As a historian, however, the history of Chicago is my business. We must all remember that our collective day-to-day actions will one day become a part of Chicago history.
On March 17, Dr. Willie Wilson, an entrepreneur and former candidate for U.S. president, U.S. Senate and Chicago’s mayoral seat, decided to give away $200,000 worth of free gas on the South and West sides. As we are seeing record high gas prices at the moment, free gas sounds fantastic. I’m sure that many Chicagoans could use some help at the pump, among other places.
All day yesterday, a lot of folks online criticized Dr. Wilson’s intentions as just another stunt in a long line of other political stunts by him. I won’t question Dr. Wilson’s purposes in giving away free gas. I’ll even go so far as to say Dr. Wilson has good intentions. But sometimes, when good intentions don’t have a good implementation, they lead to long-lasting problems. My granny used to say, “the road to hell was paved with good intentions.”
Whenever and however Dr. Wilson intends to help Chicagoans, he must be cautious about how to implement that help. Folks on the South and West sides have higher asthma rates than those on the North Side. Having hundreds of cars idling near homes and schools is not good, and it will later hurt those Dr. Wilson wants to help.
Because of decades of disinvestment, there aren’t very many jobs on the South and West sides. Because of that, a lot of those residents commute to other parts of the city and surrounding suburbs for work. Blocking the expressway entrances and exit lanes on major thoroughfares on the South and West side also hurts the residents he’s trying to help.