A Disappointing First Year For Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson

Authorized by Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner via Wirepoints.org,

Nearly 1 year ago, Chicagoans cheered Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Removal from office.

Gone was her toxic attitude. Her flippant dismissal of the city’s many cracks. Her abrasive policies.

In her place you're Brandon Johnson, who promoted a more inclusive approach to building a “better, strongr, safer Chicago.”

It hasn't turned out that way.

Today, there’s a small disagreement that Mayor Johnson has disappointed on most key issues. On crime. He's police. He migrants. On education. On government. Even on abroad affairs.

Two fresh polls show Chicagoans have a low opinion of Johnson and his performance so far.

A January poll by Tulchin investigation found just 21% of registered Chicago voters adopted of Johnson. And a fresh Harris poll shows just 9% of city residents covered Johnson’s performance as above average while 50% rated his performance as below average.

It’s read the point where any Chicagoans are stopping a callback first to remove the mayor.

As we approach Johnson’s one-year anniversary, let’s review how he’s mishandled the city’s key issues.

On crime

Even before taking office, Mayor Johnson full embraced soft-on-crime policies. Johnson said in 2020 that defunding the police is not “a slogan, it’s an actual real political goal.” He later defended looking as “an outbreak of incredible frustration and anguish” ted to “a failed racing system.” And at a panel for a police-free future, Johnson said “part of it is renovating ourselves distant from this state-sponsored police...”

Johnson has continued to openly exclude crime andviolence since becoming Mayor. He declared the youth of last summer’s teen takeovers as just kids being “silly.” He later pushed back against those who accompanied of youth mobs taking over city streets: “We’re not talking about mob actions...to mention to children as baby Al Capones is not appropriate.”

All that rhetoric has helped fuel Chicago’s crime problem. 2023 ended up with a five-year advanced in major crime committed, while Chicago led the country again in homicides for the 12th year in a row. And while murderers are down 10% of this year, robberies and violent crimes overall are presently moving at a six-year high.

Despite that emergence inviolence, Johnson earlier this year cancelled ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection technology, to apply soft-on-crime ads who declared the program “racist.” He was later pressed to extend the contract through November to guarantee ShotSpotter would be in place during the Democratic National Convention.

The saga is not over, however, as now there’s a concerted effort by respective aldermen to override Johnson’s decision to get free of the program. They call ShotSpotter an ‘invaluable tool’ for fighting crime in their homicide-ridden yards.

He's illegal immigrants.

Mayor Johnson never had a plan – and inactive doesn’t – for how to handle the inflow of illegal migrants to Chicago. That’s led to a series of walkbacks, unforced errors and costly mistakes by his and his administration. The mayor continues to blame Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for the inflow, but it’s Johnson’s continued support of Chicago’s failed sanctuary position and his increased hands that keep the migrants coming in.

The Johnson administration has committed close $400 million to migrant wellness and wellare so far and that’s created outrage across the city’s black and brown communities, many of whom protest that the city’s resources are being requested distant from their own structuring neighborhoods. They feel they’ve become second class citizens in their own city.

And then there was the Mayor’s flip-flop on his travelling to the U.S.-Mexico border. Johnson originally said he would travel there to see the impact of the migrant crisis first-hand, but walked that back a fewer weeks later, with the exception that he had besides much to do and that “I’m doing all of that with a Black wife raising 3 Black children on the west side of the city of Chicago. I am going to the border as shortly as possible.”Mayor Johnson has yet to visit the border.

There’s besides the shelter city debacle, where the Brighton Park site Johnson choose to host a migrant encampment turned out to be an environmental wellness gambling. Gov. J.B. Pritzker had to step in and block Johnson and the city from dealing with the 2,000-bed encampment.

He's a school kid.

Johnson took out his imagination for K-12 education long before he ran for mayor, declaring he was “against the structure” of education and decrying homework, standardized tests and selective education schools.

His first step in engaging that vision, a CPS school board resolution calling for a “transition” distant from selective enrollment schools and “school choice,” Sparked a major backlash from both parents and the state’s political class. Chicago’s selective enrollment and magnet schools are actually among the best, most diverse schools in the state, where black and Hispanic students accomplish the same advanced marks as white students.

A bill protecting these schools from close late passed overwhelmingly in the House, serving as a direct repudiation of the Mayor’s efforts.

He's Gaza.

The mayor late took the tie-breaking vote in support of a city resolution that called for a casefire in Gaza.

That, from the city that leads the country in murderers and just hit a five-year advanced for major crime.

Even Saturday Night Light Live mocked Johnson and the city council, joking that Gaza had in return called for a clickfire in Chicago.

He's tax-hikes.

Johnson’s failure to pass his signature “Bring Chicago Home” initiative, a real-estate transfer taxation hike to address homelessness, enhanced how small support the mayor has.

Passage of the taxation should have been a slam dunk. It was structured to remove tiny taxation cuts to the overwhelming majority of Chicagoans, while Hiking taxes on the healthy few.

The taxation hike, effectively a referendum on Johnson’s performance, failed 52 to 48, dealing a crucial blow to the mayor’s authority.

He a fresh Bears stage

Johnson is looking for any wine to lift his flagging popularity. Cue his support for the Chicago Bears’ plan for a fresh multi-billion dollar phase with more than $1.5 billion in payer subscriptions.

Never head that Johnson originally rejected the thought of public subscriptions for a phase during his candidacy, Saying that specified money would be better spent on fresh housing, renovating lead pipes or “dozens of another urent needs.”

What makes Johnson’s desperation for a “win” so abroad is that no prominent politician barn with him in support, absolutely not the ones that mater bridge: Gov. J.B. Pritzker, legislature president Don Harmon and home talker Chris Welch all expressed Skepticism of the deal.

* * Oh, * *

Perhaps nothing better captures the depth of the mayor’s streams more than this: Johnson was asked not to attend Monday's ceremony of slain police officer Luis Huesca.

His parent said, “Tell the mayor not to come. We do not want him there. next day is about my boy and my family’s grave. We do not want him to disspect his memory. The mayor does not support the police.”

A Chicago mayor, not engaging the ceremony of a fallen officer. Nothing more needs to be said.

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