Walter Jacobson's Perspective

There are so many ups and downs in the news about the Chicago Bears. Good news about the Bears drafting a superstar college quarterback and a superstar college wide receiver. Very good news. But, for the Bears, there’s bad news about their plans to build a $4,700,000,000 stadium on Chicago’s beloved lakefront, a plan that’s causing Chicago’s two most-often-read and therefore most-powerful newspapers, the Tribune and the Sun-Times. telling the Bears to cool it, slow down. Too many problems you’re not solving. An editorial headline in the Tribune says the Bears are planning a “distasteful football palace, groveling for taxpayer subsidies” despite the overwhelming negativity of Governor Pritzker and prominent members of the Illinois General Assembly advocating protection of the lakefront. The Tribune also says, “The Bears may stir Chicago’s blood with a splashy pitch for a lakefront stadium. We at the Tribune are not convinced.” An editorial headline in the Sun-Times about the Bears plans for a new stadium cautions the Assembly to “slam on the brakes.” Considering those headlines and the muscle of the media printing them, it is safe to speculate the Bears will change their plan or give up on a lakefront stadium. Power politics in Chicago are important to consider and oh so much fun to watch.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

The NFL Draft being done, the football fuss is winding down, so let’s talk baseball. My thoughts are on the Cubs because I forever have been a Cubs fan. I’m a little guy, about 5’5” and 140 lbs, but a very big Cubs fan. In fact, 72 years ago, when I was 15 years old, I talked my way into a job as Cubs bat boy and so loved the Cubs that when, after two seasons, my bat boy job ended, I chased after my parents to please, please move our family from Rogers Park to Wrigleyville where I wanted us to live so that when the Cubs played at home I could do what Wrigley villagers do: Put on my mitt and hang out on Waveland Ave. to chase home runs flying over the left field bleachers in Wrigley. I would not want to live in Wrigleyville now because of an ordinance just passed by the Chicago City Council permitting two more of those huge signs on Wrigleyville rooftops, one of them to advertise Coca-Cola, another to advertise paint, despite the fact that Wrigleyville is a lovely, peaceful, residential neighborhood. That ordinance permitting more signs says the money the signs earned is to be shared with the Cubs, which raises a fair question, or fair to me, anyway. How much more money do the billionaire Cubs owners need? A fair answer, to me, anyway, is as much more money as the Cub owners can get. But the neighborhood needs is for some Cub pitching to strike out the ordinance.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

In the wild world of professional sports, for many months now in Chicago, thousands, possibly millions, of eyes and ears have been waiting to know what will happen in the National Football League, the NFL Draft, that begins tonight at 7:00 in which our Bear Down, Chicago Bears are expected to choose a new quarterback for the team and for us forever-hopeful Bear fans. He is Caleb Williams, 6 feet 2 inches tall, about 210 lbs, and a Heisman Trophy winner for the University of Southern California. During his two seasons at USC, he completed 67% of his passes for more than 8,000 yards and 23 touchdowns. His passes averaged 9.3 yards. Just imagine how nice that would be at 3rd and 10. And when not passing, Caleb Williams was running for more than 500 yards and 27 touchdowns. He is a star, no doubt about it. I am sad to have to remember the NFL Draft when our Bears did not draft Patrick Mahomes, ignored him to draft Mitch Trubisky, leaving Mahomes for the Kansas City Chiefs to draft and to win three Super Bowls and six NFL division titles. Thankfully, those days are gone and a new day with a new quarterback is about to arrive. So I’m singing, Bear Down, Caleb Williams, lead us to a Super Bowl and division championships. In advance, Mr. Williams, I for one, thank you, and am again hoping, and hoping, and hoping.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

I don’t know very much about the songs of Taylor Swift. But I’m learning a lot about her skill at making herself world-famous. My latest lesson is right now, right here in Chicago, a short walk from where I live. It’s in River North on Grand Avenue at Dearborn, a great big mural of a QR code on the outside wall of a great big downtown Chicago building. Since walking by it, I’ve begun some, admittedly less-than-scholarly research, and so now I understand the mural is a typical Taylor Swift message about a new Taylor Swift album soon-to-be-released. The name of the album being The Tortured Poets Department. If you scan the mural, you can watch a 13 second animated YouTube movie plugging the album, because that’s her custom when she’s about to release a new one. I’m thinking good for Taylor Swift and for her now-billion-dollar business.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

Hey there, everybody, heads up! The campaigns for membership on Chicago’s first-ever publicly-elected Board of Education are now underway. Dozens of political newbies are declaring or planning to declare their intentions to take control of the education of a quarter of a million children in our public schools. To become candidates for a Board of Ed., scheduled by the politicians in Springfield to take control next year, the newbies are rounding up 1,000 signatures each on election petitions. All a Board of Ed. campaigner has to be is at least 18 years old, a citizen of the United States, a resident of Chicago in one of what will be 20 Board of Ed. Districts, and a registered Chicago voter. The new Board of Ed. election will be on November 5, 2024, same day as the US Presidential Election. I’m among the people who oppose an elected school board because I’ve been reporting on Chicago elections for 60 years and know pretty well that when votes are counted, challenged, and recounted, we are likely to get a Board of Education that knows not much about public school budgets, classroom discipline, and which books to put into and keep out of public school libraries. What we are sure to get is a Board of Education that knows a lot about precincts and precinct captains, knocking on doors, kissing babies, how to make and then avoid promises. Better that we continue having a Board of Education appointed by the Mayor of Chicago, so when there’s trouble, we know where to go to at least try to get out of it.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

It’s been almost a month now since the Chicago Bears came up with a new idea about where they want to play football and where they want us to watch them play. The Bears are planning to build themselves and us another new stadium. Not way, way away in Arlington Heights, but in the city, a dazzling new stadium on what is now an old parking lot just outside the south side of Soldier Field. And not only a stadium, but also a little forest and a big garden designed to attract families and tourists to the lakefront where there will be shops and bars and restaurants and maybe even a fancy hotel. And the best thing about a new stadium will be more seats than the 60,000 in Soldier Field. Enough seats to qualify the Bears to host the Super Bowl. Building a stadium will create hundreds of jobs, boost the economy, and earn for Chicago millions of new dollars in taxes. And an especially exciting thing about a new stadium will be a roof to keep Chicago ice and snow off a new quarterback, a Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Southern California, where he’s been playing football under blue skies and 50°. So, “Bear down, Chicago Bears! Make every play, clear a way to victory!” A stadium with a roof! Yes, yes, a roof! And a future looking pretty good.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

Those always-relentless tough guy federal prosecutors are now in tough pursuit of Apple. Oh, not the apple my mother told me to eat once a day to keep the doctor away, but the Apple Company that’s worth nearly $3 trillion and is one of the most famously profitable companies in the world. The US Department of Justice is accusing Apple of violating antitrust laws, undermining the development of telephone technology, criminally taking money away from consumers, and “smothering free trade,” all of which is all over the news. While equally newsworthy, but not so much in the news right now, are companies admitting wrongdoing and paying fines or settling lawsuits. Northwestern University, for example, has agreed to a settlement to pay $43 million for increasing tuitions on students receiving financial aid. The Morgan Stanley Investment Company has agreed to a settlement of $249 million for mismanaging some stock trades. And an advertising business promoting the infamous pain killing drug Oxycontin and three other painkillers has agreed to settle a $350 million lawsuit for mismanaging ad campaigns. Add it all up and I think you’ll agree there’s something wrong with it all and that somebody sure ought to fix it.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

It’s for sure and forever in Chicago that the biggest decisions being made in City Hall are swayed by politics. Like the recent decision by Mayor Johnson to evict thousands of migrants who’ve been living in city shelters for 60 days or more. That is a problem. Where do evicted migrants go? How much does it cost to take care of them? A problem so big and expensive, says the mayor, it’s nearly impossible to solve, which makes the decision a political problem. 18 elected members of the City Council have signed a letter to Mayor Johnson beseeching him not to evict migrants because, the letter says, “evictions violate Chicago values and severely harm migrants whom Chicago has worked diligently to support.” The letter was a political dig at His Honor, which of course caused His Honor, politically, to dig back. He delayed a few already-scheduled evictions while declaring evictions as city policy. And he’s promising he’ll soon evict more. Which confirms the idea that big decisions in City Hall are being made the same old, same old way of being swayed for sure and forever by politics.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

There is a big smile on my face this morning because I have something good to say about big business in Chicago. Specifically the JPMorgan Chase big banking business in a 60-story skyscraper on South Dearborn St., two blocks west of the Art Institute, best known as the Morgan Chase Office Tower. 2,000,000 square feet for thousands of Morgan Chase and other big business employees and tourists flocking to the tower to see the famous Marc Chagall Four Seasons mosaic now sitting in what will be a big outdoor garden. The tower is about to be renovated to include a state-of-the-art fitness center and a new food court. In fact, a whole new interior design, new colors, new steel, new wood, new glass, top-to-bottom new everything, all to be finished within two years. A magnificent rehab, says Morgan Chase, that will further crown The Loop as one of the world’s great financial centers. The plan is to challenge the comforts of business at home, to draw people back to the collaboration of business in an office, and to enjoy the excitement of events and restaurants downtown. Hats off to you, Morgan Chase, and lots, lots, of good luck!

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

In presidential politics, this week is prime time. Two days ago, on Super Tuesday, 15 states voted in party primaries. And tonight, during a joint session of the Congress, President Biden will deliver a State of the Union address, painting a pretty picture of his three years in office. How fine a job he’ll say he’s doing, and how fine a job he’ll say his Vice President, Kamala Harris, is doing. That praise is contrary to what public opinion polls and talking heads in the media are saying about Kamala Harris, that her time has been not at all a pretty picture, that she is not an articulate or forceful advocate of President Biden policies. Her numbers in the opinion polls, they say, are too low. And in her public speeches and news interviews, too many gaffes. The Kamala Harris critics are saying that she’s just another loyal politician who is not up to the job of Vice President. I say, I disagree. Kamala Harris is a former criminal prosecutor and elected attorney general and United States Senator from California who clearly is up to the job of Vice President. Her experience in government and politics include leadership roles worldwide in support of civil rights and equality for women. Earlier this week, she led a memorial march in Selma, AL. And in the White House, she met with a member of the War Cabinet of Israel. In my opinion, the Kamala Harris critics are picking on her for no reason other than politics, and it’s about time for them to stop it.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective: