Mayor Brandon Johnson comforts Chicago Public Schools student Mouhamed Mbengue at Kenwood Academy High School on the first day of school on Aug. 21, 2023.
Johnson repeatedly spoke of leveraging the power of government to meet the challenges facing the city while asking the business community to hire young people, relocate to downtown and function as global ambassadors to extol the virtues of Chicago, whose reputation has been battered by a recent corporate exodus amid pandemic disruption.
Making Chicago safe “is something I think about every day,” said Johnson, who lives in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side. “Violence is literally outside my front door.” “First of all, we do have the space,” Johnson said. “So let’s start there. That’s an opportunity, we have the space.”