Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday mounted the legislative equivalent of a goal line stand against the Bears’ quest for the property tax break needed to pave the way for a domed stadium in Arlington Heights.
Johnson questioned why any lawmaker from Chicago would even think about providing a massive tax break for a professional sports team valued at nearly $9 billion, while ignoring the need for what he calls progressive revenue to increase school funding and help working people struggling to make ends meet.
“If we’re asking anyone to tighten the belt, we should look at whose belt is exploding and that’s the ultra-rich. As their bellies get fat and our people are starving, this is not the time to balance the budget off the backs of working people,” the mayor said at his weekly news conference.
“The type of tax structure that they would set up for large corporations and billionaires without a clear pathway to provide certainty as well as equity for everyday working people, I believe that’s a mismatch there. And quite frankly, the infrastructure they’re even discussing in the suburbs — those infrastructure needs have been present on the lakefront for a very long time.”
Hours before joining fellow Chicago area mayors in Springfield, where he has had little success, Johnson made it clear that he would use whatever political muscle he has to block the so-called megaprojects bill now before the Illinois Senate after clearing the Illinois House April 22.
Though Chicago is no longer part of the conversation to build a domed stadium needed to keep the Bears in Illinois and stave off a move to northwest Indiana, Johnson is still holding out hope to keep the Bears in the city.
“I’m building things in this city. I want to build more things in this city. Why is that important? Because it creates opportunities for Chicagoans,” Johnson said. “Why would I advocate for something that wouldn’t benefit the people of Chicago? I don’t know why any Chicago legislator would vote for anything that doesn’t benefit the people that they represent.”
Black contractors need opportunities provided by new construction projects after historically being “shut out,” the mayor said.
“Arlington Heights? Anywhere else? A Chicagoan having to commute two hours out of their way for a job? That is not something that… anybody who represents Chicago should want,“ Johnson said. “At a time in which property values are increasing and affordability is becoming that much more of a challenge, to do anything in favor of entities with means without supporting families who have needs — I would find that shortsighted.”
Two years ago, Johnson joined Bears President Kevin Warren in unveiling plans for a domed lakefront stadium adjacent to Soldier Field that would have required $2.4 billion in public support.
Gov. JB Pritzker and Democratic legislative leaders were conspicuously absent. The mayor’s plan went nowhere in Springfield.
On Tuesday, Johnson said he has other stadium sites and ideas to keep the Bears in Chicago.
He refused to reveal specifics. Alternatives include: the 78, site of the new Chicago Fire stadium under construction; the Amtrak site near the 78 eyed by the White Sox for a new ballpark; the stalled One Central megaproject on rail yard land near Soldier Field or the 49-acre Michael Reese Hospital site that the Bears have rejected as too narrow.
Chicago Park District Superintendent Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is preparing for life without the Bears by continuing to lobby for $630 million to renovate Soldier Field and ease the traffic bottleneck that makes it difficult to get in and out of the museum campus.
But Johnson is not giving up hope just yet, even though Arlington Heights and Hammond, Indiana were the only Bears stadium sites discussed with NFL owners recently.
On Tuesday, Johnson said he and Ramirez-Rosa are on the same page when it comes to the need to improve lakefront access.
“The campus needs a makeover… The ingress-egress is absolutely horrific. I don’t mean to trigger Bears fans or concert-goers. [But] it is just brutal getting in and out of that space… It disrupts the type of flow that would naturally carry over to the rest of the campus,” the mayor said.
The traffic logjam prevents the Lollapalooza music festival in Grant Park from generating activity for the museum campus, Johnson said.
“Just the natural spillover of 15,000 to 20,000 conservatively of concert-goers [who] would move about the entire campus and create more activity over there — we’re losing out of that type of economic” activity, Johnson said. “The infrastructure is something that we have constantly fought for and will continue to do that.”