I can't look into the crystal ball. All I can do is the here and now.
Lori Lightfoot
We cannot create the perception that if you're rich or famous or both that you got one set of justice - and for everybody else it's something much harsher. That won't do and we need to make sure that we have a criminal justice system that has integrity.
Make no mistake about it: Change is hard, but change is necessary.
Taxes and fees in Chicago and Cook County are forcing low-income families like the one I grew up in out of this city. It's clear we can't keep treating low-income and middle-class families like an ATM machine with no limit.
Let's stand together, stick together, and work together for justice of every description. Racial justice. Gender justice. Immigrant justice. Economic justice. Environmental justice.
Throughout college and law school, as well as in my career as a lawyer and police reform advocate, I've faced various toxic combinations of racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Police can't be successful if they're not viewed as legitimate by the community, and a community will not be safe if the police are not engaged in a respectful, constitutional partnership with the community.
I think that the people who come from communities like me as an African-American woman, as a member of the LGBT community, we haven't sat in the corners of power.
I gotta be me. I'm going to go to ball games, because that's what I do. I'm going to go to live music shows, because I love live music.
We have to get to a place in the city where our young officers understand that respectful, constitutional engagement with the community is their most powerful tool.
I have a coming-out story that's probably very similar to lots of people who are my age: the fear of being rejected, the fear of losing your family and friends. You know, I worked through all of that, and that fear, and what that does to you, is pretty profound.
Our children... deserve to grow up in an environment where fear is not their constant companion. And I'm determined to do everything I can to make sure every kid - in every neighborhood regardless of zip code, economic status and race or ethnicity - is able to live a life of safety.
I do not support the city's red light camera system. This system was sold to Chicagoans as a public safety solution, but it's always really been about revenue, and we've seen that fines fall disproportionately on people of color.
Police departments, since the start of the history of this country, have been used to enforce unconstitutional laws that were designed to discriminate against communities of color and particularly African Americans.
I have a wealth of experience, not only as a senior executive in different departments in the city, but I've also, in my private practice life, helped small businesses, middle-market businesses really try to navigate the sometimes difficult world of city government.
In Massillon, you either hated football, or you loved it. On a Friday night in the fall, I don't know what anybody did if they weren't at, quote-unquote, 'The Game.'
When I came out, it wasn't a big formal conversation like in the movies. I just started living as my true and authentic self and opened up my life to my parents - sharing who I was, and bringing a girlfriend when I came home for a visit. To my great surprise, my parents accepted me for who I was and have supported me since.
When I hear stories about the number of kids that have been lost to violence, where families grow up teaching kids 'duck and cover' long before they learn their ABC's or their colors, I know there is something profoundly wrong in our city.
Obviously, we have to do a far better job on keeping our community safe, and that's where I'm going to put a significant amount of input.
I think he's a great talent, Stephen Colbert.
You're never going to catch me agreeing with anything that Bruce Rauner says, given the things he's done in this state, trying to pit the city of Chicago against the rest of Illinois - I'll never agree with anything Bruce Rauner says.
While I am opposed to elected officials running for multiple offices simultaneously, or within several months of one another, I do not support a state law making it illegal.
We are a city that is a sanctuary city. We have immigrants from all over the world who call Chicago their home. They'll continue to do that, and we're going to continue to make sure that this is truly a welcoming community for those immigrants and we want them to come to the city of Chicago.
It's going very different for citizens of Chicago to know that they have an advocate in the mayor's office - getting rid of the 'us versus them,' the lack of investment in our neighborhoods, the feeling that the only thing that matters is if you're a campaign donor.
Chicago is the largest city in the country without mayoral term limits. This has led to entrenched leaders, a lack of new ideas and creative thinking and a city government that works for the few, not the many.
I am not opposed to video gambling as long as it is properly regulated and regulators are diligent about keeping bad actors from having any involvement with the industry.
I am a lesbian. I am married to a woman. We have a child. We have a family.
I support a progressive state income tax.
I grew up in a small segregated steel town 6o miles outside of Cleveland, my parents grew up in the segregated south. As a family we struggled financially, and I grew up in the '60s and '70s where overt racism ruled the day.
I'm an ardent feminist.
If people don't feel safe, they're not going to have hope.
As I examine progressive revenue options, I want to make sure wealthy individuals and businesses pay their fair share, that we reduce the burden on low-income and middle-class families, and not drive businesses from Chicago or create a disincentive for businesses to invest in our city.
I support progressive revenue sources that ease the burden on low-income and working-class individuals and families who are least able to shoulder the burden of regressive taxes and fees.
Fundamentally, if people don't feel like their lives are valued and they don't value their lives, they're not going to value their neighbors' lives.
And I would like to have a good, productive relationship with members of the City Council, but I'm not going to allow them to undermine what the people's choice was and what the people want, which is change.
You know, I can't afford to take anything for granted.
Retired public service workers make up the backbone of the middle class in so many of our communities.
For more than two decades Chicagoans have routinely traveled to neighboring cities like Rosemont, Elgin, Joliet, Gary and Hammond to gamble. If people in Chicago want to gamble, then they should be able to gamble in Chicago at a city-owned, land-based casino.
If aldermen are doing their job right, they should be the ones who are closest to the vibe and the beat in their neighborhood and have a very important role to play on a number of different issues, but not a unilateral, unchecked right. That's gone as soon as I take office.
But there are parents out there who feel like they have been shut out from the process of how their children are educated, and that's never a good thing.
Breaking the back of the Chicago machine, it's quite monumental.
Building channels for people to believe that the city sees them and hears them and is willing to invest, is going to be critically important, and we have to start that right away.
Fundamentally, we need to make sure that our neighborhoods are safe - all of our neighborhoods.
The only thing you have in your life is your integrity.
We've got to do everything we can to speak to and protect our immigrant communities.
I want to make sure that I am the leader that respects the fact that kids all over the city and hopefully all over the country really understand that they can do anything that they want to do, that they set their minds to do, as long as they've got good, strong support from adults and love to support them.
We have been embarked on what I would call a proactive strategy that looks at our gun violence as a public health crisis, which is what it is. That means we look at the root causes of the violence.
I believe that everybody is entitled to a presumption of innocence.
I know every trick in the book, in terms of schemes and fraud.
I live in a world in which I have a very, very diverse group of friends.
