In Chicago culture right now, the only thing more tiresome than the “no ketchup on hot dogs” discourse is the endless soap opera around the Chicago Bears’ desire to have taxpayers subsidize their multibillion-dollar private business.
A prediction: The Bears will not be able to build a new stadium in Illinois due to lawmakers’ righteous reluctance to foot the bill, or in Indiana, once they begin to do environmental remediation of the toxic dump site proposed by our generous Hoosier neighbors. Instead, the team will play at Soldier Field until their lease expires in 2033. At that point, they will beg to extend the lease, and Mayor Kat Abughazaleh will stiff-arm them. The team then can only play road games into perpetuity, and they change their name to the Ramblers.
Bill Savage, Rogers Park
Remembering a commercial king
I was saddened to learn that legendary TV ad director and longtime Chicagoan Joe Sedelmaier passed away.
What Steven Spielberg was to directing 1980s summer blockbusters like “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” Sedelmaier was to creating 1980s television commercials with a quirky, absurdist wit exalting the ordinary schlub. (He once passed on directing Rodney Dangerfield but made a star of 81-year-old Clara Peller.)
Sedelmaier was best known for Wendy’s 1984 “Where’s the Beef?” ad with Peller and John Moschitta’s alliterative fast-talking Federal Express commercials. My personal favorites were Alaska Airlines’ “SkyHigh Airlines” ad that made flying seem like a carnival before reality set in, and an AAMCO ad where a man imagines having to pay $22,000 to fix his transmission — a line I incorporated as an homage into a class play I wrote in seventh grade.
Sedelmaier’s humor will be greatly missed.
Stephen A. Silver, San Francisco
Safety first
In addition to taking steps to protect Chicago renters from eviction and predatory practices, Mayor Brandon Johnson should also be taking steps to protect Chicagoans from “teen takeovers” and criminal predators.
Johnson’s failure to implement reasonable curfews to address teen takeovers, and his elimination of the ShotSpotter technology that helped police officers make quicker responses to firearms discharges in city neighborhoods, potentially put the public’s personal safety at risk for the upcoming summer.
Renters need rental protection, but Chicagoans and city tourists need to feel safe also.
Terry Takash, Western Springs
Why not some teen tasks?
I think all of the teens who participate in “teen takeovers” should take over mopping the floors of the CTA’s Red and Blue Line subways.
Terrence Camodeca, Orland Park
Beach hazards
Grant Park is regularly cordoned off for concerts with screening at entry points for weapons, etc. Why not do the same at the beaches where some shootings have occurred?
Goya Vega-Byrnes, Beverly