Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is really showing his socialist cred.
He’s announced a plan to possibly open city-owned grocery stores in so-called food deserts in Chicago, following the closures of four Wal-Marts and a Whole Foods.
In other words: Soviet-style central planning!
What could go wrong?
Well, apart from the fact that the Windy City operates on ward-style machine politics, and consistently ranks first in the nation for corruption.
Or that its fiscal profligacy and mismanagement have left it facing a half-billion-dollar-plus budget shortfall; its bonds were rated as junk until 2022.
But, wait: Why did all those stores close in the first place?
Hmmmm. Maybe a massive 32% jump in robbery and thefts over the 2022 year to date had something to do with it.
That’s thanks to disastrous city and state policies around policing — including the total elimination of cash bail — and a Soros-backed pro-crime “prosecutor” (Kim Foxx, who mercifully won’t seek re-election next year).
Yes, the plan comes swathed in the favored rhetoric of the Twitter left: The move’s meant to “repair past harms that have contributed to purposeful disinvestment and exclusion.”
But the only harm here comes from the policies favored by Johnson’s comrades, policies that caused Chicago’s crime to jump 29% across all categories this year over the same period in 2022.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he wants to open city-owned grocery stores to serve neighborhoods that have become “food deserts” after four Walmart stores and a Whole Foods closed.Getty Images for National Urban League
Indeed, Johnson is even softer on crime than his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot.
When a massive mob of teens went on an assault-and-robbery rampage in Chicago’s downtown, Johnson defended them, saying it was unhelpful to “demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.”
And he just launched a lawsuit against Kia and Hyundai because … people have taken to stealing the cars they make.
In other words, as long as Johnson remains at the helm, the city’s “food desert” problem is only going to get worse as public safety continues to erode.
That can’t be fixed with cockamamie, Soviet-lite economic interventions.
Source link: https://nypost.com/2023/09/19/chicago-mayor-grocery-stores-scam-is-a-lefty-crime-smokescreen/