When young people grow up with fear as the norm, they don't have the luxury to dream.
— Lori Lightfoot
Chicago's been under the grip of the corrupt and broken political machine for as long as everybody's memory.
I do not support the city's red light camera system. This system was sold to Chicagoans as a public safety solution, but it's always really been about revenue, and we've seen that fines fall disproportionately on people of color.
I've wanted to be a parent for a really long time, and I'm going to make sure I'm doing everything I can to be present in her life, to be her mother. I don't want to be absent from her life.
I gotta be me. I'm going to go to ball games, because that's what I do. I'm going to go to live music shows, because I love live music.
Both my brothers played football. My mother had season tickets as a school board member. I was in the band, my sister was in the band. The thing was, the unifying civic activity was obsession over high school football.
I'm not a person who puts things out in writing and policy prescriptions and is not intending to follow through.
You know, when you get the White House operator and they say, 'Just a moment for the president of the United States,' that's a pretty heady moment.
I live in a world in which I have a very, very diverse group of friends.
We cannot create the perception that if you're rich or famous or both that you got one set of justice - and for everybody else it's something much harsher. That won't do and we need to make sure that we have a criminal justice system that has integrity.
I want to make sure that I am the leader that respects the fact that kids all over the city and hopefully all over the country really understand that they can do anything that they want to do, that they set their minds to do, as long as they've got good, strong support from adults and love to support them.
Fundamentally, we need to make sure that our neighborhoods are safe - all of our neighborhoods.
I think that the people who come from communities like me as an African-American woman, as a member of the LGBT community, we haven't sat in the corners of power.
Obviously, we have to do a far better job on keeping our community safe, and that's where I'm going to put a significant amount of input.
I am not opposed to video gambling as long as it is properly regulated and regulators are diligent about keeping bad actors from having any involvement with the industry.
You know, I can't afford to take anything for granted.
If people don't feel safe, they're not going to have hope.
We need to educate our young people about the dangers of gun violence and that there are real consequences for solving disputes with guns.
I can't look into the crystal ball. All I can do is the here and now.
As I examine progressive revenue options, I want to make sure wealthy individuals and businesses pay their fair share, that we reduce the burden on low-income and middle-class families, and not drive businesses from Chicago or create a disincentive for businesses to invest in our city.
One of the challenges I think we have is people feel like the act of governance is a zero sum game. 'Whatever I get, you're not getting.' Changing that dynamic is going to be critically important for me as a leader, so that people don't feel they're pitted against each other.
Look, there's no question that we have a challenge with gun violence. But there's a lot more nuanced parts of that narrative, and that's the part that I think that we have to make sure that we emphasize along with all the great things that are going on in Chicago, particularly in our neighborhoods.
In Massillon, you either hated football, or you loved it. On a Friday night in the fall, I don't know what anybody did if they weren't at, quote-unquote, 'The Game.'
So, yes, I became the vessel into which people poured their hopes that we can have a different kind of city. I recognize that, but in politics, sometimes it's good to be lucky.
The whole circus surrounding Ed Burke, I knew immediately from my days as a federal prosecutor, was very, very serious.
I know every trick in the book, in terms of schemes and fraud.
Police can't be successful if they're not viewed as legitimate by the community, and a community will not be safe if the police are not engaged in a respectful, constitutional partnership with the community.
We've got to do everything we can to speak to and protect our immigrant communities.
Building channels for people to believe that the city sees them and hears them and is willing to invest, is going to be critically important, and we have to start that right away.
We are a city that is a sanctuary city. We have immigrants from all over the world who call Chicago their home. They'll continue to do that, and we're going to continue to make sure that this is truly a welcoming community for those immigrants and we want them to come to the city of Chicago.
If aldermen are doing their job right, they should be the ones who are closest to the vibe and the beat in their neighborhood and have a very important role to play on a number of different issues, but not a unilateral, unchecked right. That's gone as soon as I take office.
For more than two decades Chicagoans have routinely traveled to neighboring cities like Rosemont, Elgin, Joliet, Gary and Hammond to gamble. If people in Chicago want to gamble, then they should be able to gamble in Chicago at a city-owned, land-based casino.
And I would like to have a good, productive relationship with members of the City Council, but I'm not going to allow them to undermine what the people's choice was and what the people want, which is change.
My mother is a fascinating person.
While I am opposed to elected officials running for multiple offices simultaneously, or within several months of one another, I do not support a state law making it illegal.
I support progressive revenue sources that ease the burden on low-income and working-class individuals and families who are least able to shoulder the burden of regressive taxes and fees.
I don't think I'll be a good mayor if I don't live my authentic life, and that's got to be involved with having fun with my spouse and my daughter.
My view is I should have been Miss Massillonian, and I wasn't. I think the reason I wasn't was because I was black. Frankly, I was told later I should have been. But they were afraid if they elected a black girl as Miss Massillonian, it would have been a scandal.
I'm an ardent feminist.
We have a lot of taxpayers in this city who deserve to get every nickel of their tax dollars that they're entitled to from Washington, and I intend to make that happen.
To make blatant racial appeals or just blatant appeals only targeted to the LGBTQ+ community, I didn't think that that was a winning formula, and it's also inconsistent with who I am.
I believe that everybody is entitled to a presumption of innocence.
We have been embarked on what I would call a proactive strategy that looks at our gun violence as a public health crisis, which is what it is. That means we look at the root causes of the violence.
The only thing you have in your life is your integrity.
Breaking the back of the Chicago machine, it's quite monumental.
But there are parents out there who feel like they have been shut out from the process of how their children are educated, and that's never a good thing.
I support a progressive state income tax.
Retired public service workers make up the backbone of the middle class in so many of our communities.
Fundamentally, if people don't feel like their lives are valued and they don't value their lives, they're not going to value their neighbors' lives.
