla.

When the company I work for had an office downtown, we would work from home the entire week of Lolla because nobody wanted to be around that many ********ing tourists. I would wager we were not unique in that aspect among organizations that allowed people to wfh. So yeah, there were tourists buying Starbucks and eating at Revival Food Hall and what not, but a ton of people that were normally doing that weren’t that week. And just like with NASCAR, many tourists that would be looking to book a trip would find another weekend or another city because hotels and AirBNBs are going to be more expense on a high demand weekend.

So it’s tough to gauge financially. From a PR perspective I do think it’s good. Obviously my algorithm feeds me stuff it knows I will engage with, but anecdotally all of my social feeds are positive posts about the city, related to Lolla.

 

It makes too much sense, but all the nature zealots/Friends Of The Park will burst blood vessels.

 

So, there would be an additional positive for doing it?

Of course, the irony is that the "park" used to be an airport.

 

And they're going to hold on to that park with their fingernails.

 

https://tinyurl.com/pv7p24tv

The new Grant Park Framework Plan includes refashioning Hutchinson Field into a “neighborhood-oriented amenity” — but doesn’t mention Agora sticking around for it.

The sculpture Agora — a striking work composed of 106 9-foot tall iron human figures — has been a fixture on the southern edge of Grant Park for nearly 20 years.

Installed in 2006, Agora is the work of internationally celebrated Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz, who died in 2017 at age 86.

The cast iron figures — some in stride while others stand — occupy a 3-acre site in the park, near Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue.


Agora is one of the park’s most popular sculptures, inviting people to enter the artwork and walk among the shapes.

 

This thread needed a bump.

@SPOTNEWSonIG happy anniversary to this banger of a tweet when a @whitesox fan snuck a gun in her fat rolls and accidentally shot two people pic.twitter.com/5lfsQWTjTy

— The Bartending Broker (@TheLawe912) August 25, 2025

 

Stuart Loren: Chicago needs less chaos and more common sense
"I had some thoughts to share… If you want to know why I think deploying the national guard to Chicago would be a mistake, read my op-ed in today’s Tribune. Textbook case of the law of unintended consequences."

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/08/31/opinion-chicago-public-safety-crime/

 

“Stuart Loren is a managing director at Fort Sheridan Advisors, where he manages client investment portfolios and is responsible for market and economic analysis.”

If I’d read that first I would have avoided his letter. Crime is not down here because of the police chief and attorney, it is down because of the mayor’s policies of crime prevention via teen jobs, reopening mental health clinics, and violence intervention- additionally no cash bail in IL helps reduce crime, as many predicted it would. If someone wants to make an argument that both things share credit I’ll hear it, but this clown giving credit to one but not the other is discrediting to any argument they are trying to make, to say the least.

“If we only let law enforcement and prosecutors do their jobs without unreasonable restrictions, and had more judges concerned about justice for the public than for violent offenders, we could be making even greater strides.”

Especially when the argument is this right wing bullshit. WTF kind of restrictions are we putting on law enforcement that prevents them from doing their jobs? Don’t kill unarmed children? Oh no, how will the police ever keep us safe? JFC with this horseshit, the whole “the police are handcuffed and can’t do their jobs” nonsense is infuriating and it’s always the worst people that want to go back to the days of cops openly beating people with billy clubs in the streets (which did NOT prevent crime then either). The fact that crime is dropping even though these poor police officers and prosecutors have so many restrictions preventing them from doing their jobs just shows what a bullshit argument that is.

“what is the “acceptable” level of crime. Is the answer not zero? I realize that’s unrealistic, but why not aim for it?”
There is other nonsense to pick at in this mope’s letter, but I’ll actually give some “broken clock is right twice a day” credit to him here. I’m a proponent of vision zero when it comes to pedestrian and cyclist safety, and that same approach is valid when it comes to violent crime. What this dipshit misses with his argument is that many progressive policies are implemented with a similar approach- we may not be able to get the negative outcomes to literally zero, but every inch closer makes us safer. While he doesn’t come right out and say it, I’m tired of this narrative that progressives are somehow “pro crime” just because the policies they advocate for (which again - are WORKING) don’t focus on punishment but instead work toward prevention.

Also ******** Boston, that dump of a village should never be mentioned in the same breath as Chicago, much less as a “big city”. It’s a glorified college town that gets outsized media attention because it’s on the east coast and has historical relevance. I hope that diphshit moves back tomorrow and gets pocket picked.

 

Thanks.
I started reading it until the Tribune paywall kicked in and blocked me.
Reading your comments, the paywall saved me time and frustration.

 

Too bad he gave short shrift to community building efforts. It's like turning around an ocean liner, but there are green shoots appearing.