Could Ernie Play 2 In McD Chicago?

McDonald’s CEO serves Chicago an Unhappy Meal chock full of warnings about a crisis of crime & the city’s social decline. Poor burger man is having trouble finding execs nuts enough to relocate to high taxes & crime …

As the WSJ op ed noted, Mickey D CEO Chris Kempczinski wasn’t saying his company was going to stop calling the Windy City its headquarters home … yet. But, he coyly added, it’s commitment to Chicago is “not corporate altruism … it is not open-ended … nor, is it unconditional. As a publicly traded company, our shareholders wouldn’t tolerate that.” It’s the ’ol “shareholders won’t tolerate card” that so many other big employers have used in recent years to run away like hell from a worsening hell. Think Boeing, Caterpillar & Citadel. No doubt the Tax Foundation’s 36th ranking among the 50 states in terms of being tax-friendly to businesses (let alone average folks) is another perennial downer here.

Concluded the editors: “The comments won’t surprise residents who have watched their city on Lake Michigan (including this “ex-Davd Soul”) 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” where I most recently had lived. How much crime? Think 38% more this year over 2021 while “a new city policy” makes it harder for cops to pursue criminals on foot for minor offenses” and lightweight Mayor Lightfoot, “has given little support to the beleaguered police force that has shrunk to 11,600 officers from 13,300 in 2019. Let’s play two today, Mr. Cub? Where would it be safe to do so, Ernie?

Davd Soul