It has become impossible to do business in some parts of Chicago, where unprosecuted crime and rampant lawlessness have driven grocery and retail stores out of the city. We covered this last year. Unable to guarantee employee safety or economic viability, everyone from mom-and-pops to Wal-Mart has closed up shop. The result is “food deserts.”
The Chicago Sun Times revealed the report reads, “In the absence of private sector action or commitment to provide sustainable grocery options, it is necessary for the city to play a role in creating and sustaining grocery services in neighborhoods that lack grocery access.”
In a post on X, Johnson wrote, “My administration aims to tackle food inequity with a network of three City-owned grocery stores, offering equitable access to fresh, healthy food in underserved communities.”
I have the same question I had a year ago when this Democrat solution to a Democrat-created problem raised its freaky little head. “Did you run the capitalist markets out of town so you could socialize groceries, or is this just you responding to a problem created by Democrat policy that coincidentally socializes food shopping?” And, “Will the city-owned stores tolerate the rampant unprosecuted shoplifting that drove other businesses away?”
If not, what is your plan to protect the taxpayer’s investment in neighborhoods that didn’t care enough about their own “food security” to self-police the behavior of the hooligans who created the problem? Hooligans include actual criminals and the system that allows them to steal without fear of consequence. And at what cost? The upfront investment is estimated at 26.7 million dollars, and that is for three locations. And the city wouldn’t run operations per se.
Feasible because the city need not become a store operator, but instead could act to limit the risk for a private operator.
Implementable because the city’s “significant land ownership, funding tools,” storage and “community engagement capacity” makes it “well-positioned” to provide “support and resources to an established operator.”
It sounds like an opportunity to help political friends and family break into the grocery store business with discounts on land, leases, and favorable treatment on permitting. They get a break on property costs and other fees and taxes, backstopped by taxpayers. Another corrupt Chicago cronyism scam into which billions will disappear to benefit a few because of a problem created by the Chicago Democrats.
And will there even be groceries? Will it serve anyone but the political class? Can it?
