Mayor Johnson’s Folly…Giving billions to billionaires
Another Bears Stadium in Chicago? Disinvestment in neighborhoods. City facing shortfalls in housing, migrant services, schools and more, could be on the hook for billions more over the next 40 years.
I call it Johnson’s Folly but it really goes much deeper than that. How many times has the progressive movement elected its candidates for public office only to see them captured by the allure of power, big money, and the illusion of control? Well, here we go again.
First, I’d like to remind readers that I voted for Brandon Johnson in his race against the right-winger from F.O.P, Paul Vallas, and I would do it again. But that vote, mine and many others, wasn’t a gift, but rather a loan.
Chicago’s first Black mayor, the great Harold Washington, warned us supporters almost daily. “Don’t just vote, sit back, and wait for me to do the right thing. Keep up the pressure on me because I am being pulled in different directions by the powers that be.”
The other thing about Harold was that he included community organizers in his administration who, in turn, pushed him successfully to reallocate city investments from the downtown to the struggling outlying neighborhoods and to use community-based organizations to implement city policy with a commitment to broad-based participation.
I guess the thing I dislike most about the current mayor’s plan to invest billions of taxpayer dollars towards a new Bears football stadium, is his invocation of Harold’s name as if Harold were a proponent of such projects.
‘I run the city of Chicago.’
“Having the opportunity to stand with billionaires, you could not have convinced me a decade ago that I would have the opportunity to do that,” Johnson said.
No. Not really, Mr. Mayor. Mayors come and go, but THEY still run it. I thought you knew this. As you yourself put it recently, “They have skin in the game.” You didn’t need to convince them of that. It’s their game.
Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren didn’t fully close the door on a move to the suburbs in recent comments. But Johnson still maintains. “The McCaskey family trusts the leadership of Kevin Warren. He’s done this before. Kevin Warren trusts my leadership,” Johnson said.
I respect your ambitions and your roots, Mr. Mayor, but you demean yourself by nuzzling up to them like this.
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What Johnson left out was that a year ago, he was adamant and clear that keeping the team shouldn’t come with a multibillion-dollar bill for city taxpayers, telling WBEZ that money could instead be used to remove lead pipes, house thousands of people experiencing homelessness, pay down pensions, “or meet dozens of other urgent needs — all of which would also generate much-needed economic and quality-of-life returns.” — WBEZ
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Crains
The total cost to taxpayers to build a domed stadium on the lakefront to keep the Chicago Bears in the city will be nearly $5 billion and would not be paid off until the team’s 22-year-old rookie quarterback, Caleb Williams, is in his 60s. — Peeling back the sticker price
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NBC Sports Chicago’s Laurence Holmes
Chicago taxpayers still owe close to $600 million on the 2002 Soldier Field renovations. Holmes asked the mayor how he’d be able to sell residents on “a stadium that doesn’t necessarily need to be rebuilt.”
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With political allies from the Chicago Teachers Union — which has vociferously opposed prior publicly funded stadium projects — looking on at the Soldier Field extravaganza, Johnson sought to tie the shiny architectural renderings of the glass-domed sports arena dominating the lakefront museum campus to his larger, left-leaning agenda. — Chicago Tribune
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Lee Bey, Architecture Critic and member of the Sun-Times Editorial Board
With Mayor Brandon Johnson and his administration standing with the Bears, it is clear the city is willing to put private interests ahead of public benefit and cheer on this ill-conceived and expensive effort to build a gargantuan domed stadium on Chicago’s lakefront. —
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Gov. JB Pritzker
Questioned the plan’s ability to earn lawmakers’ support and whether taxpayers are getting a good deal.
“The priorities of the people of Illinois are not building stadiums,” Pritzker said Thursday. “We have important things we need to invest in for the future of the state and again, stadiums in my mind, don’t rank up in the top tier of those.”
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Rep. Kelly Cassidy
“This is so far from a progressive priority as to be laughable,” Rep. Cassidy said. “There is not a case to be made to me that would ever compel me to give a billionaire more money. … This thing is dead in the water.” — Chicago Tribune
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Friends of the Park
Friends of the Parks roundly rejected the proposal, blasting the team and city leaders for employing “Chicago Way” tactics to strong-arm taxpayers into financing another billionaire’s project. “As is so often the case in Chicago, the powerful and wealthy are demanding that our entire city stop and fast-track their plans to expand operations on the people’s lakefront.”
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Ald. Andre Vasquez (former Socialist Caucus)
“We came into office saying we’re not here to subsidize multi-billion dollar corporations, From a progressive lens, it’s very challenging to think that we’d be subsidizing this much for a large corporation that can put up $2 billion of its own money, plus $200 million in Arlington Heights. I just struggle to see how that ends up being a true public benefit.” — WBEZ
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Ald. Gilbert Villegas
“I don’t know how you sell a subsidy for billionaires as being progressive. Because when the mayor is talking about investing in people, the question is, which people are you investing in?’ Villegas said. “It’s hard for me to put a correlation there between a public subsidy for billionaires and a progressive agenda. Those are oxymorons.” — WBEZ
Good post, Mike. Spending the people's money on these boondoggles is ridiculous, especially in view of urgent and pressing needs. You handled the criticism well.
Thanks, this is exactly the kind of information about Chicago that you are very good at gathering and sharing. Hoping Mayor backs away subsidizing the Bears.