CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- One of Mayor Lightfoot’s most vocal critics is trying to put public pressure on her over restaurant restrictions and virtual City Council meetings.
Alderman Anthony Beale (9th Ward), who differs with Mayor Lightfoot on most things, said she’s wrong to decide Chicago isn’t ready to allow restaurant indoor dining to rise to 50 percent of occupancy.
"Right now I think we are in a very good place to open up to Phase 4 like the Governor has stated," he said.
Ald. Beale joins Chicago restaurant owners who said the minimal easing of capacity restrictions on indoor dining in the city isn’t enough, and it's one reason why some restauranteurs are flouting the rules.
"People are already desperate, so they are already trying to to survive by opening up illegally and having illegal crowds," he said.
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Beale is further frustrated that the City Council continues to meet virtually, where he said the Mayor has more control to silence or pay no heed to aldermen. He wants in-person meetings resumed.
"They have been using the whole, online Zoom process to silence people's voices, to shut people up, and to shut them out; and we have not been able to raise the issues that the people have elected us to raise," he said.
"If it's good enough for the teachers to go back, if it's good enough for our kids to go back to school, and if it's good enough for the state to meet in person, state legislators, if it's good enough for Congress to meet in person, why it is not good enough for us here in City Council to go back and do people's business?"
Ald. Beale put all of this in a letter to the Mayor.
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