Imposed Safety Measures By Mayor Lightfoot Did Not Fare Well With Residents

The Walgreens store at 8628 S. Cottage Grove Ave. was among the local retailers looted on May 31, 2020 and is now closed. Photo credit: Wendell Hutson
The Walgreens store at 8628 S. Cottage Grove Ave. was among the local retailers looted on May 31, 2020 and is now closed. Photo credit: Wendell Hutson

Imposed Safety Measures By Mayor Lightfoot Did Not Fare Well With Residents

BY WENDELL HUTSON

Contributing Writer

Still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, many residents said they did not like the safety measures Mayor Lori Lightfoot imposed last week in the wake of violent looting and vandalism throughout Chicago.

On May 29, several retail stores located on the Gold Coast were broken into and vandalized by looters. That action was repeated for the next three days at retail stores throughout the South and West Sides as well. So, as a way to protect residents and businesses, Lightfoot said she had to take extraordinary steps by imposing a curfew, shutting down the CTA overnight and requesting help for the Illinois National Guard and state police.

And while some residents said the mayor’s action might have been well intended, they said it was a major inconvenience especially for people already struggling to make ends meet.

Kenneth Long, a 57-year-old Chatham resident, said he spent $34 each night for two days in a row, taking an Uber to work.

“I was unable to get to work as an essential worker. There was no public transportation from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday or Monday (last week) and I work 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. at a halfway house,” said Long. “I normally take the Blue Line train to work and then one bus, but because nothing was running, I had to spend part of my rent money to get to work.”

And it didn’t help that notification about the CTA shutdown was not made to the public until an hour before it was to take effect, added Long.

Rather than spend more money to get to work, Lavender Dash, 29, said she took two unpaid days off work from her security job during the CTA shutdown.

“I make $13.50 an hour, which isn’t much when you have three kids, and instead [of] trying to find a ride to work, I called off work until the trains and buses were back running again,” said Dash, a Park Manor resident. “I’m not about to spend more money to get to the minimum wage job. That’s just crazy!”

However, in a May 31 tweet, Lightfoot said the transportation shutdown was necessary in the wake of CTA employees being assaulted and threatened by riders.

“This measure was necessary in order to preserve the safety of residents and transit employees,” she tweeted, noting that the move also supported a citywide curfew she previously put in place from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Other actions the mayor took following rampant looting was closing all downtown exits on the Dan Ryan Expressway and posting the state police and the National Guard at downtown checkpoints starting at Chinatown, a move the mayor said freed up more police officers to patrol the South and West Sides.

“Contrary to rumors, the city has spent unprecedented public safety resources on the neighborhoods—particularly on the South and West Sides — to protect residents and ensure a quick emergency response,” Lightfoot told the Citizen. “This includes police deployments, fire and paramedic services. To achieve this, we deployed the Illinois National Guard along the Loop area perimeter to allow Chicago Police Department personnel to focus on Chicago’s communities.”

But some aldermen said the mayor should have made the same effort to protect residents and businesses on the South and West Sides as she did for downtown.

“I absolutely believe the mayor should have done the same thing for the South and West Side, and address the bigger problem, which is police officers get away with murder,” said Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th), whose South Side ward includes Woodlawn.

During her June 3 “State of the City” speech, Lightfoot announced that the city would invest $10 million in a relief fund to help small businesses affected by last week’s looting and said the city would raise more funds through private and corporate donations.

Taylor said she supports such an effort, but cautioned the mayor to make sure monies distributed are done so as grants and not loans.

“Who got most of the federal money when COVID-19 hit? It was not small businesses and it certainly wasn’t black-owned businesses,” contends Taylor. “This is the same thing that happened during the recession when banks got bailed out and ‘we’ [blacks] got sold out!”

Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), whose South Side ward includes Roseland, also said the mayor should have put the same effort in protecting South and West Side communities as she did the Gold Coast.

“My ward includes a Walmart and it was not looted, but that’s not because City Hall stepped up. It was because I worked with my police commander to cut off access to that store,” contends Beale, who added he requested resources from City Hall to help prevent looting, but did not receive it.

“I was not able to do the same for the businesses along Michigan Avenue because it was only so much I could do, but if I had more resources, I could have been done more to protect the businesses in my ward,” he added.

And like many black aldermen whose wards were hit hard with looting and vandalism, Taylor said she does not support that type of behavior, but “I understand why they did it.”

She added that blacks have been mistreated by society for years and Chicago is no different.

“People are angry, fed up and tired of not having their voices heard,” explained Taylor. “For years, black folks have had a knee in their necks and now blacks are at a point where they cannot take it anymore and feel a need to express themselves.”

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