Looking Ahead: Analysts Preview Lightfoot Administration


Police, violence, public health, pensions, schools. There is a long list of issues for Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot to tackle starting Monday, when she is inaugurated.

Lightfoot has already named her top team and is diving headfirst into the issue of aldermanic power. But what else can we expect to see under a Lightfoot administration?

“There are a lot of issues and it’s hard to tell at this point … I think, overall, we can expect anything but business as usual,” said Connie Mixon, director of urban studies at Elmhurst College and co-editor of the book "Twenty-First Century Chicago.”

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“I think it’s important to point out that it’s one thing to run a progressive reform agenda, but it’s an entirely different thing to actually govern and implement that agenda, especially when she will be faced with very powerful and entrenched interests,” Mixon said.

Twyla Blackmond Larnell, an assistant professor of political science at Loyola University Chicago with a focus on American urban politics, said she believes the topics of crime and policing with mark Lightfoot’s first 100 days in office.

“The one thing that everybody in Chicago can agree on, is that [crime] is an issue that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later,” she said.

Mixon and Blackmond Larnell join us in discussion, along with MarySue Barrett, president of the Metropolitan Planning Council who previously served as former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s chief of policy.


Related stories:

Spotlight Politics: Lightfoot, New City Council Prepare to Take Over

Lightfoot, Aldermen Battle Over Aldermanic Prerogative

Lightfoot Plans May 20 Inauguration, City Hall Open House


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