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After months of callous indecision, the mayor may have finally settled on a reasonable plan

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* Can you imagine the outrage if a Chicago landlord was callously dithering about whether to mass-evict 5,600 tenants, many of them children, some of them in quarantine?

Progressive alderpersons/legislators/activists/unions/etc. would be freaking out of their minds.

Well, that’s pretty much what’s been playing out in Chicago, only the dithering landlord is the city itself and the tenants are asylum-seeking migrants. And most (not all) of the progressives have remained unusually silent as a self-declared progressive mayor has cavalierly dangled a sword of Damocles over the heads of thousands of people, some of whom have been exposed to the measles virus.

“Pressed by reporters, Johnson said [Wednesday] he did not know how many migrants were on the verge of being evicted from city shelters,” WTTW reported last night. “A spokesperson for Johnson said conversations were ongoing Thursday morning about whether the limits would be enforced.”

This is what happens when a mayor tries to move on from a crisis before the crisis is actually over. Governments can’t just wish away reality. Sun-Times…

Evictions for migrants in Chicago shelters all around the city will begin Sunday, the city announced Friday.

The city clarified the rules of evictions and who will be impacted by them at a briefing Friday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the previously announced shelter exit dates.

The city will give a reprieve to migrant families with children under age 18 until the end of the school year but will carry out evictions of migrants in shelters strictly for adults, beginning with 35 individuals in total from the shelters on Elston Avenue near Goose Island, the former Wadsworth Elementary school building in Woodlawn, and the Gage Park Field House.

* However, it looks like the city may finally have a plan beyond mass, same-day eviction threats. They’re moving to much more manageable staggered evictions, which makes more sense. The “plan” they had would’ve unnecessarily flooded the landing zone. Tribune…

The mayor had told reporters Wednesday the city would move ahead with limited Saturday evictions, amid outcry from a group of aldermen opposed to the policy.

Instead, 35 migrants will get kicked out Sunday. Another 244 are set to be removed by the end of March, and 1,782 more are scheduled to be forced to leave shelters between April 1 and April 30, the administration said.

The late change comes as residents of a Lower West Side shelter currently grapple with a measles outbreak. As of Thursday, 12 cases of the highly infectious disease have been reported in Chicago — the first such cases in five years — ten of which are from the migrant facility that is in the midst of a lockdown.

It is unclear how many migrants would have been affected were the Johnson administration to have proceeded. While his team previously estimated as many as 5,600 migrants could be removed under the shelter limit policy, he hinted Wednesday that scores would have been spared thanks to exemptions granted by the city.

Those required to leave were going to be directed back to the city’s landing zone if they wished to restart the process of waiting for a shelter bed.

* Meanwhile, the Texas governor apparently hoodwinked that state’s taxpayers with a pie in the sky boast…

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott boasted shortly after he began soliciting private donations for his controversial migrant busing program that there would likely “be no cost to the state” given the outpouring of support from concerned citizens across the country.

But after nearly two years of fundraising to offset the program’s costs, Abbott’s operation has collected less than half of 1% of the roughly $150 million spent on busing migrants to sanctuary cities, according to a review of state records. And CNN found that the largest donation – $900,000 – never made it into the state’s coffers, either because it was a mistake or a prank.

Records show that at most, around $550,000 has been raised to date. [About 0.4 percent of the actual cost, if the number is even correct.]

The data provided by the state reflected donations submitted online or by mail through check, credit card or bank transfer, not funds actually received by the state — meaning the data could contain donations that were rejected by banks and credit companies during processing. Reporters tried to reach the woman behind the supposed $900,000 donation, but they could not locate the person with the name provided, and the phone number submitted to state officials was disconnected. […]

CNN also spoke with another donor listed in the data who confirmed he did not make the $2,000 donation listed under his name. Yet another donor showed reporters a letter he said he received from the state after complaining that his $1,000 donation to the state border wall fund had been instead allocated to the busing efforts.

* More from Isabel…

* Tribune | Cook County offers to chip in on food costs for migrants, approves delay to paid-leave mandate for schools, parks: If passed by the Cook County Board, the measure would not add to the county’s bottom line. Preckwinkle is asking county commissioners to reallocate money already set aside in an emergency fund for migrant health care in this year’s budget and instead use it to “reimburse the City of Chicago for food service or other new arrival operating costs throughout calendar year 2024,” according to the proposal.

* WCIA | State agencies now quarantining Chicago migrants exposed to measles: Since Monday, the state has put up almost 100 family members from 26 households who have been exposed but not tested positive for the virus in the hotel. Families will quarantine for three weeks. The hotel is being used as a temporary quarantine shelter solely and is not open to the public. It has a capacity of up to 110 families.

* ABC Chicago | Measles cases reported at CPS schools; migrants quarantined at hotel: State officials are moving families who have been exposed to measles from shelters to unnamed hotels, specifically pregnant women and babies who are not able to be vaccinated. Babies are recommended to get their first dose of the measles vaccine when they are 12 to 15 months old, according to the CDC.

* Axios | What we know (and don’t) about Chicago’s measles outbreak: School-aged Pilsen shelter residents have been advised to stay out of school until the vaccination status of all fellow residents has been resolved. Over this week, every eligible Pilsen shelter resident has consented and received an MMR vaccination, Ige says. Officials are also now administering them to new arrivals at the landing zone.

* WGN | Migrants at Chicago’s largest shelter call food ‘horrible’, rather buy their own meals as city spends millions: The residents who are choosing to skip the free food…and eat outside gave us pictures of the city provided meals, saying they may look fine but taste terrible. The city even switched vendors earlier this year hoping to address the issues – but trouble has come up again.

* Sun-Times | Migrants improvise to re-create dishes that remind them of home: It’s always been Tomás Alvarado’s dream to own a restaurant. After crossing into the United States with his wife Carmen Ollarves, their 3-year-old daughter Grecia and Ollarves’ brother Luis, that dream is in reach now more than ever. Back in Venezuela, there were moments when the couple struggled to find food and make it last. … One dish, in particular, is a nod to the blending of cultures, thanks to the Italian colonial and migratory history in Venezuela: spaghetti with ground beef, plantains and garlic bread.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 1:33 pm

Comments

maybe he can just evict kids with measles he can say he is doing it to protect the people he lets stay /S

Comment by DuPage Saint Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 1:43 pm
it’s puzzling how the top staffers in that Mayor’s Office cannot get it together.

Comment by Amalia Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 1:56 pm
Imagine for a moment that in order to flee crushing economic and political repression you trekked thousands of miles across South and Central America to arrive at the US border only to put on a bus and shipped off to Chicago in the middle of winter where you arrived a total stranger and bounced around shelters until you were evicted by the city’s mayor just in time for an Irish throng to descend upon downtown and the river to turn green.
Welcome to Chicago.
It’d be like getting being blindfolded and dropped off in Pamplona — surprise — just as the bulls were released.
Have a good weekend everyone.
Try to look out for each other.

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 2:10 pm
===it’s puzzling how the top staffers===

If we’ve learned anything since 2003 in this state, it’s not really the staffs’ fault.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 2:13 pm
Like Saint said, I think someone told MBJ that limited evictions is better than a citywide measles outbreak.

Comment by Jocko Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 2:25 pm
It hasn’t surprised me one bit that the progressive groups aren’t stomping mad at all this nonsense. Maybe it was never about policy, it was always about power, like it always is, for everyone in politics.

Comment by Just Me 2 Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 2:27 pm
===Maybe it was never about policy, it was always about power, like it always is, for everyone in politics.===

Actually, is seems it isn’t about governing or power for power’s sake, but to “right wrongs” … and governing is getting in their way.

Comment by Anyone Remember Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 2:31 pm
2003 in this state? I agree that the Mayor is all over the place. but given who is in upper management there, I expect more.

Comment by Amalia Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 2:37 pm
==If we’ve learned anything since 2003 in this state, it’s not really the staffs’ fault.

Amen. I’ve know talented and caring staffers in most of the administrations of chaos agents over the last 20+ years and yet, leadership matters and the Mayor doesn’t seem to understand that which is very disappointing to those of us who were excited to see him take office (but weren’t the true believers).

Comment by ArchPundit Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 2:42 pm
Remember when Mayor Johnson fired Dr. Allison Arwady, an expert in infectious diseases with degrees from Harvard, Yale and Columbia universities?

That background probably would have come in handy for anticipating and preventing a measles outbreak. Instead, we got the Johnson administration’s typical day late and a dollar short response.

Imagine a FOIA request might be rather illuminating with regard to the city’s negligence.

Comment by Moe Berg Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 2:44 pm
===but given who is in upper management there===

I’ve seen some very talented upper management totally undercut by goofy principals. C’mon. The history is beyond clear. Staff can only do so much.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 2:51 pm
well then let’s put the blame where it ultimately should be, Preckwinkle. She gave Johnson to Chicago.

Comment by Amalia Friday, Mar 15, 24 @ 3:08 pm