1 Burst results for "Pot Paradise"

WGN Radio

07:58 min | 2 years ago

"pot paradise" Discussed on WGN Radio

"He covers City Hall joining us Now, Greg is this is busy a day or is it coming down a little bit? I know these have been pretty pretty hectic in your world. You know it's up and down, but even the down is pretty up. Usually You know something else I saw here. Alderman Brand new Riley changed his Twitter background to pot Paradise Alderman. He seems to be pretty upset. It's one of the things that's coming out of City Hall right now. There. Mayor is not really keen. Or maybe she's already shut down the idea of having one of these marijuana dispensaries in the downtown district, which would be his ward, and he's not happy about it. Yeah. You know, it's not necessarily knew because the mayor has been opposed to it from the beginning. She said. She didn't wanna make it, uh, you know last year and even 2019. She said that She didn't wanna make it into take away the family friendliness of it. You know, as though she doesn't want people's selling weed right outside the bean, which is probably something that everybody would agree on. But she is she's taking it pretty hard line from the beginning against weed downtown, and the position now is that with storefronts vacants emptying out and all the vacants after the civil unrest in the pandemic. There is some pot businesses want to come down. They should. And the mayor dismissed it way out of hand yesterday and she said that, you know, she doesn't want it to be a pop paradise, which I think some people, um And you can see the Alderman. Two are rolling their eyes at because they would say nobody's trying to make downtown upon paradise, Although it is a good throws. It is a great phrase, and he's gonna use it. I'm sure I don't know if he's totally lost. This bet. Would you say it's done done? Not gonna happen. Or you think that there might be some discussions Still, would we ever see it? A downtown dispensary in the near future. I think what all the men Riley has on his side is that it doesn't make business ends. Put a dispensary business down there somewhere. And so there's going to be economic and financial pressures of the city. He is a fairly prominent and influential all the man he's not. You know, Um, he's not just one of 50. Here's a prominent alderman with a prominent ward, who, um, who is respected by his colleagues that said, it is hard to get something done. If the mayor doesn't want to get it done in this town, and even Even with all the chaos that has happened on their middle life that is still true, so to be determined We're not turning Michigan Avenue into the pot paradise, she said. His response, though, and he's already kind of taken a social media about it saying that, you know, look, there are no quality of life for crime related issues that directly Surround these dispensaries that they're currently operating. So it'll be the same. Downtown is his argument. He's also making the economic argument last night checked, We're broke. Couldn't we use a downtown sort of one? Maybe it's not a Michigan Avenue on the central business district or something like that. Maybe it's kind of off on one of the side streets around there something but Wouldn't it make sense economically, to do that kind of thing. They have been hugely profitable, right? Yeah, he made he made the point that you know. Next time they say we're broke and we need to raise property taxes. This is exhibit a form. Yeah, right. That's that is the other argument. You also have this ward by ward breakdown of Chicago Carjackings, Alderman. I guess they released it to the alderman. Police did Did you see anything that you looked through that data? I know it's 2018 2019 and 2020. They go ward by ward and describe how many There have been in each year. Anything you've got from that, Greg. Well, it's pretty astonishing just how widespread it is. It's literally all over the city. Um You know, from part of why it's gotten more attention is that a lot of Um, it Z hitting areas that don't get a lot of crime. And so that's scary. But there's also some pretty horrifying data for even areas that Have a lot of crying, so I live in Little village and I'm right next to the North Lawndale, which is much of it is the 24 Ford and they have a astonishing amount of Carjackings. And it's especially astonishing because it Zapata it's award with With relatively little population. So 40 Carjackings in that ward go a lot further than you know, 40 Carjackings in. You know the 42nd Ward downtown, which has so many people in it, so it But it is it is a citywide problem, and it is something that every single alderman black, white and Hispanic really cared about. It is really concerned about because they're hearing about it. For sure. And I heard that some of that very passionate city council like us, a committee meeting on Carjacking, trying to bring folks together the victims who spoke who had been victims of Carjacking themselves and others. I mean, just sort of a passionate cry for help here. And I wonder if when you look at what the city has proposed right now, if you think it makes a difference, are they adding some more cops created to these Carjacking units and some other things they're doing. That's a great question, you know, obviously more. More help is always good, whether or not but you know if you put in a bunch of health and you don't have a strategy, or you don't have a clear strategy that's also um not helpful. So you know, I would guess that the police Department would say We have a pretty good strategy. I think that, um the results will They're out whether that's true, but obviously, um, you know, the other end of that is saying we're gonna put 40 more cops. You know, that's not even one per ward and so It's not. Ah, that is a relatively low amount. But you know what else are they gonna say? Right? They're not going to say Well, we're working on it. They need to, uh We need the get the situation under control. First of all, because it is It is actually a real problem. And then they have the political problem of wanting the look like they're trying to get it under control, which is A very important issue for them. Yeah, No, no doubt about that, And I mean, look, it's it is It's an important issue for all of us that I applaud them for trying to do something. Whether this is a solution that will start. We'll start seeing a difference. I don't know are we had like 200 Carjackings for the month. That's the last estimate. I heard. Yes, It's absolutely crazy out there and people are people are concerned people from all put. The other thing is people also from all political ideologies and from all Walks of life. I had a friend who I don't think it's somebody who you know lives. An exaggerated fear of Chicago was telling me that you know there. He just got a new car for their household and they're concerned about you know, what is that going to attract the carjacker? And then they have Ah, young kid, And so, um So it is a real big concern out there and it's really you know, it's also The other thing about, you know, just adding some more. Some cops, for that is is we still have a violence problem dead that was out of control last year. I don't know quite what? How the numbers add up, but it's so something to keep Avenger. So CPD has his hands full. Yeah, no doubt about that. Greg Pratt. Thank you. Thanks for the time this afternoon. Always like hearing from you. Thank you. Gregory Print. He covers City Hall for the Chicago Tribune. It's the bottom of the hour time now. So let's get to the news from the North Western Medicine newsroom. 23 degrees at 1 30. Good afternoon. 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