The Democratic National Convention and Chicago deserve each other
A blind-to-reality political party and a failed Chicago (and Illinois) are a perfect match.
Actually it is amusing. In their pat-on-the-back celebration of Chicago being the DNC’s choice for the convention, President Joe Biden, Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker, Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, Mayor-soon-to-be-not Lori Lightfoot, civic leaders, labor union mucky-mucks and others claimed it to a good match because of—get this—their many “successes.” They believe that the pairing will turn the national spotlight all the good they have done.
Couldn’t be funnier.
Perhaps they should issue maps to the thousands of delegates, lobbyists, politicians, hangers-on and the national media to guide them to the safe neighborhoods. It will be a small map.
About Chicago’s front yard, CWBChicago reported, “Fights, but no arrests as first ‘large group’ of the season descends on Millennium Park.” Hey, it’s only one of Chicago’s top tourist attractions. People from all over America will flock there to watch the punks try to beat the carp out of each other.
Some other CWBChicago items that I read this morning:
“Man robbed good Samaritan who agreed to give him $5 for train fare in the Loop: prosecutors.” The Loop: That would be the central business district that once saw an admirable return to life. Not anymore.
“Gunmen rob 3 on Wacker Drive; another holdup reported in West Town.” Those are a major downtown arterial and a gentrifying neighborhood.
“Man gets 4 years for pistol-whipping Blue Line passengers. That’s two separate sentences for two separate attacks. Err, the CTA’s Blue Line is the mass transit link from O’Hare Airport to downtown—a “convenient” service that allegedly was one reason Chicago nabbed the convention.
Pre-COVID Pandemic and pre-antifa visitors who have fond memories of the “Magnificent Mile,” Chicago’s premier Michigan Ave. shopping district, should be advised not to return. The empty stores and the record 25 percent vacancy rate would be depressing. It also could be dangerous. As the Chicago Tribune warned, “It’s not safe to walk down Michigan Avenue with a Tiffany bag anymore.” That was a year ago; the scars still remain.
So, downtown used to be safe; not so anymore. When I’ve returned to my hometown and expressed an interest in going downtown to see the changes, I’m sternly advised by relatives and friends: “Don’t.” You could be carjacked. Robbed in daylight. Or worse.
But there’s usually entertainment to be found in the courtrooms of the Dirksen Federal Building. Public corruption. Fraud. The stuff that fuels the Chicago Way. Often public officials and their ilk are on trial there. Just be careful if you decide to walk thee.
Then there’s the invisible Chicago and Illinois, where the truly bad news is hiding in the well-massaged city, Cook County and state budgets. The legerdemain claims a ”balanced budget” by including the one-time COVID billions in emergency aid. What happens next year when the aid dries up is anyone’s guess. (The aid was necessitated by the various lockdowns and shutdowns imposed on business, schools and churches by the same self-satisfied Democratic nibs.
I shouldn’t leave out the huge, mountainous, unclimbable billions owed to the government employee pension funds. The given amount is $140 billion, but a more honest accounting using standard methods is billions more. Whatever the real number is (and who actually knows?) that eclipses the $80 billion the U.S. has committed to the Ukraine war. Thank the teachers’ and other government employees unions for electing the same officials who syphoned the billions away from the pension fund to settle current unpaid accounts.
Of course, the national media, buying the story of great successes in Chicago and Illinois—all run by Democrats—will write from a 4-Star restaurant about the swell “my kind of town.”
There’s still plenty of time before the August convention to make things worse. That’s surely a danger seeing as how the “progressive” new mayor Johnson allied with a City Council infiltrated by “Democratic Socialists” will have every opportunity to screw things up.
Johnson already is loading his cabinet and advisory team with union folk and their allies. And wokesters. They’re further to the left than the people who created this mess. Oh boy.
But don’t worry, be happy, happy, happy.