The big blue blob cities have punished their residents with bad policy for decades. Now, Austin Berg, writing at Pirate Wires, believes Chicago may have finally had enough. He writes:
Though Chicago is the nation’s third-largest city, when it comes to overlapping crises across public safety, municipal finances, city corruption and (most ominously) population, the scale of Chicago’s problems dwarfs that of its peers. Once America’s fastest-growing city, Chicago is now the slowest-growing major city in the U.S. since 2000, having lost 1 million residents since peaking at 3.6 million in the 1950s. Its population now hovers around 1920s levels.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the city’s schools, one-third of which are less than half full. Frederick Douglass Academy High School on Chicago’s West Side was built to hold more than 900 students. Last year, it served just 35 students, nearly two-thirds of whom were chronically absent. Despite this, the school still employs 23 full-time staff members and spends more than $68,000 per student annually.
The city’s finances are in a similar state of crisis. For decades, Chicago politicians cut deals with government unions to boost pension benefits far beyond their willingness to hike taxes to fund those benefits. Those same leaders used money meant for pension contributions to juice pay raises for government workers and fund pet projects. Chicago now holds more pension debt than all but seven American states. Over 80% of Chicago’s property tax levy goes to pensions. And of the overall city budget, pensions and debt service eat 40 cents of every dollar — a far higher share than any other big city in the country. In order to plug annual budget gaps, past administrations have taken to selling off city assets like the parking meters. Billions of dollars in federal aid during the COVID-19 pandemic allowed the city to avoid confronting its debt and inflate spending even further, with the city’s total budget ballooning to $16.6 billion in 2024 compared with $10.7 billion in 2019. The expiration of federal aid has blown a billion-dollar hole in next year’s budget.
Safer streets would go a long way toward reversing Chicago’s population decline and growing the tax base. But violent crime resists city control. In a typical year, Chicago is home to more homicides than Los Angeles and New York combined. In 2023, the number of violent crimes in Chicago grew to its highest level in a decade, but just 10.8% of violent crimes resulted in an arrest, nearly half the rate in 2013.
Paramount to fixing Chicago’s violent crime problem is rebuilding trust in police. However, rather than focus on delivering high-quality, constitutional community policing, city leaders have made police department governance, already in a poor state, even worse. The 2014 murder of Laquan McDonald — a black teenager who was shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer — was a defining moment in exposing systemic issues within the Chicago Police Department. Video evidence contradicted initial police reports, leading to Officer Jason Van Dyke’s conviction for first-degree murder and sparking national outrage. This incident resulted in a federal consent decree in 2019 mandating sweeping reforms to improve accountability, transparency, and training within the department.
Berg concludes:
With all this unfolding, key elements of the Chicago party machine are shedding support. Johnson’s own favorability rating among Chicago voters has dropped to just 14%, the lowest of any mayor in history. The CTU, which historically enjoys between 60-70% support, has seen its approval rating similarly plummet, with 28% of city voters saying they see it favorably.
As a result, momentum is building for structural changes to city government. One key finding from our book on Chicago governance was that of the 15 largest cities in the U.S., only Chicago lacks a city charter. In absence of the checks and balances provided by this basic governing document, chaos and recklessness abound. But in the last year alone, faith leaders, state lawmakers, City Council members, and prominent civic institutions have openly backed a voter-approved city charter for Chicago, marking the first time in over a century that this critical reform has been part of the conversation.
In the meantime, Chicago’s fall — and possible rise — should be seen as a lesson for the nation. Of course, the Johnson administration puts into stark relief why far-left leaders who swoop into office with promises of big changes are more likely to be an anti-solution to the problems plaguing big cities. But the city also teaches us something about the importance of city-charter design. Though generally under-discussed, charters can decide everything from when elections are held, to who is elected, and when those elected officials must ask voters for permission. Effective charters provide clear rules of the road that all must obey. Not only do those rules prevent radicals from driving your city into a ditch. They also scaffold vibrant civic cultures, which immunize against the sort of managed decline from the political class that has so harmed Chicago.
Despite everything, Chicago is still an American titan: Nowhere else in the country can claim such cheap access to the richness of life that a big city provides. But it is the worst governed American city. As a result, it is an outlier with severe problems. Those problems are man-made, which means the solutions are, too. This may be Chicago’s turning point — a moment to rebuild its foundations. Not just in steel and cement but in accountability, transparency, and a government that serves its people. If the city’s past is any indication, it’s when Chicago is on the ropes that it finds the will to rise again.
Action Line: All Americans want to live in safe cities that respect their rights. If you’re looking for a better America, begin your search with Your Survival Guy’s 2024 Super States. Then, click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
