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Booth Bobbles: Chicago’s Destructive Mayor Featured at Premier U of C Event

March 14, 2022

Lori Lightfoot’s appearance at Management Conference triggers cognitive dissonance

The Management Conference at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business is an event this author has rarely missed over the past couple of decades. Held each spring, its format is a keynote luncheon speaker followed by a choice of breakout sessions led by Booth professors. It is a great way to stay in touch with the school, network, and get back to the classroom for an afternoon.

This year, I was shocked and dismayed to see the keynote speaker will be Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who is slated to address "The Future of Business in Chicago." I initially thought this announcement was posted by the satirical Babylon Bee or The Onion. However, having determined the announcement was authentic, my second reaction was that having Ms. Lightfoot speak about the future of business in Chicago is the equivalent of having disgraced former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes to speak about venture capital investing. Unlike Mayor Lightfoot, at least Holmes had the experience of actually running a business.

The future of business in Chicago under Lori Lightfoot is bleak, and everyone knows it.

The three most important functions of local government are public safety, education, and creating an environment in which business can flourish. Lightfoot's record as she approaches a reelection campaign is worth briefly examining.

It’s grueling to conduct business in Chicago when the streets are running with blood. 2021 saw 1800 carjackings in Chicago, 851 homicides, and 4,542 shooting incidents. Among the victims of violent crime were several University of Chicago students or recent graduates, including a young man returning home from his summer internship on public transportation last summer, and a recent graduate who was shot in the middle of the day in Hyde Park. Only recently, in late February, a bartender at a local Hyde Park watering hole, The Cove, was stabbed to death in nearby Kenwood.

In the one-month period following the December 2021 theft of $1 million worth of watches stolen from his Gold Coast Exotic Motors, business owner Joe Perillo publicly scolded Lightfoot in several media appearances. Responding to Perillo’s searing criticism, Lightfoot blistered him, called him an idiot, stormed out of their meeting, and promptly sent regulators to his place of business to write various citations.

Since the beginning of 2022, major crime reports are up over 34 percent over the previous year, and 2021 was awful. Lightfoot’s response to crime on the Magnificent Mile was to criticize store owners for having inadequate security. Aside from throwing $400 million at crime prevention non-profit groups, Lightfoot has no plan to change course. To add insult, there have been several documented cases of employees of these non-profits — some of whom are “violence interrupters” — being arrested on gun charges.

Law enforcement is faring little better under Lightfoot. The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is losing 85 officers per month now, out of an already woefully understaffed department. In addition to the monthly losses in personnel, another 2,800 are eligible to be terminated because of Mayor Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate. Moreover, only days ago, Lightfoot stated she is fully confident in Police Superintendent David Brown to lead CPD. A good Booth graduate would ask by what measure is confidence in Brown warranted.

On the education front, enrollment in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) dropped by three percent, yet Lightfoot increased its budget by over 28 percent for the 2021-22 school year. Since 2010, enrollment has plummeted from 400,000 students to 330,000, yet CPS is prevented from consolidating shrinking schools and the state has capped the number of charter schools. While "the science" showed masking had negligible benefit, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) successfully pressured the mayor for remote learning — often under the threat of a strike — the result of which was a year of lost learning as students rarely engaged in online instruction. With only 26 percent of 11th graders reading at grade level, it’s hard to keep a straight face and claim CPS is anything other than a catastrophe for Chicago’s students.

Aside from rising crime and Chicago’s poorly performing schools, let’s talk about business in general. In a stunning move, the Chicago Bears have decided that their future is not in Chicago as they abandoned a rancorous negotiation with Lightfoot and bought the old Arlington Race Track property. Downtown, the Magnificent Mile is continuing to suffer the loss of businesses and has failed even to attract a Target store.

In another sign of decay, the Conrad Hilton is being foreclosed; the decline of the Hilton joins the demise of the historical Palmer House. Tax receipts from the hotel industry are down some $29 million. Adding to the misery, Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel Investments, has openly talked about relocating his company and referred to Chicago as "Afghanistan, on a good day," during an October 2021 address to the Economic Club of Chicago.

In the three areas within Lightfoot’s control that have a bearing on the future of business in Chicago — public safety, education, and fostering a business-friendly environment — you would be hard pressed to find any business leaders in Chicago who would give Lightfoot a grade higher than a D minus...

Keep reading here... https://www.chicagocontrarian.com/blog/chicago-mayor-featured-premier-u-c-event... Excellent article... EWS

Best comment: Frank Hammond 14 hours ago

Don't forget that Mayor Lie-Foot and Doctor Idiot Awardy killed off the Chicago Convention and Trade Show business in 2021. Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix and Las Vegas are hosting trade show events every week in 2022. The Chicago crime stories are not driving new shows to McCormick Place. 2022 could be the year where the big shows, Restaurant, Pack Expo, Housewares, etc. decide they have had enough and permanently locate to other, safer locations.

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