As Brady broaches the topic of big-box stores, he’s likely to avoid the wage issue altogether. Indeed, while speaking to WGN Radio’s Greg Jarrett last week, he told listeners that Chicago currently “prohibit[s]” the construction of big box facilities:
BRADY: Right now there is a prohibition on building Wal-Marts and Meijers and Targets in the City of Chicago.
In fact, there are new big boxes all over Chicago — including ten Target stores! The difference is that they pay higher wages than Wal-Mart on average and therefore wouldn’t have been seriously affected by the living wage ordinance.
This reminds me of all of the different claims about Chicago I heard growing up in McLean County by people who truly have no understanding of the City of Chicago or its surrounding. That’s who Bill Brady is–a guy from a small city that’s grown as he’s become older, but ultimately he sees the world through a small insular view of the world through Bloomington-Normal. He hears something about the big city and knows it must be true because they all know it’s true.
On the one hand, I’d love to see Bill Brady try to run the State of Illinois because it would be high comedy. On the other hand, I love the State of Illinois.
Arch, for God’s sake, we’ve already had enough “high comedy” in the governor’s office to last us several lifetimes. How about getting a serious adult in there with clear, rational ideas on what to do about this state’s problems? I’m dreaming, I know…
I know you know this, but I backed Judy last time. Admittedly I wasn’t a huge cheerleader, but that was primarily because I was pointing out how she was screwing it up while pointing out how much better she was than how Blagojevich was and how he would end up in prison. I’m not technically vindicated yet, but the fucking tapes showed he was even stupider than I thought. And that was a low bar.
Dillard, Ryan. Schillerstrom (yeah, I know) all probably had my vote like Judy would have. The douchebags in the Republican Party chose a dumbass. A dumbass from my hometown who I’m pretty fucking familiar with on tip of it. The Dems chose a douchebag I’ve disliked for as long as I can remember and one of the few non-corrupt Dems I can’t stand. He fucking wins. I can’t say I’m excited about him, other than he’s a lof fucking better than the douchebag who beat Gordy Ropp. For fucks sake, Jason Plummer criticized his budget and Jason Plummer is a fucking moron.
No, I didn’t know that, and I’m jealous that you weren’t as stupid as I was.
I have even less excuse for having voted for Blago because I met Judy–did a profile of her for a newspaper shortly after she was elected to the GenAss. I liked her, then and now, but I didn’t vote for her because I was afraid that her much-vaunted “frugality” would translate to starving social programs. Now they’re getting starved because the state ran out of money. Serves me right, except I’m not the one who’s suffering.