Who is the mayor of chicago
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on the city's reopening plan
Chicago saw its largest spike in
coronavirus infections in May now the
city is seeing a leveling out in cases
and it's looking ahead to its economic
recovery this morning the city is out
with a comprehensive plan on its path
forward and joining us right now to talk
all about it is Chicago's mayor Lori
Lightfoot mayor Lightfoot thank you for
being with us today it's my pleasure
before we talk about the economic plan
to help revive everything let's let's
just talk about where you all are right
now I realize you guys are I think in
stage four of reopening things are
starting to come back but there are also
a number of important Chicago employers
that are looking at additional layoffs
and furloughs to come including United
Boeing and Hyatt so where do things
stand on the ground right now how are
you all doing well I think from a
managing the public health crisis I
think we're doing pretty well we were
very very cautious and conservative and
starting to slowly reopen we called it
turning a dimmer switch and not flicking
a light switch so I think that's served
us well but we were certainly conscious
of areas all around us where we're
starting to see they're starting to see
an uptick in cases but on all the major
indicators hospitalizations ICU beds
number of people on ventilators we are
headed in the right direction but daily
we continue to preach diligence but look
our region's been hard hit just as other
regions across the country have been
hard hit so that is why we needed to get
ahead of this and really take control of
our own destiny when it comes to
economic recovery so we spent 10 weeks
really digging deep into looking at our
region strengths not just from an
economic standpoint so this recovery
task force report and recommendations is
about how we bring more people into the
workforce that we focus on our key
strengths in areas like manufacturing
transportation and logistics and life
sciences and really start to think about
what we need to do to create a vibrant
economy that is much more inclusive and
workforce development of course is key
amongst them this is a pretty ambitious
plan
it's trying to take a take a stab not
only at fighting everything everything
that happened into the economy during
Kovan but also long-term problems that
you've identified in the city in in
terms of inclusiveness in terms of
racial disparity what are the main
overreaching goals with this what are
the three things that maybe you think
you can do as a result well one is build
a much more inclusive economy and you
hit the nail on the head we've been
investing in areas of our city
particularly in our south and west sides
that really haven't seen much in the way
of development in decades we know that
the only way that we grow the economy
and grow our population is making sure
that we create real pipelines to
good-paying jobs for black and brown
Chicagoans who have not been a delta
into the economic success that we've
seen in years past that growing of our
workforce means that we have a ready
willing and able workforce to really
focus on our strengths like tech we're a
tier 1 tech city but we need to tell
that story better and we made to make
sure that we've got the workers for a
lot of these startup businesses
Manufacturing has always been one of our
strengths we need to make sure that
we're creating new markets for a
manufacturing industry and life sciences
we've got a collection whether it's a
pharmacy whether it's hospitals science
and research we are really second to
none in this area and we want to build
on those strengths but then again match
up the workforce with the jobs so that's
really what this report focuses a lot on
and healing the trauma that people have
suffered in our city you are talking
about some major investments things like
infrastructure investment healthcare
investment training initiatives and and
trying to lure of things like film and
TV productions but I would assume
offering them tax incentives to do that
those are great plans but most cities
and states are facing a severe drop and
their revenue that they've taken it
where do you find the money for all of
these investments well look I think we
we have resources and we have a lot of
things that are attractive in the
Chicago region and yes you're right
everybody is facing a resource
challenges revenue challenges but that's
the whole point
if you don't grow the economy if you
don't learn new businesses if you don't
expand existing businesses then you're
not going to have the revenue stream to
be able to support vital services that
the government provides we're not we're
looking to grow and not just simply tax
the existing infrastructure and economy
we've got to give our businesses some
relief and we do that by growing the
economy and focusing on our strengths
and you mentioned television look when
television productions restarts a new we
have a plan and a pitch that we're going
to take to folks in New York in on the
west coast because we've got the
infrastructure here we've got a great
trained workforce and we need to make
sure that the Chicago story is one
that's on the lips of every booking
agent and that's what we're prepared to
do
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