“When he becomes challenged about this by other people, his baseline is, ‘I know this stuff better than you do.’… It’s like he’s offended that people are questioning his leadership.” (Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th)/Sun-Times)
It is past time for Mayor Brandon Johnson to demand Dorval Carter resign or he should fire him as president of the CTA. Carter’s replacement should be someone who has experience in running and financing transit systems. We do not need another political hack running one of the gems of this city.
Some of the alders are fed up and making their demands known through a resolution.
Brandon Johnson has little to show for during his first year in office. He bungled too many issues, including the migrants. Chicago is not a safer city under his rule. He went to Springfield to tout the Bears boodle and boondoggle lakefront stadium. He could not convince the smarter people down there this was a good idea.
Rick Tealander wrote this piece on why the new stadium should not be built. A friend of mine posted on social media that the plan would destroy bird habitat and kill birds. Johnson should move on from this fiasco. It will not benefit the city or the taxpayers.
Then Johnson went to Springfield claiming the state “owed” Chicago $1billion dollars for Chicago schools.
“It’s not as if CPS has been suffering a decline — or even a leveling off — of state funds since Pritzker took office in 2019. State contributions to CPS have increased 14% in that time frame to more than $2.1 billion, from less than $1.9 billion. The percentage increase is substantially more when one accounts for the 10.4% decline in students attending Chicago Public Schools over that period. Looked at that way, state contributions per CPS student are up 30%.” (Chicago Tribune)
Maybe Johnson should get his financial facts straight. He should also read “How to Make Friends and Influence People.”
Johnson has thinner skin than Lori Lightfoot. He also has an overblown sense of entitlement. He is the mayor. He forgets we citizens are his employer. Everything is his way or the highway. They name streets after people like Johnson, One Way and Dead End.
Johnson is a narrative of his progressive ideas- whatever progressive means. Ideas, wherever on the political scale they are, do not always make good policy. Worse, when they are enacted and problems or failures arise, politicians do not make the necessary changes to make the policies effective. A perfect example is the Safe-T Act. The no cash bail policy is not working. It would not take much to tweak this. Yet, like little children, our politicians refuse to listen, stamping their little feet and banging their chubby little hands.
“Moving forward, a better, stronger, safer Chicago requires us to collaborate and work together. And that’s what we’re doing,” (Brandon Johnson/Sun-Times)
Chicago is not a stronger or safer city and will not be one under Johnson. Neighborhoods all over the city are experiencing violent robberies, car jackings, and other assaults on a daily basis. His “People’s” plans will take years- if they come to fruition- to work. You cannot solve decades old issues overnight. Johnson talks a good game. He is all talk and no action.
Summer is coming. We will see if Johnson’s pipe dream will make Chicago a “stronger and safer” city. Do not get your hopes up.
“From the very beginning, I hit the ground running,” Johnson said. “If there’s another administration that has accomplished more than what I’ve done in the first year, I would like to see it.” (Brandon Johnson/Block Club Chicago)
Ok, Richard J. Daley, Jane Byrne, Richard M. Daley, and Rham Emanuel. Harold Washington would be on the list if 29 members of the City Council did not stymy him.