CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — As she prepares to leave office in less than two weeks, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she sees her Invest South/West initiative as the centerpiece of the change she wanted to bring to the City when she was sworn in — one that is likely to live on.
Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson said during his campaign that he would not only continue, but expand, Chicago’s Invest South/West effort.
The initiative has led to more than $2 billion in public and private investments in 10 commercial corridors on the South and West Sides. These have been big development projects in struggling areas, and Lightfoot told WBBM they are part of making the city safer.
“Everybody deserves to be safe,” the mayor said. “But we’ve all got to work together and recognize that we all have responsibility here. We cannot continue down a path where we neglect neighborhoods and starve them of resources.”
Lightfoot said Chicago cannot continue down a path where neighborhoods are neglected and starved of resources.
“I think that young Black and brown boys growing up in those neighborhoods are not going to feel less than, feel like they have no hope, feel like their destiny is preordained and we ignore them,” she said. “And that has an effect on people on the North Side. That has an effect on people everywhere.”
Some critics noted that some of these projects have been on the books for a while, but the mayor, and others, would tell you this administration got them and the funding going.
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