A few days after Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot raised the white flag on Mayor Rahm’s $2.4 billion TIF deals, I happened to see Knock Down the House, an uplifting documentary about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset triumph in last year’s Democratic House primary in New York City.
Lightfoot argued that she didn’t have the City Council votes to stop the deals and so, having wrung concessions on minority hiring, signed on to them with a word of warning.
If AOC operated like this, she’d have told Trump: I’m voting to fund this wall, but not the next one!
Or was it the north side “reformers”—like Deb Mell, James Cappleman, and Tom Tunney? While running for office, they promised to vote against Lincoln Yards, only to turn right around and vote yes, once their campaigns were over.
In reality, aldermen only get to control the relatively small things—like sidewalk café permits—that the mayor doesn’t care about.
Don’t worry, Byron, I’m sure they’ll let you approve all the awning permits your heart desires.
