T Dog’s Think Tank: Chicago’s image problems? We’re used to it

National Guard threats, continued disdain from Trump and conservatives puts city in a familiar unflattering position

While many say President Donald Trump declared “war” on Saturday on Chicago with a post on Truth Social, his “war” on the city really began in 2016. 

That’s when protesters stormed the stage at a Trump rally at the then-named UIC Pavillion, canceling it before it even took place. But in all reality, the hated of the Windy City from conservatives began in 2006 when Barack Obama announced his run for President, and won in 2008. I’ve documented numerous articles about our city and its image problems from “Chiraq” to Jussie Smollett – and well before Trump announced his run for the White House, back to 2007 when I wrote my first article on the subject. 

Chicago’s reputation has long been complicated from the days of Al Capone to being known as “Beirut On The Lake” in the 1980s, referring to the city’s racially and politically turbulent “Council Wars” era. 

The city has taken arrows from the right, mainly about crime – especially from Fox News, which is known for negative reporting about the nation’s third-largest TV and radio market. When Trump was re-elected as President last year, Chicago knew it would be in for a rocky time given he ripped the city and its leaders constantly in his first term and he has more than delivered in his second term, threatening to send in the National Guard to the city to combat crime and stepped-up immigration efforts, trying to replicate what he’s done in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. 

As we know, Chicago-bashing is a winning ratings formula for Fox News and other conservative outlets, with Mayor Brandon Johnson’s political enemies such as the Rev. Corey Brooks and Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) frequently making appearances. In 2020, Fox News’ coverage of a mass shooting outside of a funeral home on Chicago’s South Side generated high ratings, with the network even beating some of the broadcast networks in head-to-head competition. 

The bashing hasn’t let up, even as Chicago’s crime numbers are down and on pace for the fewest murders since 1965. Despite that, Trump, Fox News, and other conservatives have successfully cast doubt on those numbers, noting anything coming out of Chicago’s City Hall “can’t be trusted” and is “fake news”. 

This has put Chicago in the unflattering international spotlight once again  – a familiar spot we’ve seen ourselves in for nearly two decades. Chicago was the only city to see two rounds of looting in 2020 – one after George Floyd was killed and another after an alleged police shooting in Englewood, which saw thousands of people loot and vandalize stores in the Loop and the Near North Side, with the mayhem even being captured on live TV. 

While Chicagoans are gleefully posting pictures of themselves enjoying themselves at places downtown, at festivals, and Navy Pier saying Chicago is safe, some business leaders and other stakeholders don’t see it that way. They see the Mag Mile empty. They see businesses leaving town due to high taxes as the city’s core center still hasn’t bounced back. They make the decisions to headquarter here and when they see these headlines, it doesn’t help the city’s cause to attract business, which means lost jobs and potential revenue. They could care less about CondeNast naming Chicago “the best city to visit” for nine years running. Marcus Lemonis, who lives in the north suburbs and appeared on The Profit for CNBC (whose businesses he “helped” on the show wound up suing him, including a few in the Chicago area), has closed his stores downtown because of crime concerns amid a not-so-great business atmosphere. 

And no impact has been felt than in the sports world, where Chicago ranked a low ninth in a Sports Business Journal 2023 survey on the best city to do sports business. Even here, Chicago’s reputation for mismanaged teams and drama such as Angel Reese beefing with Chicago Sky management and Caleb Williams’ dad not wanting his son to play for the Bears doesn’t help our city attract free agents (of course, Bulls fans booing Jerry Krause’s widow at some kind of stupid ring of honor ceremony doesn’t help either.) ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith recently said free agents avoid signing with the Memphis Grizzlies because of the city’s out-of-control crime problems. Would he say the same about Chicago’s teams? 

As usual, the local media coverage hasn’t been great, but that comes as no surprise given most of our news outlets are owned by corporate interests. Given the National Guard could be deployed to the West and South sides where violent crime is prevalent, hardly anyone asked the Black community what they thought of the idea, but several outlets fell over their hump to interview a fringe group of nutjob Black Trump supporters called Chicago Flips Red. While the reaction would’ve been predictable, it would’ve been nice to show balance. While the Sun-Times did interview residents of the crime-plagued “O Block” apartment complex, Chicago Flips Red and Brooks are the go-to people for these issues for the news media, whose coverage of Black and other minority communities are still lacking and won’t get better as DEI initiatives are being eliminated with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr leading the charge. 

Meanwhile, social media accounts is filled with viral videos featuring Black crime in Chicago, and the public safety accounts which are supposed to provide a public service, are inserting their own political opinion and bashing city leaders, including a known felon on Twitter who operates such an account. Quote tweeting the Mayor’s comments about crime being down with a murder or shooting isn’t providing a public service, it’s basically propaganda, as the trash #ChicagoScanner hashtag basically is (and keep in mind the writer of this site isn’t a big fan of Johnson.)

The interesting takeaway from this latest image crisis regarding Chicago is…we’re used to it. We used to outsiders bashing the South Side and disrespecting its residents. We’re used to being made fun of by late-night talk show hosts for deep-dish pizza. We’re used to New York Times writers trashing our city. We’re used to cable news networks airing docuseries about our city whose content is controlled by City Hall and drew fewer viewers than coverage of a missing plane.  We saw Smith come to 63rd and Stony Island and talk about Chicago violence, whose network he works for couldn’t remember the team who won the 2005 World Series, which plays at Rate Field only four miles away.  While our local media makes a big deal out of all of this, we simply shrug and move on. We have haters, but Green Bay doesn’t have 55 million visitors per year like we do.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of the President’s threats and how the local and national media will cover it. Will we see troops outside Soldier Field during a Bears game? A repeat of the “Days Of Rage” in 1969 when we had clashes on the streets in the Loop? A nervous city awaits what fury Trump will unleash and it won’t be pretty.