33 Comments

i wonder how those who supported brandon johnson over paul vallas for mayor now feel about mayor johnson. does he represent an improvement over mayor lightfoot? is he capable of leading a city in trouble, on so many fronts, building consensus among disparate groups toward long-term improvement? i dare say it appears that all of his decision making during his mayoralty will be focused on one central tenet: how will my decision impact the CTU and its supporters?

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I always enjoy your writing each week, but today's has blown me away. All of it so excellent and thoughtful, but that description of dear leader is a stunner. Thanks! I will reread it all again later today.

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founding

Was some of that lifted from the Declaration of Independence’s complaint about King George III?

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The comments from Jake H made my blood boil. He ignores all the statistics that the private schools has already been in session for a year with no discernible impact to teachers or kids, and that once CTU went back to work there was also no discernible impact to students or teachers, which proved Arwardy and Lightfoot right. They followed the science. He also ignores the facts that every youth agency in the city will say that from mental health, to drugs , and the pull of the gangs, youth crime and future truancy were exacerbated by school closure. The gangs did not work from home. The mistake CPS made was to allow the teachers to Zoom teach from home. The suburban schools required the teachers to Zoom from their empty classroom and when they went back in person, suburban teachers unions did not complain. But like so many workers during the pandemic, CTU teachers found they liked working from home and didn’t want to have to commute to the office. Like my grandson’s teacher who Zoomed with a 9 month old baby on her lap, they loved the benefits from staying home and just wanted to keep those benefits.

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My kids' suburban teachers Zoomed from their own homes as well. They were not required to Zoom from the classroom before hybrid learning. Would have been a little silly to have hundreds of teachers to come to the building if the point was to reduce contact with others. Only Zoom from the classroom occurred when hybrid learning was implemented, where 1/2 the students were in the building each day and 1/2 were at home.

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I know that Barrington and many of the northwest suburbs had teachers teach from their empty ( totally safe) classrooms. It provided a much better learning experience for the kids. In fact I think the Tribune did an article about it and it said that most teachers that got Covid got it from eating together in teachers lounge.

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No doubt much was exacerbated by the pandemic, and schools should have returned earlier, but a few things to note:

1) Public schools to private schools in Chicago are apples to oranges: different size system, different class of people, school sizes, etc.

2) This was when omicron was surging, and there was still enough disagreement on the science. Some catholic schools went back to remote, or at least hybrid. Parents and the majority of the city council still questioned going back. Yes, variants have weakened since then, so impact after returning has been minimal. Hindsight is 20/20.

3) Even when the majority of CPS teachers were ready to go back, the district failed to provide clear policy directives on a whole host of topics. Questions went unanswered. I don't fault Arwady for that, nor should Johnson. This delayed returning for several weeks.

4) Math scores went down in 48 states.

5) The nationwide increase in crime started before the pandemic, and hasn't dissipated since CPS went back. There are many factors.

https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/01/07/in-backing-cps-reopening-plan-citys-health-department-studied-covid-in-catholic-schools-which-presents-problems-critics-say/

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all of your statements are either opinion and unproveable; wrong; and/or irrelevant to the core issue: what would have been in the best interests of the students? no one [i hope] is arguing that the vast majority of CTU teachers did not have the best interests of students at heart. but CTU 'leadership' was a gross and egregious failure during the pandemic, condemning CPS students - themselves a vast majority minority and from low income families - to a lost yr, a critical lost yr, of learning.

why do i assert CTU leadership was a failure during the pandemic? because, as usual, they were protecting 'the least' of their membership - at the expense of the students - the few teachers who did not want to make the effort to go back to school. just like they protect incompetent teachers from discipline and dismissal.

and if there were more than a few CTU member teachers who did not want to go back to school sooner, i assert [note, this is an opinion] it was due to the false narrative provided by CTU leadership, that CPS was not ready for return to school, and did not 'provide clear policy directives', as you incorrectly allege.

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This was a great Vol 101! The Trump description. Ranaswanmy sounds a bit Wo Wo...I've heard he can be annoying but a nice story about him. Red Swamp Crayfish-how ironic it has no predators, not even us. Suppress personal info-cool-thanks for that and for giving me a heads up on Neil S's newsletter. I'll be interested to hear about what residents would like to do in Chicago. I would like do see the Pedway..maybe a winter trip. The boat tour is great. We once were able to get a ride on a replica of an old wooden schooner that was really fun on a beautiful day. I would like to do a tour on a double decker or with a guide in a neighborhood I'm not familiar with-if anyone has tips on those, I'd be interested. Love your Ottawa boat ride trip. A college friend from there so visited some-great italian bars and supper clubs. It looks like it has really gentrified and, think we'll do a trip up this fall to visit and walk the parks. Thank you!

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Be warned: the Pedway smells like urine, like an el stop or NY subway. That is the primary thing I remember about every trip through the Pedway. It's nice on a rainy day to avoid getting drenched but it could use a heavy rain itself now and again.

"Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the" Pedway.

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PS-lol on the tote bag tweet. I got up and pulled an annoying overflowing box. Found a dozen store wine bags and a pile of others on the mudroom floor awaiting husband inspection.

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I have been reading the back and forth over the firing of Dr. Awardy. My hope is that something constructive comes out of this.

Covid is still here and may rebound in the coming months. We need to reach a consensus on how to deal with vaccines, best practices for business, for schools, “essential workers” and visitors.

Now is a good time to get a discussion going in a non emergency atmosphere.

I think Dr. Awardy would want to see an effective plan with buy in from all parties in place before the next emergency.

And Brandon Johnson would be smart to get this project started with input from many sources including Dr. Arcady.

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Whoops my bad Dr Awardy not Arcady.

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founding
Aug 17, 2023·edited Aug 17, 2023

You unfortunately omitted the “Who gives a rip?” alternative in the Ronnie Woo Woo poll. Otherwise, an exceptionally good issue.

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Eric, I woo find Ronnie Woo hard woo to take. Especially woo if woo you woo sit woo near woo him.

In woo fact I woo find my woo post woo a bit woo annoying….

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Aug 17, 2023·edited Aug 17, 2023

Chicago Never-Have-I-Ever: eaten at Superdawg or Alinea

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founding
Aug 17, 2023·edited Aug 17, 2023

Ha. I would never expect those to eating establishments to be the in the same sentence together.

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Aug 17, 2023·edited Aug 17, 2023

(1) Thanks for the link to “The Media Still Doesn’t Get Biden Voters,” and (2) thanks for calling out -- with a perfect headline -- the rude and unmerited treatment meted out to Dr. Arwady. Of course the mayor can choose his own staff. He can just as freely choose how to behave. The new mayor just made himself look small and the very kind of boss an employee should flee. Finally (3) May I pretend to be a member of the American Center for Decent OpEds? It never ceases to amaze me at the brazen way people create fake organizations to gussy up their special pleading. Maybe I should make it a birthday ritual to create one new one every year. Or make it an anniversary ritual for the PS?

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Absolutely loved Neil Steinberg's fabulously accurate analogy of Brandon Johnson as a marionette with CTU pulling the strings. I have to question the intellectual integrity of anyone who claims they did not know that the election of Johnson would result in the hard left CTU now running the city of Chicago. Then add to that Johnson's proclivity for evasive and disingenuous explanations of his motives and conduct along with clearly questionable temperament and judgment - it's going to be a long four years in the Windy City.

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Id like to see Jake H cite stats that compare CPS scores to Fla, not Illinois.' scores as a whole. Suburban performance on standardized tests more than likely carried the state average. And the burbs got back to class earlier. A bit of a disingenuous argument from "Jake".

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Aug 17, 2023·edited Aug 17, 2023

I, too, take issue with Jake H's comparison regarding FL post-COVID test scores with Illinois's. Isn't the issue CPS's COVID policies vs FL's - not IL's vs FL's? Also, due to a staggeringly high senior population which routinely votes down local tax increases for schools, FL's public schools achievement rankings are pretty low, if I'm not mistaken.

The firing of Dr Arwady was simply shameful. B Johnson became immediately small.

I'll never read that KS local newspaper (The Marion County Record), but what the local judge did in approving that ridiculously overbroad search warrant in that case was unconscionable (and likely lethal), so I promptly subscribed for a year to help out the paper. I hope the judicial oversight board in KS gets involved (but likely won't).

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The Mincing Rascals talked about the Oher (Blind Side) lawsuit. I no longer take any reporting at face value. The quality of journalism is very low. Many seem to go for the easy hook, are conduits for advocates, and show little skepticism. Particularly when they feel that they have a clear victim/villain that fits a current social narrative. I try to wait until I have heard more facts before making any judgements. In this case, several thoughts came to mind:

- Oher signed a $13.8 million contract with the Ravens the same year as the movie deal, so how does that fit into the claims and role of the conservators?

- Oher made an additional $36.5 million on football contracts with the Titans and Panthers, again, how does that fit and what was the role of conservators?

- How is it possible that a 37-year-old Oher just realized that he was under a conservatorship for the last 19 years?

- The only issue is a 2009 allocation of earnings from a movie deal? A total deal worth $350,000? Makes me wonder if there is a new offer for name, image, story rights that works better for Oher without the conservatorship.

- I wonder if the book tour for Oher's new book might be related

Still seems like an ultimately sad story of failed relationships. I trust it will get properly resolved in court and someday we will get a better idea of what was happening.

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Auto sears have been readily available for about $20 from China for a number of years. These devices have been illegal for decades. And once again we had a lengthy article in the Tribune, and other media, that did not even mention gangs as the primary users of these modified guns. They also offered zero statistics on the number of arrests, convictions. and sentences of people that possessed or used these modified guns. The CNN article mentioned gangs twice, while spending half the article talking about ShotSpotter. Again, with no mention of the correlation between Shotspotter and gang crime.

Similarly, the Trib ran a four-week series on how to address the 'gun violence' problem in Chicago that had opinion pieces from multiple contributors each week. The word 'gang' did not have a single appearance. This in spite of the Trib running news stories in the last six months about Federal trials of Four Corner Hustlers, Goonies, and Wicked Town gang members.

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founding

4,000 steps is about two miles. It takes about 30 minutes to walk two miles. 30 minutes of exercise, five days a week is the recommendation of the CDC.

Interestingly the CDC considers a healthy lifestyle to be:

- non-smoker

- 30 minutes of exercise, five days a week

- BMI below 20% for men and below 30% for women

- a diet that follows nutritional guidelines.

Research found that only 2.7% of American adults met all four criteria.

I'd go for a walk now, but I have a pizza coming.

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founding

I have heard some dispute the value of BMI in pubic heath, stating that waist circumference is much better. But I do buy that maintaining a healthy weight most of the time is very beneficial.

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I had always heard that a BMI of 25 for men was the line between healthy and overweight. Interestingly, during the Bulls' second three-peat, someone calculated the BMIs of all the players. All but two, Toni Kukoc and Luc Longley, were over 25, because muscle weighs more. BMI by itself is not a good indicator of fitness.

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