» TRUMP ‘We know nonsense when we see it’
“I like Chicago,” Reese says, hurrying to her job. “It’s not dangerous. The people make it dangerous, but it’s not dangerous.”
“Outside of Chicago, a lot of people’s perception is a lot of gang activity, a lot of violence,” says Meyer, born in Paraguay. “That simply isn’t the case. We’re not the worst stereotypes that people have about us. Each of us has our own story. The problem with him is, he lumps it all together. Anyone who doesn’t fit his background is disregarded or mischaracterized.”
According to the most recent FBI statistics, Chicago is the 17th most violent city in the country, after Minneapolis. The most violent city in the country is St. Louis, followed by Detroit and Baltimore, their violent crime rate nearly double Chicago’s. Yet the president is never going to ask, “What the hell’s happening in St. Louis?”
Balentine sells hot dogs at 63rd and Halsted in Englewood.
“A black guy selling German hot dogs in the middle of the South Side,” he says. “I’ve been there three years. I’ve never had any crime happen to me. I’ve never been robbed. I stand here every day. I don’t have a weapon. I don’t need any security. I’ve always been greeted with smiles and appreciation.”
Even in the most distressed spot in Chicago, there is pride and hope.
“If we had the opportunities,” says Balentine. “There’s great people here that’s willing to do great. We just need the same chances as everyone else. If he could just take a second and look at us and realize we want to do better and, given the opportunity, we can. Instead of criticizing, he could help us.”
“Donald Trump is claiming that Chicago is a bad place to live, because of the crime,” says Tucker. “The crime is rough, but he’s not making it any better in Washington, because he don’t know what the jack he’s doing!”
‘We’re a union-built city’
Lamont Overall is a union ironworker. Sufyan Shaltaf is a political activist, a recent graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Percy Sims, 47, lives at 105th and Wentworth . . .
“We’re a union-built city — hard work,” says Overall, 40, a member of Ironworkers Local 63. He has five children and finds Chicago a good family city. “Me and my family come down here, we celebrate and hang out all the time. We hang out at the 31st Street beach.”
“As a Muslim, as a Palestinian American, I find it frankly despicable, all the things Donald Trump has done, all the negative things,” says Shaltaf, 23, who lives in Bridgeport. “To so many people. These are his constituents, as much as anybody else in this country. How are you going to speak negatively about people you are claiming to represent? His responsibility is to uplift these people, hear their stories, learn from them.”
“I don’t like him. He’s a racist, and he’ll let you know he’s one,” says Sims. “Chicago doesn’t need him to be here. He can just go about his business. He knows nothing about what he’s doing; he knows nothing about how he’s doing it. He just knows what he wants to do, and it’s the wrong way. He stipulated, ‘I can do what I want to do because I’m the president’? No, you can’t.
“Outside of Chicago, a lot of people’s perception is a lot of gang activity, a lot of violence. That simply isn’t the case. We’re not the worst stereotypes that people have about us. Each of us has our own story. The problem with him is, he lumps it all together. Anyone who doesn’t fit his background is disregarded or mischaracterized.” ROXANNE MEYER, on President Trump
The president is just a figurehead. You got to answer to the Congress, and you got to answer to the people. So no, you can’t do what you want to do.”
Michele Rodgers is a high school science teacher. Sunni Ali Powell is a master barber in Englewood. Carol Tarr lives on the 4800 block of South Chicago Beach Drive . . .
“I was born and raised in Chicago. It’s a great city,” says Rodgers, 44, who grew up on the South Side, lives downtown and is active in the neighborhoods. “We are developing our parks in our communities.”
Powell says the president needs to, “if he can, really build the city up. His name is in the middle of downtown. If he can build the city up, through education, he can give these kids a chance to do something greater. We have [many] different neighborhoods. We are separated, in some ways, but we all come together.”
Tarr has three sons: Dean, 14, Niki, 12, and Bubby, 10.
“Chicagoans are proud, down-to-earth people,” she says, while waiting for a bus on Wacker Drive. “And we know nonsense when we see it.”
I spoke to all these people — twice as many, actually — during a relaxed one-day ramble, mostly in person at spots around the city, a few over the phone, trying to get a good mix.
I tried to get a Trump supporter — 132,738 Chicagoans voted for Trump in 2016, 12.5% of voters, according to the Chicago Board of Elections — but my efforts, including contacting an official at the Chicago Republican Party, were in vain.
Just as well. They’ll get their say. I always get mine, and truly enjoyed hearing what other people have to say. If I had to use one word to describe the experience, I would say it was “joyous.” Granted a second word, I would say it is “hopeful.”
Donald Trump doesn’t know Chicago in the way he doesn’t know America. He’s shadow-boxing with a hallucination. He does not know where he is or who we are. But we know where we are, and we know who we are, and that is more than enough.
I tried to get a Trump supporter — 132,738 Chicagoans voted for Trump in 2016, 12.5% of voters, according to the Chicago Board of Elections — but my efforts, including contacting an official at the Chicago Republican Party, were in vain.