Summary
➡ The city of Chicago plans to address violence and disinvestment in certain areas through a two-pronged approach: one focusing on people directly affected by violence and providing outreach and intervention, while the second is place-based, targeting the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Investing in education, economic opportunities, healthcare, community investment, climate, housing, and policing are included. The city highlights that everyone, including businesses, faith communities, and youth leaders, plays a vital role in building a safer city. Despite these plans, the speaker criticizes them as mere talking points, lacking concrete details like allocated funds, measurable results, and potential for divestment. The speaker implies alternatives like heavier police presence, direct penalties for offenders, tax reductions to entice investment, enhancing education through a stimulus package, and a firmer stance on public servants’ misconduct.
➡ The speaker discusses the need for community upliftment through value-adding actions such as property development and tax generation, criticizing continued establishment of unproductive entities like more churches and community centers. They emphasize on reducing crime, supporting police, and improving infrastructure, and openly express frustration with underutilization and wastage of resources.
Transcript
As W. Jan Shannon Helgan tells us tonight, that includes the mismanaged $29 million migrant shelter contract. Shannon yeah, that contract was created by the state. That contract for Garter World was created by the state but executed by the city. So there’s been a lot of finger pointing and confusion over who’s going to pick up the tab, in particular for the failed tent shelter at 30 eigth in California.
You can’t mismanage 30 ms and then expect for it to just go unnoticed. You can’t run over to the Biden administration and then tell them that they need to give you some more money and then you can’t even manage the 30 m’s that you mismanaged from your own city in the first place. Yeah, contracts are concerned. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson fielded several questions regarding the ongoing migrant know we have a real irresponsible, inhumane practice that’s coming from the border.
And what I’ve said from the very beginning, we have to create some structure and order and some calm to this crisis, and my leadership has done just that. But after the plans for a migrant, how come they always get themselves credit, but nobody ever takes responsibility for what happens? Hent camp at 30 eigth in California failed. There were still concerns about how much that work would cost taxpayers.
When asked about nearly $1 million spent on the Brighton park site, Mayor Johnson said that was used to clean up the location remediation. Yeah, the remediation that was needed, obviously the workforce and all of that, the contracts to remediate and again, the workforce. But there was confusion over who will foot the bill for a $29 million contract with a company called Garda World to construct and run the migrant shelter.
The mayor said that’s a contract with the state. As you all know that the state of Illinois has made a commitment to stand up a shelter and to house, I believe, up to 2200 people. And we’re going to continue to collaborate and work with every single level of government to make sure that we can meet the demands. But we also have to make sure that we’re clear about this international cris.
It does really require federal intervention. Governor JB Pritzker said Wednesday that Garter world will be taking responsibility for the state’s share of the contract. So from the state, the understanding with Garterworld is that they will do other work with us. And they knew as they were building this shelter before the environmental report came in, that it was possible that the environmental report wouldn’t allow the building the completion, rather, and now they’ve thrown each other under the bus of the shelter.
And so they understood that and they were willing to take that liability on through the state’s contract. I can’t speak to what may have pre existed or been in place with the city. We reached out to Gartaworld about what costs they would be incurring, they said in a statement. For any questions regarding operations in Chicago, we encourage you to direct your inquiry to the city or state for further comment.
We remain committed to supporting and working with the city of Chicago in efforts to address the needs of Chicago’s various populations. This, of course, still all ongoing. At last update, the city of Chicago reported 575 migrants awaiting placement into a shelter. The mayor says the twelveth district police station is the last city police station housing migrants. Another 220 people are, of course, currently being housed at O’Hare. And you got to continue to understand also that more migrants are continuously flowing into Chicago.
So this is not a one time thing. This is not a situation where it’s just going away. They have not solved for the migrant crisis. Even if they were to get all of the migrants outside of the hotels or the police station or the airport or anything like that, they haven’t solved for the problem. The only thing that they continue to do is kick the bucket down the road because more people are still continuously going on at the same time.
But on top of that, because Brandon Johnson is catching a lot of flak, right? And there’s a lot of different pundits, and now the bigger networks are starting to go after Brandon Johnson. I like to think that I was the first person to start really holding Brandon Johnson accountable. I warned you guys when he first was elected in the office, and I used to go off on Lori Lightfoot.
Y’all remember when I used to go off on Lori Lightfoot? And I said, listen, everything that is about to happen in Chicago, and I predicted it to you. I said, everything that is about to happen in Chicago, Chicagoans are going to regret it, and I’m going to be here to make sure that I remind you of what’s going on on a regular basis. There will not be a week that goes by that I will not remind you of how incompetent the voters were and irresponsible to elect into office who it is that they’re electing into office.
And now we hear, we hear at the end of 2023. And now Fox News, CNN, ABC, CNBC, all of these different. I’m watching it. I’m watching it play out and they’re not going to give me the credit and say that they’ve been watching Anton from antondaniels. com even though I got millions of views off of Brandon Johnson alone. They not gonna say that they’ve been watching my stuff and the producers been watching my stuff, but now they’re using my exact same talking points.
They’re using my exact same talking points and they’re starting to hold Chicago on a national scale on a regular basis. I seen Fox and friends and everybody else do entire segments dedicated to how incompetent the crisis is and how it’s being mishandled over in Chicago. Now, don’t worry about it. We going to continue to do the work. But conversely, he said that because obviously I’ve been getting the same reports on a regular basis about the robberies and the break ins and the 30% vacancy rate on the magnificent mile and all of this stuff.
Right? And so Brandon Johnson held a press conference and he laid out how they were going to address the safety and crime issues in Chicago. Now, this seems a little bit long, so we’re going to probably skip through it because Brandon Johnson be talking about a lot of stuff and he’d be long winded and we’re going to speed it up to 1. 25. All right, good morning to everyone who’s here today and thank you for taking time to be with us.
I’m going to need them to get the audio together, fam, because it’s like more on one side than it is on the other side. But let me speed this up real quick. We’re here at Kennedy King College on the city’s south side. I bring you greetings from the west side of the city of Chicago. Thank you, Jonathan Russell. I’m going to read that super chat shortly. I’m so grateful that we are launching this new plan for community safety right here on the south side.
As a former social studies teacher, I hope you’ll indulge me just a little bit as I provide you with just a little bit of a brief lesson about this space. Kennedy King College was founded. No, I don’t need to know about Kennedy King College. Let me fast forward it a little bit. Protesting war and violence were two men who strived for equality of students in Chicagoans. It is a beacon of hope in a neighborhood that has dealt with some of the most severe impacts of historic and purposeful disinvestment.
It is symbolic that we are here at Kennedy King College on the south side of Chicago today to launch the people’s plan for community safety that will bring our city together to deliver a better, stronger and a much safer Chicago. This is a community that has the incredible ability to have this initiative led by the community, to harness the full force of government, community organizations, businesses, the philanthropic community, youth leaders, our faith leaders, to solve decades long problems and to solve these problems in a new way, a bold way, an intentional way.
The people’s plan for community safety will protect the people who are most impacted by violence. I don’t want any more faith leaders to be at the forefront of solving for problems that we see happening politically. I am not interested in any more faith leaders at the forefront of solving for any problem that we need help on a legislative level. I don’t care about faith intersecting with the legislative process and prevent future violence through intentional investments in our people and in communities.
Isn’t it about time that we do what safe communities around this country have done, which is to invest in people? That’s what this operation and this people purpose driven plan is all about. The city of Chicago aims to make Chicago safer through two strategies, one being people based. This phase of the plan focuses our efforts on the Chicagoans who are most impacted by, again, the historic disinvestment in violence.
This includes outreach and intervention with youth and adults. The highest promise that is members of our community who have been most impacted by perpetual harm and violence. So in other words, the people who are most impacted get to provide us with the very direction to solve these critical problems. We will also provide support for victims and survivors of violence through. I don’t hear anything. No, let me be clear.
I hear what they’re saying. I don’t hear any real plan. These are just like talking points. No. And we’re going to be there for the people that are the most impacted and the communities that’s the not most invested in. I don’t hear anything. Where are you putting the money at? How much money are you allocating? Who’s going to get it? Where are they going to put it? Where is it going to be reinvested in.
How do you measure the results? What is the MVP, the minimum viable product? How do you solve for without actually throwing a whole bunch of money at something and then saying, oh, it just didn’t work? And then how do you prevent yourself from being required to continuously invest in and can’t divest from it? Because once you allocate monies over into a program, it’s like any social program. Once the government invests in it, it’s very hard for them to divest from it.
It’s not supposed to be something that you do permanently. It’s not like section eight housing. Section eight housing. It’d be people on there for the next 2030 years, and then they’d be mad because they get kicked off of it. It’s not meant for you to have for the rest of your life. It’s meant to be a stepping stone for you to get yourself together. And so I don’t hear any real plan.
The only thing I hear is general talking points. Oh, man, we’re going to be there for our community. Maybe it’s to come because again, I have not watched this yet, but it’s the same old, same old talking points that we hear on a regular basis. Intentional investments. The second part of the plan is not just people place, but it’s also place based. Where this is a crisis, you must triage.
And that is why we are first focusing our efforts on the neighborhoods that have suffered from decades of indifference and disinvestment to ensure safer Chicago for generations to come. This plan focuses on addressing the root causes of violence through a layered long term investments in key areas. Education, economic opportunity, health care, community investment, making sure that we have a healthy environment, particularly around climate, housing, community violence, intervention, and, of course, policing.
We are confident that this approach will show results and deliver a safer Chicago for all of us because it shares the responsibility of safety across the city. Not one person nor one entity can solve the decades of disinvestment. It is literally going to take all of us. And government alone will not be able to make Chicago safer. All of us will be able to make the city of Chicago safer.
The people’s plan unites the many groups who have been working to reduce violence in our city and all who call Chicago home to make sure that we are producing a vibrant and a far more thriving city. What the hell are y’all talking. What are y’all talking about? Listen, throw some money at it. Get people some money, because we got to make sure that we account for the fact that we didn’t threw literally billions of dollars at the migrant crisis put a snazzy name on it.
The people’s plan, where both first letters start with the same syllable. The people’s plan. Get some kind of community leader or organizer. One person out of a million people who’s going to get rich by being the leader of this thing. We’re going to actively make sure that we participate in the community and it’s going to take all of us, including the faith leaders. So now the church is going to get money.
And this is all bull, bro. Haven’t you all seen this playbook a thousand different times? It’s the same thing over and over again, bro. Everyone has a role to play in building a safer, stronger city. Everyone has a role to play in making sure that our communities are fully supported. Businesses can help by creating economic opportunities. The faith community can also help us to build stronger community bonds.
Youth leaders can inspire fellow peers to engage in education and careers. It’s just to name a few examples. It is the people of Chicago who make our city great. And it will be the people of Chicago who will help build a safer city. Y’all doomed. Hey, Chicago, let me be very clear because see, I’m not paid by the pundits. I don’t have to worry about running for an office.
My rolexes are not financed, so I don’t have to worry about making payments on it. I could just give it to you straight. You’re not looking at somebody that have to worry about the fact that maybe he white or maybe he’s of another nationality, so he worried about, listen, I’ve already proven myself and being willing to stand against the woke mob and that I’m not a blackity black.
So I’m not going to tell you what you want to hear just because you black, you all are absolutely, positively effed. The only reason I say the word effed or the letter and the syllables is because it’s the millionaire morning show and I understand that the churches and stuff like that is listening to me. So shout out to all of the churches and the daycare and the people that’s listening to me and got me on the big screen and stuff like that, but you all are absolutely effed.
This is not a plan. This is a talking point. This is not a solution. It’s an opportunity for them to keep you emotionally invested so you can continue to work for them and vote for them to continue to have office. You are absolutely effed. You know what a plan is? Let me give you an example of what a plan is. Hey, listen, so this is what we gonna do, Chicago.
We put more money and more police officers on the street. We allocate more money in order to ensure that we can prevent it. And then you gonna have to get your mother effing kids off the street. Because if you don’t, then we gonna arrest them. And then you’re gonna have to pay a fine in order to make sure that you can come and get them. Now, we don’t care if you’re gonna complain about it.
They still getting arrested? Because I’d rather had them sitting in a jail cell instead of sitting over there robbing somebody and then getting a face picked off by a car. Now, ladies, if you all can’t stop having children out of wetlock, then we going to cut you all off of these social services. Because the one thing that we need to do is we need to make sure that we make this enticing for people to invest in your neighborhoods.
Now, I need you all to go and get jobs. And the way that we going to go and get jobs is we’re going to start to incentivize these companies to come and invest by lowering the tax burden and allowing for you all to be able to get in here. Now, what we’re going to do is we’re going to allocate monies to education. How we going to allocate monies to education is we’re going to put together a stimulus package and then we’re going to continue to support it with the millage.
Now, we want to lower property taxes, and then we actually want it to be the same. So we’re going to lower the property taxes, but we’re going to allow for you all to vote on the millage. That allows for you to invest more into your school systems. That allow for us to address the issues, the fundamental issues that’s happening within it. And so you’ll have more opportunity as a community to get educated for the future jobs that is coming into your neighborhood.
But if you don’t do it, then I can’t help you. But the first thing we got to do is we got to stem the violence by making sure that we put more police officers on the street. And if your kid doing something, we’re going to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. It that’s being direct. This is how much money we going to allocate. We want to recruit more police officers.
If we find out that you out here finessing, then the police officers is going to be prosecuted even further because any public servant need to be made an example of. So if we don’t have these crooked police officers, know that we coming for you. No more single mothers. Stop having children out of wedlock. We not raising your children for you. We just going to lock them up and have them make our license plates.
And then we’re going to make money from the license plate in order to fund more police officers, if that’s what you want to do. Now we can lay off police officers, but the only way we’re going to lay off police officers is if we have less crime. But until then we’re going to have more police officers on the streets. Because we support the police, we don’t defund them.
Now I think that it’s important for you all to cut your grass because we don’t want people to. Don’t get me started because I am absolutely going to tell you the truth of fiver. Become a politician. It’s going to be some slow singing and flower bringing over here if you all can’t get your lives together. Look, I’m about to start selling these properties. Oh my God, you’re going to gentrify.
You got d right? I’m about to gentrify it because we need the tax dollars in order to pay for the millages or in order to pay for the property taxes in order to continue to generate the revenue to fix your schools. If we just sitting on abandoned property, we not making no money from that. So what we gonna have to do is we gonna have to raise the value of these properties.
And that means you actually can contribute by cutting your grass and doing the thing that’s in your own best interest. But we definitely gonna get these people over here and we gonna incentivize these investors to come over here and build up Chicago. And we going to start here, here and here. And if they can do it over here, then we’re going to give them even more incentive to do it over.
Listen, I’m going to fix your city and it’s going to be very difficult. And the people that don’t want to be here, they’re going to run over to California. But I’m going to fix your city. I’m not messing around. That’s the plan. Not really. Community leaders. Listen, we need less churches. I said it. That’s going to upset the people. We need less churches. Anton, why do we need less churches? Because if you go to any community and the most impoverished ones got a church on every single corner, it’d be four corners and four churches.
We don’t need no more extra churches. We got enough churches. It’s enough of them that they ain’t even a quarter full. We don’t need no more churches. We good on churches. Churches don’t generate revenue. Churches take from the people. Churches don’t generate. We need money. Generate money, honey. We need infrastructure. We need a lot more police officers. We need people to get control of what’s happening inside of these schools.
We need to invest in infrastructure, public transportation, education, so on and so forth. We don’t need another. Got the church in the community. Not one more. We got enough churches as it is. As a matter of fact, we need to be doing layoffs of churches. How come churches ain’t never doing layoffs? Businesses that feed people in the community and all of that. How come the churches ain’t never doing layoffs? Now that’s not to say that God ain’t good, but God ain’t always in a building.
And just because you open up the church don’t mean that people are going to come into it. It. We don’t need another church in the black community. We got enough of them. Have prayer meeting at your house. Not another building. Need to be a church. We need that land so that we can pay actual, real taxes on it and so that we can ensure that we continue in to generate revenue to pour back into the community.
Not another church, not another community outreach program, not another basketball court. So everywhere you got basketball courts, you see poverty. Churches, basketball courts, drugs. Churches, basketball courts, drugs, churches, basketball courts, drugs. That’s all I see in rap music. We don’t need another church. Not another basketball court, not another community center. In order for you all to continue to slang in front of. Not another one. Another one. No.
Not another one. We don’t need no more. No more community. No. The answer is no. If you’re looking for meat in order to build another community center, the answer is no. Planet fitness is $10 a month. I’m honored and humbled to launch this initiative as mayor today, but also as a chicagoan, I feel personally responsible to make sure that children get a chance to grow up and experience the best part of this city.
You all know that I love talking about the Austin neighborhood. I see a few Westsiders in the room today. That’s good. They’re real quiet today, so you should appreciate that. Just saying. But I cannot deny that as beautiful as the west side of Chicago is, as beautiful as the neighborhood of Austin is, can’t deny the fact that neighborhoods like mine have been shattered because there’s not a real sense of safety and opportunity for people.
No one should be afraid to walk around the block in the greatest city in the world, safety is an essential human need. Oh, he trolling us now, Brandon. Trolling us now. I get it. I get it’s troll season. Okay, let’s go. Safety is a right. As mayor and as city leaders, let’s claim our responsibility. Where is the plan for safety in Chicago? I have not heard a plan.
And again, I know he was a social studies teacher, and so he’s a lot smarter than me, but God doggit, where is the plan at? I don’t hear no plan. Our residents desire and their right to safety by working together, by taking this first bold step. As we move forward, and we will move with urgency, we will move with contention. We also will move together collaboratively to deliver a safer Chicago for everyone.
We remain committed to this mission. I want to thank all of our partners that are here today, all of our residents who work alongside of each other, everyone who is committed to working with my administration as part of this initiative, we will continue. I’m not doing it. .
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