 |
| Maria Caripa, an asylum-seeker from Venezuela, holds her daughter, Maria Caripa, 1, outside the District 18 police station (Photo for the Sun-Times by Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere). |
Help me here.
Chicago is a city famous for ... what, exactly?
Burning to the ground in 1871? Prompting residents to emit a shriek of dismay and give up?
No. Chicago boosters fanned out across the country, raising money in a flurry of civic pride. Chicago rapidly rebuilt itself, better than before.
Maybe Chicago is known for volunteering to host an enormous exposition in 1893, then realizing it had bitten off more than it could chew, tossing up its hands and hiding behind the sofa when the world started rattling the doorknob?
No. The city tapped Daniel Burnham to oversee the quick construction of an enormous, ornate White City. The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition boosted Chicago into the modern age.
So how come in 2023 Chicago is in agony over a daily busload of immigrants? Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s quotidian middle finger to tolerance and decency, a jeer of Texan regret that they didn’t die tangled in the miles of razor wire Texas has strung across the Rio Grande.
Their arrival is a logistical nightmare. It has to be, for the city to house refugees in police stations, as if they were public facilities designed to help communities deal with crisis — oh wait, that’s what they are, right? Still, it must be hellish for some cops to be daily confronted with objects of their scorn.
At least judging from FOP head John Catanzara, who last Thursday snidely suggested immigrants be housed at City Hall. (Hmmm ... not a bad idea. Have you been to City Hall? Mostly dead space, particularly in the upper floors. You could house 300 immigrants there and never see them).
Both police stations and City Hall are desperate choices. We must do better than this. We have the track record. Assimilating immigrants is Chicago’s brand. No need to trust me. “Immigration from abroad ...” The Encyclopedia of Chicago notes, “has been the city’s hallmark characteristic in the public mind.”
We’ve got it light, relatively. In 1890, 68% of people living in Chicago were born abroad, a situation so chaotic that three years later, Chicago threw a fair for 25 million visitors.
Today, 20% of Chicagoans were born outside the United States. We need every one. Chicago’s population in 2023 is 2.7 million. In 2000, Chicago’s population was 2.9 million. In 1980, it was 3 million. Between 2020 and 2022, Chicago lost 3% of its population.
Chicago is a city famous for ... what, exactly?
Burning to the ground in 1871? Prompting residents to emit a shriek of dismay and give up?
No. Chicago boosters fanned out across the country, raising money in a flurry of civic pride. Chicago rapidly rebuilt itself, better than before.
Maybe Chicago is known for volunteering to host an enormous exposition in 1893, then realizing it had bitten off more than it could chew, tossing up its hands and hiding behind the sofa when the world started rattling the doorknob?
No. The city tapped Daniel Burnham to oversee the quick construction of an enormous, ornate White City. The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition boosted Chicago into the modern age.
So how come in 2023 Chicago is in agony over a daily busload of immigrants? Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s quotidian middle finger to tolerance and decency, a jeer of Texan regret that they didn’t die tangled in the miles of razor wire Texas has strung across the Rio Grande.
Their arrival is a logistical nightmare. It has to be, for the city to house refugees in police stations, as if they were public facilities designed to help communities deal with crisis — oh wait, that’s what they are, right? Still, it must be hellish for some cops to be daily confronted with objects of their scorn.
At least judging from FOP head John Catanzara, who last Thursday snidely suggested immigrants be housed at City Hall. (Hmmm ... not a bad idea. Have you been to City Hall? Mostly dead space, particularly in the upper floors. You could house 300 immigrants there and never see them).
Both police stations and City Hall are desperate choices. We must do better than this. We have the track record. Assimilating immigrants is Chicago’s brand. No need to trust me. “Immigration from abroad ...” The Encyclopedia of Chicago notes, “has been the city’s hallmark characteristic in the public mind.”
We’ve got it light, relatively. In 1890, 68% of people living in Chicago were born abroad, a situation so chaotic that three years later, Chicago threw a fair for 25 million visitors.
Today, 20% of Chicagoans were born outside the United States. We need every one. Chicago’s population in 2023 is 2.7 million. In 2000, Chicago’s population was 2.9 million. In 1980, it was 3 million. Between 2020 and 2022, Chicago lost 3% of its population.
To continue reading, click here.
I agree 100% . we chicagoans should welcome the latest wave of migrants. City officials should try not to use resources in poor neighborhoods burdened already with struggling citizens who long requested help or at least their fair share of city services and wake up to hundreds of destitute people that have been thrust into their midst.
ReplyDeleteIts not just chicagoans who need to open their hearts and arms to these newcomers. Its people all across the region. Especially those more able.
Gosh Wilbur, that's just what this issue needs. Some unfocused sarcasm. You're right — if only those pesky Venezuelans hadn't showed up, we'd have this poverty thing LICKED. Thank you for your valuable contribution to my blog.
DeleteI guess I'm not woke enough as I took Wilbur's comments as honest unsarcastic recommendations, if not particularly focused or specific.
DeleteIt would be interesting to see Mayor Johnson take up the suggestion to share his 5th Floor quarters with a couple hundred migrants. A Jane Byrne moment mayhap?
john
Maybe you just haven't had your coffee yet, John. "Try not to use resources in poor neighborhoods" is pretty hard to take as anything other than sarcasm.
DeleteI would have said incoherent, rather than unfocused. I got lost in the labyrinth. I have never understood the hatred of migrants. We are all immigrants or descended from immigrants (even me, who had an immigrant ancestors on the Mayflower). The African immigrants to Europe are fleeing wars that are the consequence of European co!onialism, and Europe allows them to drown (granted, Greece was not part of the Scramble for Africa, but the EU needs to duck it up)
DeleteBetter use of city hall is indeed a good idea.
ReplyDeleteLocal officials, local authorities and businesses should set up an Ellis Island style processing center at McCormick. Businesses can help locate folks where labor is needed and assist in keeping tabs on folks while they assimilate into the U. S.
ReplyDeleteBravo, Mr. S, Bravissimo...you knocked it out of the park once again. Love the example you used...of the Italian immigrants, circa 1900. Probably including the ancestors of that FOP clown.
ReplyDeleteThat's also how I ended up a Chicago boy...all my grandparents were immigrants--from Poland and Russia and Lithuania. I'm proud of my Chicago roots...it's as much a city of unknown immigrants as it is a city of famous (and infamous) native-born folks who've migrated from other American towns...like, say, Brooklyn-born Al Capone.
Wilbur's comment is a good reminder to those "community leaders" who are bleating about refugees in their midst that "what about me? Take care of MEEEEE" is not a good look. We sympathize with those who need compassion and help; not so much with those who demand it at others' expense.
ReplyDeleteImmigration IS what made America great. Thanks for understanding that. Our nation is populated by people who were fed up with the status quo in other places and had the gumption to do something about it. These newest immigrants are really no different.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree. We (Chicago and America) need all the immigrants we can get. Also, what a blight John Catanzara is.
ReplyDeleteBravo, Neil! Immigrants make Chicago and Illinois vibrant and strong. Under Mayor Johnson, the City’s response to new arrivals has been robust, responsive, strategic, and practical —a sharp contrast to the previous administration. Local philanthropy is also stepping up w grant support to local groups and organizations, a story you might want to tell. But the federal government needs to do its part, b/c asylum seekers have just 1 year to apply for asylum, and can’t work legally until they are granted work authorization that they can only apply for 150 days after applying for asylum —and which take months for USCIS to process. This is a tiny piece of the whole broken American immigration system that Congress countenances.
ReplyDeleteOff topic, but does anyone know how Catanzara pronounces his name? I always hear TV reporters pronouncing it CAT-uhn-ZAHR-uh, but it would seem to me that the more likely accentation would be kuh-TAN-zuh-ra.
ReplyDeleteNot absolutely sure, but I think the pronunciation of the FOP leader’s name is “ja-moke”
Delete