Chicagoans tend to be weather-hardened stoics and scandal-scarred realists. Yet we’re mostly an upbeat crew, fiercely proud of our beautiful city. But if you read the most recent Harris Poll, you’ll see that most voters are profoundly pessimistic about postelection Chicago. When thinking about the key issues that face us, such as public safety, most of us apparently believe things are going to keep getting worse.
This is an aberration in terms of our collective historical trajectory, as cheered on by this newspaper for more than 175 years, and it cannot stand.
Demonstrably, Chicago is a city in need of a turnaround, and, in Paul Vallas, we’re endorsing a smart, passionate and experienced candidate for mayor who long has specialized in doing precisely that.
Unapologetically wonkish, the Chicago-born Vallas, who was CEO of Chicago Public Schools from 1995 to 2001 and of the School District of Philadelphia from 2002 to 2007, has successfully positioned himself as the candidate with detailed plans and fresh ideas, and has nationally recognized expertise in city financing, policing and public education, the three components of city life most in dire need of attention.
Vallas has the ear of rank-and-file police officers on the street. We will expect him to use that trust to improve police conduct and the abysmal clearance rate for violent offenses. Similarly, we will hold him accountable to implement his many plans for improving the education of CPS students, young people who suffered greatly during the COVID-19 crisis and now deserve to be at the top of the list of the next mayor’s priorities. And we expect him to use his experience as municipal budget director under Mayor Richard M. Daley from 1990 to 1993 to run a tight fiscal ship and bring property tax relief to cash-strapped Chicagoans.
We are not among the current mayor’s fervent detractors, although we note their abundance.
Lori Lightfoot steered this city through the COVID-19 crisis far better than most mayors. With the help of federal largesse, she has greatly improved Chicago’s financial condition. Lightfoot has placed equity front and center of her agenda, and has worked tirelessly to improve the economic prospects of long-struggling neighborhoods.
The Chicago Teachers Union has been a consistent thorn in her side, and, in all fairness, many of the most vexing issues that plague our city also are part of the downtown picture in San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia and elsewhere. And while many have complained bitterly about her temperament and lack of both collaboration and transparency, no one credible has impugned Lightfoot’s personal ethics or integrity, outside of the campaign trail, at least.
She would be our No. 2 choice, and, should there be a runoff, she should be the one facing off against Vallas.
But despite her formidable intellect and command of the issues, Lightfoot has been reluctant to see this moment as time for any kind of leadership reboot. In essence, she has fervently defended her record and said that she has revealed no plans to change her personal style or her key team, including her unpopular police superintendent. She has not said she plans to operate so as to create more and firmer alliances among the roiling constituencies that make up this city. She does not see the need, and we sympathize, given all the noise she faces. But we also think she is not fully reading the moment.
Among the other candidates, we’ve heard little in the way of specifics from Jesús “Chuy” Garcia that gives us confidence he can transform this city for the better. We’re also troubled by his association with former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s unsavory, clout-oriented ways, which went beyond necessity.
We find many of Willie Wilson’s pronouncements on the campaign trail to have been either ridiculous or harmful, notwithstanding our admiration of his personal success and his philanthropy. Brandon Johnson is smart and loquacious, but many of his radical proposals to raise taxes would result in further erosion of Chicago’s tax base because people with the ability to leave would pack their bags. And he has not acknowledged the harm done to kids by prolonged school closures, in part because he does not want to annoy his CTU benefactors.
Progressive voters would be on stronger, safer ground with Ald. Sophia King, 4th, a likable, evenhanded alderman whose ward encompasses both struggling neighborhoods and a good chunk of downtown, giving her experience on both sides of one of Chicago’s most vexing and self-defeating battlefronts.
Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, is similarly reasoned and thoughtful, although unlikely to gain enough traction. And while we don’t agree with many of his positions, especially on matters of education, we admire state Rep. Kam Buckner, another inspiring figure who should be part of Chicago’s future political leadership. As for 27-year-old Ja’Mal Green, we consider him among the city’s best and brightest, a young man who already has done much to mitigate danger on our streets. But he is not yet ready to be this city’s mayor. King, Sawyer, Buckner and Green all could be helpful to Vallas, should he win.
Some have mocked Vallas as an illusory “shining white knight” whose candidacy says more about his backers than the candidate himself. Other opponents have argued that while he has reams of bullet-pointed plans under his hat, he won’t do as well in the day-to-day business of running a city, when it doesn’t always help to see yourself as the smartest person in the room. These will be potential traps for him, and he will need to pay attention and surround himself with a confident, diverse, transparent team. One filled with turnaround specialists.
Vallas is 70 in June, and, while we wish him good health and a long life, his potential tenure as mayor is not going to be some Daley-esque dynasty any more than a pathway to higher office. His job will be to fix the things that need to be fixed; restore confidence, joy and optimism; redress those persistent inequalities in our midst; keep an eye out for future leaders, especially leaders of color; and then make way for the city’s next great chapter.
We believe most Chicagoans can get behind that idea.
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