Chicago’s Incredible Shrinking Mayor | City Journal
Brandon Johnson is rapidly establishing himself as one of the worst mayors in Chicago s history. In just over a year and a half in office, his approval rating has plummeted to an abysmal 25 percent. This decline highlights broad-based discontent, not only among the civic and business communities but also in a significant portion of the mayor s progressive base.
Johnson s tenure has been marked by a troubling blend of cronyism and incompetence. At the heart of his administration is an overt alignment with the teachers union, for which he once worked as an organizer. This relationship has also led him to surround himself with untested leftists, whose extreme views have alienated many members of the city council.
Johnson is currently embroiled in three self-inflicted crises, the most pressing of which revolves around his attempts to oust Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez. Johnson wants Martinez to secure a $300 million, high-interest loan to help finance an exorbitant contract for the teachers union, which is pushing for a staggering 9 percent annual raise in teachers salaries and the hiring of nearly 5,000 new teachers, despite declining public school enrollment. The union s demands extend beyond traditional concerns about compensation and working conditions for its employees they include building public housing for homeless families. With a former teachers union organizer in the mayor s office, the union now controls the commanding heights of city politics. But even Johnson s hand-picked members of the Chicago Board of Education balked at his fiscally irresponsible idea and declined to fire the CEO.
John O. McGinnis
Under the low bar, with room to spare.