Chicago doesn’t need a federal invasion; we need investment

Here’s what Chicago needs: Safe, consistent, high-speed public transportation that darts around the city like a flock of spirited birds. Truly cross-neighborhood travel, where you don’t have to go downtown to transfer for every route, and buses and trains run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Here’s what else Chicago needs: free, anonymous (if you need it to be), unbiased, and trauma-informed mental health care available on demand to community members. Every empty building can serve as a health clinic, free store, temporary housing, social work office, food pantry, art space, music venue, and information hub.

Here’s another thing: Chicago needs continued investment from the global business community, but not at the expense of our southeast side’s environmental and community health footprint. Keep an eye on those data centers.

And another: Let’s get a reprieve on that whole parking meter thing. I know a private corp owns the meters until 2083, but is there anything preventing the city or the county from forcing a new land rental agreement for each machine? We have a lot of other stuff we need to pay for.

And of course: We need more Chicago media outlets, newspapers, podcasts, broadcast and cable TV news programs, terrestrial and streaming radio shows, zines, journals, blogs, independent newsrooms, and all the information. All the information! We do not need to distill our journalists into one or two spaces. Access to information means more power for the people.

Here’s what Chicago doesn’t need: gun violence, federal troops invading our streets, blowhards masking as concerned citizens, racist, homophobic, biphobic, transphobic, sexist jagoffs, and ICE.

Reader cover featuring Mike Reed Credit: Reader staff

These are just some of the Chicago things I think about on a regular basis. For the last six and a half years (two and a half in this chair, as editor in chief), I’ve had the privilege of being able to think my Chicago thoughts and share my Chicago worries on the Reader website and in our print pages. And for now, this is my last issue as a staff member.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but I took a buyout along with several other staff members, including senior writers Deanna Isaacs and Ben Joravsky, and multimedia content producer Shawnee Day. I started negotiating this over the summer, when the Reader’s fate was still uncertain. And now with Noisy Creek in place, I’m happy to report that the Reader feels like it’s headed toward stability again.

For the rest of the year, I’ll be working on family projects (still gotta sell my dad’s store, in case you read my note about taxes a while back), and finishing up a book that I started working on an embarrassing amount of time ago. And then, we’ll see! I’m hopeful you’ll read me here at the Reader now and again, when our excellent section editors allow. The new management has already started a search for the new EIC, and I’ve been promised that they’ll pick someone with deep Chicago ties.

I wrote this to our staff last week, but because people who are constantly working don’t get enough accolades: “Thank you to Reader staffers, past and present. Thank you all for your humor, intelligence, grace, kindness, energy, and commitment.

“It’s a rare thing to work somewhere where everyone cares so deeply about the health of the organization. It’s even more rare to walk away and like everybody. Someday, I might be back in a different role, or work on a project with y’all. But my staff time here was a very special thing, and I’ll cherish what I’ve learned from all of you.”

Thanks, readers, for making this work both worthwhile and possible. It’s been a slice putting this thing together. And please continue to tell our writers, editors, and other staff your own Chicago worries and thoughts. There is no Chicago Reader without Chicago.

Chicago doesn’t need a federal invasion; we need investment

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