* Background is here if you need it. Tribune…

Mayor Brandon Johnson on Wednesday deflected questions about a City Hall controversy in which a top adviser tried to persuade an alderman to vote for parts of Johnson’s progressive agenda by tying those votes to the administration’s willingness to remove homeless camps in the alderman’s ward.

The mayor was responding to questions from reporters about the proposal, which was made by top aide Jason Lee to Ald. Bill Conway, 34th, a day after the Tribune first reported on the discussion. Conway criticized Lee’s efforts and said it was an inappropriate quid pro quo.

The mayor Wednesday at first sidestepped a question about the exchange, telling reporters, “I am not necessarily privy to every single conversation that happens throughout the city of Chicago.” But pressed further on Conway’s allegations, Johnson said they were “a mischaracterization” and said “pushing for real support around the unhoused (is) what this has always been about.”

* Full mayoral quote…

I am not necessarily privy to every single conversation that happens throughout the city of Chicago. Now, if you’re asking me do I apologize for my administration advocating for working people and making sure that we put forward solutions to do with the unhoused in this city? I’m not going to apologize for that. In fact, I’m going to invest in that and that’s exactly what I’m doing. […]

That’s a mischaracterization. There’s been a lot of mischaracterization of conversations all over the city and that look, I get it, you know, whether it’s tension, whether it’s you know, what someone said or what someone else heard. Here’s the truth. That we have 70,000 people who are unhoused in this city, of which one in four Black students in the city of Chicago go unhoused. This is about advocacy. Whether it’s my senior advisor or whether it’s Ald. Vazquez, or anyone else who’s been pushing for real support around the unhoused. This is what this has always been about. And again, I’m not going to apologize for doing right by the people of Chicago. I said that I was going to bring Chicago home. I said I was going to invest in the unhoused. There is no secret to what I said I was going to do. And my administration carrying that out, is exactly what the people of Chicago expect in their mayor.

And let me just say something to you, Chicago, every promise that I’ve made, I’ve kept it and that includes making sure that we are dealing with the unhoused in this city. And if anyone wishes to stand in the way of the people of Chicago, well, they’re going to get rolled over by the people of Chicago.

Except the unhoused people living under those viaducts by Union Station are still there, without housing, because Ald. Conway refused to vote for a a couple of ordinances which passed anyway.