If the election that unseated Lori Lightfoot tells you anything, it should tell you that Chicagoans don’t believe in our political system. The majority of registered voters decided not to cast a ballot because they fear the system will fail them again. The candidates they believe in are competing against wealthy special interest groups and biased media networks.
This is why we need public financing of campaigns and online voting to bring about new leaders who are truly in it for the people.
For too many years, Chicagoans have been lied to during campaign season, and so residents significantly distrust politicians. For too many years, we have increased the police budget when we should have re-funded the communities. It’s time for communities to get the tangible results they’ve been longing for, or elections will continue to be counterproductive to our progression.
The next mayor of Chicago must be prepared to retire the old ways and old systems of politics. Families have been crying for safer streets, quality schools, affordable housing, clean air, clean water and food access for too long. These are human rights, and it is going to require us to take down certain systems and create new ones if we ever want to achieve these goals.
Take, for example, the creation of a city-owned bank. We’ve allowed banks to redline communities for many years, and we still allow billions of tax dollars to be deposited in their institutions with no return of investment into our constituents.
If we create a public bank and invest in homeownership, small business owners, public housing development and more, the profit from those lower interest loans is an investment back into our city. Whereas private banks invest in private prisons, fossil fuel industries and immigration detention centers.
We also need to create a redevelopment authority similar to the land bank but better run with more democracy. This would allow Chicago a vehicle to create mass development opportunities for our vacant lots and existing buildings throughout the city. For too long, aldermen have used their prerogative over city property in their wards; an authority would allow us to take control and streamline access to properties for community developers.
The most important job of the next mayor is to make sure young people have opportunity; that is true public safety. Our city should be a youth-topia. Schools should be sustainable and open throughout the day and on weekends with programs for students and parents.
We need to institute trade and tech hubs around the whole city. We need to make sure there is a pipeline to the 50,000 manufacturing jobs that are currently open. When young people get off track, we should have a youth intervention department that will give interventionists resources to put them back on track. Our kids are smarter than Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Let’s make sure they all can fulfill their fullest potential in our city.
The next mayor needs to explore a lot of other great ideas I’ve talked about during our campaign to make sure that everyone has basic human rights.
These ideas range from the city having city-owned grocery stores, to a green jobs program for replacing our 390,000 lead service lines, as well as investing in a block club infrastructure program and a year-round apprenticeship program for youths ages 13 to 25. In addition to this, we should give away the first license for businesses for free and create a city app that lists available job opportunities across Chicago. It’s also important to hold police officers accountable and not continue to inflate the Police Department’s budget when it gives us no results.
During the lead-up to the runoff, I hope the candidates focus on the issues and not on the division that we’ve seen for the last four years. We need to put an end to identity politics because Black and brown communities suffer at a disproportionate rate. It’s time to hit the ground running and get our city back working.
We need a mayor who is going to have the three important bones to bring our community true investment: the wishbone, the jawbone and the backbone. The wishbone is for all of the great ideas we want to implement. The jawbone is for eloquently putting these ideas on center stage.
Finally, the most important is the backbone — because none of it matters if you are not willing to be radical enough to make these things happen.
I am laser-focused on who, like me, has the three bones to create a future we can all believe in. And no matter who becomes mayor, he should learn from the last two. Don’t test the backbone of the people.
Ja’Mal Green is a community activist and entrepreneur.
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