Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson joined WCPT’s Richard Chew last Friday to tout what he called “one of the most inclusive, collaborative processes” in the history of Chicago budget negotiations, highlighting the absence of service cuts, furloughs and layoffs.
“All of our key initiatives that I promised that I would deliver on, we saw the expansion of those services,” Johnson said of the 2025 budget deal that passed last month, pointing to the expansion of mental health services through the Crisis Assistance Response & Engagement Program (CARE) and youth workforce funding.
“Twenty-nine thousand young people will have summer jobs as a result of this budget,” Johnson told WCPT, calling it a “significant opportunity for paid positions for young people up to the ages of 24, of which some of those individuals are heads of households.”
Johnson also emphasized a $100 million investment in violence prevention, the hiring of 200 new detectives, CTA Red Line expansion and the city’s commitment to power all public buildings, as of Jan. 1, with 100% renewable energy by financing the Double Black Diamond Solar farm in downstate Illinois.
“So, as it relates to youth employment and workforce, behavioral mental health, housing, the environment, transportation, we’re off to a very strong start in 2025,” the mayor said.
Johnson told WCPT that he is “very proud” that “I’m the first mayor in the history of Chicago to actually fight for an elected representative school board and hold to my commitment,” but he did not comment on the Chicago Board of Education’s unanimous Dec. 20 vote to terminate Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez.
Johnson also made no mention of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s recent assessment that the Johnson administration does not “have good relationships in Springfield,” but stressed the collaborative work he and the governor have done on the Black Diamond solar project and in mounting a successful Democratic National Convention last August.
“As far as the relationships, those relationships are strong and they’re going to get stronger,” Johnson said, emphasizing that collaboration with Pritzker and Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle will be an essential part of protecting the city of Chicago from the overreach of the incoming Donald Trump presidential administration.
“[Trump’s] position around immigration,” which includes a deportation policy that appears set to target Chicago, “is certainly opposite of ours,” Johnson said. “And these are the things that the governor and the board president, we all agree on.”
Looking back on his first 19 months in office, Johnson said that he could have done a better job of “providing more outlets for information to get to people so they can at least understand [the] decisions [he made]. I don’t believe I would have done anything differently in regards of those decisions.”
Below is the full transcript of the interview. (Please note: The transcript has been edited for clarity.)
Richard Chew: Welcome to the show!
Mayor Brandon Johnson: Hey, thank you very much and I’m grateful to be here.
Richard Chew: Absolutely, absolutely.
Well, listen, I’m thankful that we were able to make it into a new year and have you back with us. We talked right during the election window, and things went in the direction we didn’t necessarily want them to go, but here we are.
You’re still moving the Chicago train forward, and kudos to you on a couple things right out of the gate, with regard to getting the budget done. I know that took a lot of work and you caught a lot of hell for the ways in which you had to approach it, but you still got it across the finish line. So congratulations to you on that, as well as the recent Roseland Health Hub, which is reopening, and that’s something that is going to be very needed in that part of the city of Chicago. Talk to us a little bit about both of those items.
Mayor Brandon Johnson: The budget process was one of the most inclusive, collaborative processes that we’ve ever experienced in the city of Chicago. The number of people who were engaged throughout the duration of 2024, from community meetings going back to last January, all the way up into identifying 11 budget tiers within City Council who represent respective caucuses, as well as ideological positions, to the budget hearings. And what I’m most grateful for is that in this budget, despite the incredible pushback that we got from multiple alders, we did not cut services. There were no furloughs. We did not have to lay off any workers. So all of our city workers — these are our neighbors, these are the people who do the work. We did not have to cut into community safety.
But the other thing that I’m actually proud of is that all of our key initiatives that I promised that I would deliver on, we saw the expansion of those services. So, for instance, youth and workforce: 29,000 young people will have summer jobs as a result of this budget. That’s the largest, most significant opportunity for paid positions for young people up to the ages of 24, of which some of those individuals are heads of households.
We were able to expand our CARE program and so there are more mental health services that are available citywide, so that when individuals are experiencing a crisis, a trained professional can show up to offer services, and full wrap-around services. We’ve expanded our work to build more affordable homes in the city of Chicago. So very grateful for that. We added resources to support individuals who have experienced domestic violence.
The part that I’m also excited about in this budget is that we appropriated $100 million for violence prevention; 23 organizations will be able to access resources to help keep our community safe. And then, yes, I’m very proud of the hard work that we’ve done to build a better, stronger, safer Chicago. Homicides are down. Shootings are down. Robberies are down 25%, vehicular carjackings, criminal sexual assault. A lot of work to be done, Chew, but any life that’s lost, that’s one life too many, and it’s the lowest amount of homicides we’ve had since 2019.
And to your point around the mental health clinic, that was a very proud moment for the city of Chicago. Every mayor after Mayor Harold Washington has cut services to mental health, except for my administration. We’re the first mayor since Mayor Harold Washington to add behavioral mental health services; opened up the clinic in the Lower West Side and Pilsen, and then we cut the ribbon in Roseland. And full wrap-around services will be available there. There were people that attended that ribbon cutting who literally chained themselves to those doors to prevent, two administrations ago, from shuttering that, closing that mental health clinic, and we literally broke those chains this week.
And then, finally, some other good news, two other notes, is that through our strong advocacy, working with our congressional delegation, West Siders in particular who experienced flooding a couple of summers ago with the torrential downpour of rain, we secured $436 million for West Siders to have their homes restored and for the city of Chicago to put stronger mitigation in place to prevent these type of floods from happening.
The Red Line extension: We’re going to announce that today.
And then finally — we started Jan. 1 — we are the first major city in America to go for our public buildings to be 100% powered by renewable energy, including both of our airports. So, as it relates to youth employment and workforce, behavioral mental health, housing, the environment, transportation, we’re off to a very strong start in 2025.
Richard Chew: And I’m excited about that. Listen, I’ve made it clear unapologetically that I want our city to succeed. I want our region to succeed. I want our country to succeed. And so I’m going to lean in, until I choose not to, to support the folks who I think are going to do the work. In the city of Chicago — this is a big business. This is the third largest market in the country. Cook County is the second largest county in the nation. And you’ve got a lot in front of you. And I’ve said this to you before: You know what you signed up for, and it’s my job, our job, to push you, to encourage you, to constructively criticize you, to say let’s get these things done.
Talk about your goals and what you see we’ve got to do with regard to what I call the Big Four: CTU, CPS, CFD and CPD.
Mayor Brandon Johnson: Yeah. Well, I’ll start with our Chicago Police Department. Look, the brave women and men who serve this city every single day, I am grateful for their work. One of the reasons why I’ve been so adamant about a couple of things is because I do respect the work that they do.
One of the things that I said from the very beginning of my administration [is] that we’re going to hire more detectives and that we would hire 200 more detectives over the course of my first term. Well, we’ve done that already. Going into 2025, we’ve hired 200 more detectives. The reason why that’s important is because people need closure as it relates to crime. And our clearance rate coming out of 2024, 56 [percent], 58% — it’s the highest it’s been in over a decade. And so, we’re going to continue to make sure that if and when crime appears, that we can bring closure to those families, because we do see that as a deterrent. We’ve added three brand new helicopters to our police force that provides additional support in the air to respond to crises.
I got criticized for this, but we settled a police contract, and some people thought that their pay raises were too significant. I don’t know how folks can come to that conclusion, but it was important that we did that. And we know that it’s critical for us to still hold our police department accountable. My superintendent, Larry Snelling, has a responsibility to help regain and restore trust within our community, and we are moving in the right direction.
As I said, crime continues to fall, but it’s going to take all of us. It’s not policing alone, which gets to my second point. The CARE program — again, this crisis response team that we have made citywide — that’s going to free up law enforcement to be available to respond to other critical elements in our city. Forty percent of the 911 calls were mental health crises calls. Thirty-seven percent of the violence in this city happens in 5% of the city. It is hyper-concentrated. And so, we will put forth more strategic plans, much like we did with the robbery strategy, to continue to drive crime down.
The Chicago Fire Department: We are still actively engaged and working through those negotiations. Prior to me becoming mayor, other administrations were not able to settle the police contract. They were not able to settle the firefighters’ contract. We’re going to do that. We’re going to make sure that our firefighters get the contract that they deserve as well.
And as far as our public schools, look, I’m very proud, Chew, the fact that I’m the first mayor in the history of Chicago to actually fight for an elected representative school board and hold to my commitment. Where democracy has been stifled in other places of the country — and quite frankly around the world — the city of Chicago, we were able to effectively expand democracy. And so 2026, under my first term, we will see a fully elected representative school board.
I’m also the first mayor in the history of Chicago to actually trust the public schools with my own children. No other mayor has actually sent their children to the public schools. My wife and I, we take a lot of pride in that. And of course, I’m the only mayor ever, having taught.
And so, I have the unique vantage of seeing the needs of our public schools through the lens of a parent, because I’m one of them, as well as seeing it through the lens of a teacher, because I’ve been one. And there’s nothing more frustrating as a parent than not having the confidence that your local community has — not having the confidence in whether or not your local community will have everything that your child deserves and needs.
One of the reasons why my son is a student at Kenwood on the South Side of Chicago is because there wasn’t a West Side school that offered orchestra and soccer. I mean, we didn’t even get to the full curriculum. Because he plays the violin, should he not have that opportunity to be able to experience music? And that’s what parents are experiencing–
And look, as a proud social studies teacher, it turns out that kids do go to school because they want to participate in extracurricular activity. And so being on the West Side of Chicago, there weren’t a lot of spaces where soccer is being promoted. And no disrespect to those other sports, but that’s the sport that my son is attracted to, and Kenwood had better opportunities there. And so bottom line is this contract has to reflect the needs of parents. It also has to reflect the desires and the wishes of educators. And that’s really what this work is about, and that’s what I’m focused on.
Richard Chew: So many people want me to ask you the hard, tough, grizzled questions about things. I’m going to position something this way: As you rewind — and as grown men we have to do this, if we’re being responsible — is to look back and say, ‘What did I say I was going to do? What did I mean to do? What did I do? And how could I have done better?’ And I have to position it that way with you, rather than asking you a specific ‘Why didn’t you do this’ kind of question. Look back with us, Mayor Johnson, and just be real with me, because we’re real dudes, and say, ‘OK, what could I have done better? And as I chart forward, how can I make for a better way with my administration and the things that I’m going to do for the city of Chicago?’
Mayor Brandon Johnson: Yeah, it’s a great question. I mean, I reflect every single day, Chew. It is the only way in which I can grow. It’s like the natural disposition of someone who is a public educator. We do lesson plans. Children do well on assessments and sometimes they don’t, and when they don’t, the first thing that I think — want to think about is, what could I have done differently or better to ensure that this child develops all of the skills that they need? Same thing as a parent, when there are moments of intensity in our home and we’re faced with real-life decisions and I have to make a call, and that impact on my wife or my children was not my intent. So how do I come back and say, here’s what we can do to become stronger and how we can improve?
I think what I’ve learned in these first 19 months is that more people are engaged in government and more people have access to a variety of — I’m going to put this loosely — news sources, and maybe I should say information sources.
Richard Chew: Fair enough.
Mayor Brandon Johnson: First of all, if I would have known that my first day in office would have included smoke coming in from wildfires in Canada and unprecedented rain, the largest rain in 30 years and that the governor of Texas would be sending buses from the border as a political attack, I probably would have situated our first 90 days differently. But I think what my big takeaway from all of that is, is that there are so many people who want to understand how decisions are made and there are many people who want to know that they are included in those decisions. And what I believe that I could have done a better job at was providing more outlets for information to get to people so they can at least understand those decisions. I don’t believe I would have done anything differently in regards of those decisions. I mean, the choice of letting people sleep on floors in police districts was just not a choice of mine. My moral conviction propelled me to do something about it, and I had the power and the authority to do it. But I know that I have to make myself more available than probably other administrations, just simply because of the times that we live in.
Could you imagine the Daley administration in this era of information?
Richard Chew: (Laughs.) Yeah. I’ve been around long enough to know–
Mayor Brandon Johnson: I’m just going to leave it there.
Richard Chew: Yeah, and I will too.
Listen, the reason that I asked the question that way is because I’m a reflective person, and I don’t want to make this about me, but I think a lot of people, they want to see that the city grows and continues to get better. There’s a lot of people that don’t, and so a lot of the opposition is from people that want to see you fail, want to see the governor fail, and other blue-elected politicians. So I’m going to pivot to something that’s near and dear to my heart, and people — I know right now this is on everybody’s mind. We’re about to inaugurate a 34-time convicted felon, twice-adjudicated rapist, and the list goes on, to the presidency of the United States of America. And I know that you and Gov. Pritzker — I’m going to call you guys my younger brothers because I’m older than both of you, and I do that respectfully, but I want to make sure you all are getting along in the sandbox. And it’s not that I don’t have care about the hemp conversation, but I don’t care about the hemp conversation. I care about the fact that the two of you are shouldered up, along with Cook County President Preckwinkle, to create our version of an Iron Dome for the craziness and the carnage that this fool is going to try to bring to the city of Chicago, to the state of Illinois, and to other blue cities and states throughout America. That, to me, is more important, that you two, you three are lined up with all the other folks that you all are working with to make sure that that is minimized as much as we possibly can. Talk to us about that.
Mayor Brandon Johnson: Yeah, thank you for raising that. That is the most important, I think, component that I hold as mayor of Chicago, and that is working with other principals. And as I mentioned earlier in the conversation, when [Texas] Governor [Greg] Abbott used human beings as a means to attack cities politically, the city of Chicago, we rose above those political attacks, even though there were dividing lines around whether or not we should respond to that mission. We don’t get through that without the governor and the county board president. We worked collaboratively to respond to that mission, and as a result of that response, the state and the city continued our collaborative approach to build a one-system initiative where we created more beds for families who are experiencing homelessness. It’s the first of its kind — 6,800 beds. We brought 3,800 beds to our city. We could not have done that without working with the state, without working with the governor.
The Democratic National Convention: Many people said that — I mean, you heard the chatter about Mayor Johnson won’t be able to handle it, 1968, the whole bit. Well, it wasn’t anything close to that, right? But I didn’t do that by myself, right? Working with the governor, working with the county board president, the entire city of Chicago was on the world stage, and we delivered, probably, I would say, arguably, the most dynamic convention in our nation’s history.
Richard Chew: I agree.
Mayor Brandon Johnson: So that collective work and those relationships have been strong, and the proof is actually in the delivery of those services, between the Democratic National Convention, responding to the new arrivals mission, building a one-system initiative.
You’re absolutely right: The bigger threat to the sensibility of Chicago is knowing that you have an incoming administration that does not believe in public education. [Trump] wants to eradicate public education and the entire department. He doesn’t believe in science, and so we’ve restored the Department of the Environment. The governor and I are very clear about why we have to have real true environmental justice to build a green, stronger economy. And we’ve already started that process, as I said, starting Jan. 1. Working with a solar farm field in Central, Southern Illinois, the Black Diamond farm that is fueling our public buildings here: That requires collaboration. His position around immigration, the president-elect, is certainly opposite of ours. And these are the things that the governor and the board president, we all agree on.
As far as the relationships, those relationships are strong and they’re going to get stronger, and stronger relationships with county board commissioners. These are my former colleagues, I speak to them — City Council members, some of whom I helped get elect[ed] when I was an organizer. State Senator Don Harmon, who is the senate president, he’s the person who gave me my first job; my political start started with Don Harmon. In fact, my oldest son is 17; his baby shower was at the Democratic Party of Oak Park’s office, right? Chris Welch. I mean, I supported Chris Welch when he ran for state rep, and the other speaker supported the other person. We helped Speaker Welch get elected. I can go on and on. Lakesia Collins, state senator — we were organizers together protesting against the [Rahm] Emanuel administration when they covered up the Laquan McDonald video. Will Guzzardi — we worked with him to get elected, to beat the Berrios machine. Rob Martwick, another person that we helped get elected. I can go on and on and on.
Richard Chew: The collaboration is important, and that’s the thing that I want. And I know listeners, not just here but listeners across the country, want to hear from Democratic elected officials that they are pulling together. Brothers and sisters are going to fight. They’re going to say something that they shouldn’t say, out of school, if you will. But we know that’s going to happen. I know for a fact, Mayor Johnson, that the people of Chicago, the people in the region, the state and the country want to see leaders like you, leaders like all that you’ve listed, leaders like Gov. Pritzker, make doggone sure that we create the protection mechanisms so that this [incoming Trump] administration doesn’t rain down the chaos in our cities and our counties and our states that we don’t need to have. That’s what people want to know. I’m promising you that.
And I also want to compliment you on something that you said, that you and I’ve talked about before. If there’s anything that I’m going to say to you that I want you to continue to do, that needs to be done — and I say this as a colleague but I say this also as a voter — is the communication with us, letting folks know what you’re working on, is critically important, because if they don’t know, then they will fill in the blanks with what they think is happening. Keep on that path. If you say there’s one thing, I’m definitely going to do is let folks know what we’re working on, I will promise you that’s going to be one of your superpowers as you go forward during the second part of your term.
Mayor Brandon Johnson: Well, thank you for that. And again, this particular audience has a special place in my heart, as someone who hosted a couple of shows on WCPT 820 AM, where the facts still do matter. And having had the opportunity to sit in that seat in the morning and the listenership and the audience of WCPT — these progressive voices are critical, and it helped shape my approach towards governance. And I’m giving you my word, with all that we have done in these first now going into 20 months, and all that we will do and all that we will need to do together, I’m going to make myself more available, with all of the assignments that I have, to just make sure that people are aware of what we’re working on, so that we can get that feedback, that we can take in those constructive elements that allow for better, stronger, safer Chicago.
Look, I can’t tell you how overjoyed I am to come into the new year knowing that 29,000 young people will have an opportunity to work, overjoyed that almost a half a billion dollars we secured to respond to climate crisis and for families on the West Side of Chicago who lost property, that we can help restore that. I’m overjoyed that we are moving in the direction to provide down-payment assistance for families who want to become homeowners and, again, building more affordable homes. I’m overjoyed by the fact that $20 billion of new investments have come into the city since my time as mayor. Side Quantum on the Southeast Side of Chicago — a multibillion-dollar project and industry; $1 billion investment from Advocate Health to build a hospital on the South Side of Chicago; the 1901 Project on the West Side that’s going to expand affordable homes and build out that entire entertainment area by United Center with the Wirtz [family], and of course, the Reinsdorf family, and that we’re going to continue to invest in community safety — 100 million more dollars to prevent violence. I want us all to come together to build better, stronger, safer Chicago. And with all of that, I guess the one omen that I think we should pay attention to is the fact that in 2025 the Bears are undefeated. So that’s a good start to the 2025 year, and I’m thrilled, man.
Richard Chew: (Laughs.) Mayor Johnson, Brandon, thank you for being with this, Mayor. I appreciate your humor here at the end, and I’m looking forward to having you back. And I know we’ve got a lot of work to do, and I’m leaning in to do that work with you. So I appreciate you being with us this morning. Thanks so much, Mayor Johnson, for joining “Chew’s Views” you this morning. Have a great day and a great weekend.
Mayor Brandon Johnson: Thank you. You’re welcome. And happy New Year again to everyone.
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January 13, 2025 at 04:36PM
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