Mayor Brandon Johnson joined Budget Director Annette Guzman on Tuesday for what the city is calling the inaugural “Lakeside Chat” to discuss the budget. With the event, which also streamed online, Johnson hoped to create transparency behind the budget process and an understanding of how the community’s voice is reflected in the 2025 budget.
The event took place at the Harold Washington Library, a backdrop symbolic for Johnson as just the second Black man — and third Black person — elected to sit in the mayor’s seat. About 50 people attended in person, and nearly 100 views were tallied from the online stream.
“I think it is appropriate for me just to acknowledge the space that we’re in today as we celebrate the history of Black folks here in America,” Johnson said on the stage of the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium on Feb. 4. “As we fight the forces who clearly have not accepted the results of the Civil War, I’m grateful that we are standing on the shoulders of so many great leaders in the city of Chicago.”
Investments for Black Chicagoans in the 2025 budget were at the center of the conversation. Johnson has focused on housing as a primary way to show investments in predominantly Black neighborhoods. An in-depth report on the 2025 budget engagement from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute can be read here.
“What is Mayor Johnson’s primary motivation? It’s to repopulate Chicago, and particularly on the West and South Sides of the city. We’ve only lost population within our group, that’s Black Chicago,” said Johnson. Chicago’s Black population peaked in 1980 at over 1.1 million comprising 40% of the population. According to the U.S. Census, as of July 2024, Chicago’s Black population was just 28.4% of the total city population.
As outlined in a budget investment engagement report, housing initiatives include $40 million toward the creation of the One System Initiative to expand homeless shelter beds; $28.8 million for the Rapid Rehousing Program, which assists getting those from homeless shelters into stable housing; and $625 million has been allocated for affordable housing initiatives over the next five years. Johnson also touched on the need to rebuild and reform public housing.
Last October, the Department of Planning and Development introduced the Missing Middle Infill Housing Initiative, which aims to bring affordable housing to vacant lots in North Lawndale. Five development teams were selected last month to build 100 housing units on 36 city-owned lots.
The budget engagement report also identified the top 10 neighborhoods where residents would like to see more affordable housing options. Those neighborhoods are Chatham, Bronzeville, Hyde Park, Pilsen, Beverly, Lincoln Park, West Garfield Park, Lakeview, Austin and Edgewater. This data is based on participation during three public roundtable events in July.
Shirley Hill, a resident of Roseland for over 50 years who attended the chat, said she found the event informational but shared concerns that her community is overlooked in the budget process.
“I want to see Roseland come back to its original glory. See, during that time, people from all over the city, and some people came from other cities around the world, to come to Roseland to shop. It was the Gold Coast of the South Side” she said.
Notably, the report shows low engagement in responses from the Roseland community. The closest roundtable event for Roseland residents would’ve been the July 27 event at Kennedy King College in Englewood.
“I’ve been in the senior building there for 10 years now, I have not ever seen one improvement in the communities,” Hill said about Roseland. “It would seem as though they’re letting the properties go down so that they can be sold on the pennies, and so I wanted to know where Roseland is in all of this budgeting.”
Hill added that she doesn’t blame the mayor for the conditions of Roseland and just wants to see the neighborhood more prioritized in the city’s budget.
Johnson frequently touts his funding of youth jobs, which predominantly impacts Black teenagers. Funding for 29,000 youth jobs is secured in this year’s budget. Recent investments also include reopening the Roseland Mental Health Clinic last month as well as reestablishing the city’s Department of Environment which has a budget of $1.9 million for 2025.
“I’ve added this friendly amendment that environmental justice is very much tied to the solvency and the long-term sustainability of our planet, and particularly neighborhoods that have again been historically disinvested in,” Johnson said. “I believe our legislative agenda is centered around the cumulative impact study so that we can begin to deliver the type of distributive resources and services to communities like on the Southeast Side of Chicago, West Side of Chicago, where there’s an uptick of asthmatic individuals and the lack of natural rain barrels, which are trees.”
Last month, Johnson also announced $30 million in Community Development Grants for various organizations that are mainly located in underserved communities on the South and West Sides, including the TCA Health Nutrition Innovation Center in Riverdale, Sunshine Community Center in Washington Park and the Garden to Table Farm in North Lawndale.
Ald. William Hall (6th Ward), who heads City Council’s revenue subcommittee, said that Johnson’s contributions to Black Chicago continue to be overlooked. His ward includes parts of West Woodlawn, Chatham, Park Manor, Auburn Gresham, and Englewood.
“It’s almost damnation if you do, damnation if you don’t,” Hall said. “At the end of the day, the problem that we have in city politics is that we make it about the person and not about the people. And so he’s made it clear that he is committed to investing in people. It’s not a talking point, that’s just his policy.”
Hall added that the reopening of mental health clinics, and the $1.25 billion dollar housing and economic bond deal that grants opportunities to Black and brown contractors throughout the city, are examples of Johnson’s investments in Black communities.
“Nobody’s talking about that. So it’s all the things that we’re not talking about because they’re not popular Media Takeout, TMZ-type news,” Hall said.
Highlighting specific investments for Black Chicagoans is critical for Johnson who has dealt with an influx of migrants who were bussed from states like Texas when Republican Gov. Greg Abbott sent asylum seekers to Democratic sanctuary cities like Chicago. The presence of migrants has led to tensions with the Black community who feel that more resources have been spent on the migrant population instead of their community.
That question was raised during a WTTW Town Hall on Monday night with Johnson and community stakeholders discussing topics ranging from public safety to housing and immigration. Johnson emphasized the importance of acknowledging Chicago as a welcoming city, as established by former Mayor Harold Washington in 1985.
He added that the sentiment that migrants get more resources is an attack that far-right extremists have fueled to cause divisiveness between Black and brown communities.
“What is the difference between the 30,000 Ukrainians that are here and the Venezuelans that were sent here? We have spent 20 times more on Chicagoans than we have in this new arrivals mission,” Johnson said. “I am not going to stand for anybody in the White House or any other right-wing extremists who want to divide our communities. We can do both. This city has stood firm as we look to expand reparations opportunities in this city, and we can stand firm to ensure that families who want to make Chicago their home, there’s enough room for all of us.”
Ahead of the lakeside chat, in an invite-only availability with local press, Johnson discussed updates with the reparations commission he introduced back in 2023. Last year, Johnson established a Reparations Task Force.
Johnson told The TRiiBE that the task force is currently working with the Aldermanic Black Caucus to establish an advisory committee which should be completed in the first quarter and would lead to community forums and engagements for input and that a report could be expected sometime this year.
Hall, who works on the reparations committee, said that an advisory was sent out at the end of January to send in recommendations for the finalization of the task force.
“The task force still is in formation. The alders are still committed, too. The conversations have been vast and consistent with getting it right,” Hall said. “Evanston has been a template to look at, and so there’s coalition and conversations that I know have been started with their city council to see what can be replicated and duplicated. So it’s a long journey ahead.”
