This story was produced by the Better Government Association, a nonprofit news organization based in Chicago.
CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot has entrusted much of the city’s $400 million violence-reduction strategy to a new city office created to coordinate a holistic approach to attacking “decades of disinvestment and systemic racism at the root of the problem.”
But a Better Government Association investigation reveals the optimistic rhetoric behind Lightfoot’s new Community Safety Coordination Center often outweighs the substance.
The BGA reviewed hundreds of pages of records from document requests and court cases, internal emails and financial records, and conducted dozens of interviews to profile an initiative based heavily on marketing and communications, whose leader — who has a history of hyperbole about her own accomplishments — is focused largely on public perception.
The center is promoting walking trails, supporting block club events and pressing other city agencies to fulfill their responsibilities to plant trees, clean up vacant lots and be more responsive to complaints piling up in the 311 call center.
Critics say all these are noble goals, but do little to address the underlying conditions contributing to bloodshed in the same neighborhoods year after year.
“Given the scale of the challenge in a city like Chicago, given the scale of segregation by income and race, given the degree of inequality across the metro area, there’s just no reason to think that an...
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