Evaluating Lightfoot

In the Chicago Tribune Gregory Pratt evaluates Lori Lightfoot’s term as Chicago’s mayor which is closing in on its second year:

As Lori Lightfoot rose in the polls against better known rivals two years ago, she pulled together nearly $300,000 to launch her first television ad.

In the commercial, first aired in January 2019, Lightfoot walked into a dark room, flicked on the lights and said, “I’ve prosecuted corrupt aldermen and held police accountable. Now, I’m running for mayor to finally make City Hall work for you.”

Speaking directly into the camera, Lightfoot said she supports an elected school board, “making all neighborhoods safe and reducing the unfair tax burden on working families.”

The ad, combined with intense fallout from the federal corruption case against Ald. Edward Burke, helped propel Lightfoot into a runoff against Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

But in the two years since she won that runoff election, Lightfoot has not unveiled a plan to create an elected school board. Nor has she formally introduced a plan to create civilian oversight of police, a promise she pledged to fulfill during her first 100 days in office. Lightfoot also has not yet put forward a plan to end or significantly curtail the long-standing practice that allows Chicago aldermen to hold sway over zoning matters in their individual wards.

Let me give you the short version: not only has she not made good on any of her campaign promises, in some cases she has done the opposite. Furthermore, she is the only Chicago mayor during whose term of office Michigan Avenue has been looted by rioters and, at least according to any objective measures, her policy response to the challenges imposed by COVID-19 has been weak. The only good thing I can say about Mayor Lightfoot is that she isn’t Toni Preckwinkle who didn’t carry a single ward in the mayoral run-off election.

You can’t blame Chicago’s black voters for the debacle of the last two years—the plurality of black voters voted for a candidate other than either of those two in the primaries.

The piece concludes:

Others have expressed disappointment in the mayor for not yet following through on her campaign promise.

Roderick Wilson, executive director of the Lugenia Burns Hope Center and a Chicago Public Schools parent who is involved with the campaign for an elected school board, said he’s disappointed by the mayor’s opposition to the Martwick bill as well as her failure to put something forward.

“People do what’s important to them,” Wilson said. “If It was a priority, it would’ve been there.”

Mayor Lightfoot is presently being pressured to resign over the killing of Adam Toledo by a Chicago police officer and there are rumors of a sex scandal. Interesting times.