Chicago mayoral race spotlights cities’ post-pandemic struggles
At campaign events across Chicago’s South and West sides, Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s supporters all drive home the same point: Don’t judge her on the past four years. Think, instead, about what she could do in the next four.
“You can’t change nothing in four years,” says local Alderman Emma Mitts to a cheering crowd in West Garfield Park, an area with the city’s highest homicide rate. “In a pandemic? Even being a sister?”
It’s an atypical message for an incumbent politician – but then, nothing was typical about Mayor Lightfoot’s first term. Less than one year after the former president of the Police Board triumphantly took office as Chicago’s first Black female mayor and becoming one of America’s most prominent LGBTQ leaders, COVID-19 brought life in her city to a screeching halt.
Ms. Lightfoot, like other mayors across the country, was on the pandemic’s front lines. She found herself managing mask mandates, school closures, and vaccine distribution, along with surging crime and mass protests against racism and police brutality. She engaged in high-profile fights with fellow Democrats in Springfield and powerful left-leaning unions, while also being attacked in conservative media.
Politically, almost, while New York Mayor Bill de Blasio left office with a among New Yorkers than former President Donald Trump. Term-limited Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney made news last summer when, after a July Fourth shooting, he said he’ll “” when he’s not in charge anymore.
