Mayor Lori Lightfoot addresses the city Friday, March 19, 2021 to mark the anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Chicago Mayor's Office)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot mourned the 5,062 Chicagoans who died during the past year after being diagnosed with COVID-19, saying the city has endured “too many dark days and long nights” during a speech to the city Friday night to mark the anniverary of the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I pray that the good Lord welcomes these souls home, and watches over their families and loved ones left behind,” Lightfoot said. “This has been a year of loss, a year of pain.”
COVID-19's deadly toll has hit Black and Latino Chicagoans hardest, accounting for 71% of all deaths in Chicago, while those groups make up just 66% of the city’s population, according to city data.
Lightfoot also marked the job losses, the business closures and the end of normal life for all Chicagoans.
“But through that shroud of pain and grief, Chicago has continued to be the resilient city that we have always been,” Lightfoot said. “And now, my friends, it is time to rise again.”
Chicago must address the inequities that plague the city and threatens the “economic and social health of the city,” Lightfoot said.
“We have very stark evidence that Black and Latinx Chicagoans have experienced higher rates of job loss, higher rates of infection, and higher rates of death during this crisis,” Lightfoot said.
While praising Chicago’s essential workers that kept the city that works running, Lightfoot lauded Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s top doctor and the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health for calming “our deepest fears.”
Lightfoot’s 25-minute speech, which aired at the same time as the first appearance of the Loyola Ramblers basketball team in the NCAA tournament, also served as a defense of her approach to the pandemic and her agenda.
“We worked our tails off” to save jobs and small businesses in Chicago, Lightfoot said. “We kept the engine of city government running so that we could deliver for you, in spite of and because of this once in a lifetime pandemic.”
Lightfoot announced she would provide “much-needed additional relief to small businesses in the city to reduce red tape and accelerate their recovery,” and announce new protections for workers, “particularly low-wage workers who have been hardest hit during this pandemic.”
Lightfoot said Chicago must respond to the “Great Pandemic” by tackling what divides Chicagoans.
“Our inequities as a city are rooted in race, class and gender, and thus our recovery must face this reality, and make investments to address and not shy away from these realities,” Lightfoot said.
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