By: Mark Glennon*
The list is big of leading Chicago civic organizations and people who’ve stood silent as the world watches the city self-destruct.
A relatively recent addition is the 120-year old City Club of Chicago. In years past, it provided a reasonably lively variety of weekly appearances by state and local public figures, followed often by good, candid questions.
Today, it’s little more than a sycophantic speakers’ bureau for the Chicago area’s political establishment.
One example of the club’s decline is last week’s event featuring Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Dave Casper, US CEO of BMO Financial Group, introduced Lightfoot. Casper gave an unrestrained and sweeping endorsement of Lightfoot, unqualified by any matter whatsoever.
Worst of all, he said this in his introduction:
I must say, this is my pet peeve, it really drives me crazy when I hear some of things said about Chicago by people that frankly should know better…. When I am in public I don’t talk about the things that aren’t great because there are a lot more things that are great that aren’t, and if you can’t be a cheerleader for the city, certainly don’t be a naysayer because it’s actually not helpful.
That’s precisely the strategy of denial that has crippled Chicago, which is widespread among Chicago’s civic elites. Silence in the face of calamity is suicidal. Silence as the problems developed helped hamstring the city with multiple crises that may now be unfixable.
And now the problems going unmentioned include a mostly empty Loop and a mostly empty, extraordinarily expensive public transit system.
Publicity thereby defaults to the far left and their answers for Chicago. A day doesn’t pass that headlines don’t include messages from Chicago’s political establishment, which is confined to the left, ranging only from extreme progressives to outright Socialists in the Chicago City Council.
Cheerleading is smart if honestly focused on what’s going right, but smart cheerleading must include complete recognition of the full roster of the city’s crises and total dedication to appropriately drastic solutions. It’s long past time for Chicago’s denialists to recognize how foolish they sound to the rest of the world, where headlines routinely chronicle the depths into which the city has fallen.
Lightfoot then gave her speech. Its point, she said, was to tell us that Chicago’s financial turnaround has been better than any city in the country. Putting the city’s house in order is “exactly what we have done,” she said.
Some of her claimed accomplishments are legitimate, such as reform of the city’s workers’ compensation system.
But then came the Q&A session, which was abysmal, as usual. Lightfoot was not challenged on any of her claims. Some questions were absurd, uninformed softballs that you can see, starting at the 48.20 mark in the video.
The first question, after fawning praise from the questioner, was whether Chicago’s recent Social Bonds achieved any reduction in borrowing costs, and Lightfoot said it did.
Yeah, a lousy $80,000 per year is all it will save at most, as we recently showed. Nobody challenged her.
Another question was whether Chicago is ready for any violence following the Memphis affair, which at least the City Club’s questioner admitted she could answer for Lightfoot. Yes, of course Lightfoot said it is.
What a waste of time.
Chicago’s civic elites should have stepped up long ago. The City Club isn’t helping.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
This would be a worthwhile project for the City Club . . . . Identify large cities that still enjoy substantial support from their surrounding suburbs in terms of shopping, dining, and entertainment venues. Then determine what those cities are doing differently.
I totally agree that this denial and endorsement of Lightfoot is outrageous. The public school system, the transit system, crime are all tremendous failures. When the federal money runs out, taxes will go up.
Failure means it’s working.
Sooner or later, every organization in Chicago will be bought or can be bought. It’s all about the money and the relaxed rules they will benefit from if they are bought and paid for and get with the program. That’s what’s killing Chicago. That’s what’s killing Illinois. They’re all going down, what makes me most angry is they’re taking me down with them and I don’t agree and didn’t vote for any of those evil jackasses.
The problem is most of these clubs have a liberal agenda. Do you really expect them to critically question another liberal into admitting the policies they all support are a failure/
Talking about civic organizations , I wonder if the Mid Day club , in the Chase Bank still has the Mayor come to lunch ?
If you’re really loud about moving the deck chairs around while the band plays, you won’t even notice the sound of the water rushing in, and how wet and cold your feet are getting.
The City Club provides cover for maximum shitbaggery. The city is collapsing and Herself is dancing in the streets. Check out theDaily Mail
I previously belonged to the City Club and attended several events. I noticed the change over the years in becoming strictly cheerleading sessions. Until their leadership becomes interested in dialogue and debate, I will not return. I also agree that other civic organizations and corporate leaders abandoned their responsibility to be a valued questioner and critic (and sometimes watchdog) of state and city government.
We are tired of hearing about the same s… day after day, the state needs more money, Chicago needs more money. We must pay for people who cannot afford to pay their own
Utility bills. Enough of this s….
We must rise up to fight this crap, “ boycott
Chicago “and any other entity that decides to side with the socialist regime.
Squeeze them as they try to squeeze us.
If they want to tax us, we place additional taxes on them.
We must learn from others who have used the
Boycott as a weapon, bring the fight to them.
26 Illinois counties and 2 Illinois townships have passed a referendum to separate from Cook County, IL. Go to Illinois Separation Referendum facebook page and ask how you can get involved.
Good idea but a pipe dream. Pretty much can’t happen since the state legislature has to approve that sort of move as well as the federal government. Would anybody think that the democrats who run the state would allow some of their slaves off the plantation?
BMO is a woke company. On its website, it proudly informs us that its pronouns are we, us, our. Yes, we need to be reminded that a company that employs thousands of people should be referred to as we, us, our. Pathetic. BMO (Bank of Montreal) is a Canadian-based company. While they have their head in the sand over their woke prime minister’s efforts at promoting assisted suicides and diminishing the freedoms of their countrymen, they have succeeded in exporting wokeness to their US subsidiary. David Casper drank the Kool-Aid and the City Club gives the guy a platform to… Read more »
I’m further convinced that Chicago no longer has many citizens who care, other than those with deeply rooted vested interests or heavily mortgaged homes within the city limits. This Dog no longer Hunts !
wow…recommend you sell any bmo stock you have…bmo itself should try that recommended strategy of not talking about problems…only good things. If you have cancer, the strategy is not to pretend you don’t have it…the strategy is to take action and recognize the facts…and do something about it. Not in IL/Chicago. It takes a village: CIG (corrupt; incompetent; and greedy) politicians; lazy uninformed voters; self-serving public union members; emasculation of the local press (especially Alden Capital and the Trib); heavy use of race to gain personal objectives; business elites who have given up on IL/Chicago; and the lack of a… Read more »
The Chitty of Chicago is DOA. Every day it gets worse at an alarming rate. It is lack of law enforcement the creates high crime rates. It is greed of HUGE pensions that cause higher and higher taxes. The CTU could care less about students, such a shame. Population is declining every year and will continue to decline as long as the eye can see.
At this point, can you really blame anyone with the attitude, “if you can’t beat them, join them?” What has the truth accomplished for the liberal opposition other than being labelled racist or intolerant. Perhaps the City Club has simply figured out Chicago doesn’t want the truth.