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JEFF ROBERSON/Associated Press
McDonald’s
Corp. calls Chicago home, with its corporate headquarters and some 400 restaurants, but CEO
Chris Kempczinski
issued a frank warning Wednesday about the city’s crime and social deterioration. “Everywhere I go I am confronted by the same question these days: ‘What’s going on in Chicago?’ . . . There is a general sense out there that our city is in crisis,” he said, and he’s right.
The fast-food chain moved its headquarters to the Loop from the suburbs in 2018, and Mr. Kempczinski estimates its economic contribution to the city at $2 billion a year. But lawlessness is taking a toll. “It’s felt most significantly every single day in the restaurants,” he told the Economic Club of Chicago. “We have violent crime that is happening in our restaurants . . . we are seeing homelessness issues in our restaurants, we are having drug overdoses that are happening in our restaurants.”
Calling Mayor
Lori Lightfoot.
When residents no longer feel safe at a major restaurant chain and a CEO issues a public plea, social order is breaking down.
The comments won’t surprise residents who have watched their city on Lake Michigan slide into a mess of public disorder. Tent cities sprawl across lakeside parks. Crime that was once confined to certain neighborhoods now threatens the downtown business district.
Overall crime in the city is up 38% in 2022 over 2021, according to Wirepoints, and a new city policy this summer made it harder for cops to pursue criminals on foot for minor offenses. Mayor Lightfoot has given little support to the beleaguered police force that has shrunk to 11,600 officers from 13,300 in 2019.
Economic policies are also a problem. “It has become increasingly difficult to operate a global business out of the city of Chicago,” Mr. Kempczinski said, owing in part to a tax climate that the Tax Foundation says now ranks Illinois 36th of 50 states. “There are fewer big companies headquartered in Chicago this year than last year. Fewer this month than last month.” Among those fleeing have been
Boeing
(Virginia),
Caterpillar
(Texas) and Citadel, the giant hedge fund (Miami).
Ms. Lightfoot and Illinois Gov.
J.B. Pritzker
will be tempted to dismiss Mr. Kempczinski’s remarks, but they do so at the city’s peril. They might not get another wake-up call as clear as this one. “Make no mistake . . . McDonald’s commitment to Chicago is not corporate altruism,” Mr. Kempczinski said. “It’s not open ended, it’s not unconditional. As a publicly traded company, our shareholders wouldn’t tolerate that.” Chicagoans shouldn’t either.
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the September 16, 2022, print edition.
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