Change in leadership on the editorial board but ongoing commitment to Chicago
What is the state of civic discourse in Chicago?
If you’ve been watching the City Council shenanigans of late, you’d probably say, well, pretty lousy. Disappointing. Petty. Grim. It’s not that the mostly honorable public servants who get caught up in all the accusatory bickering intend things to go that way. The conversation just seems to have devolved, even as the city has completely lost control of a growth-and-opportunity narrative that, flaws and all, has sustained it since Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable first settled on the north bank of the Chicago River, not yet dreaming of a Lake Shore Drive.
Chicago has wanted to be a place of limitless possibility, even if it always has fallen short for some. Strikingly few citizens feel that way now. Fear and anger have replaced the kind of chaotic optimism that drew so many of us here in the first place.
Perhaps you’re thinking that fancy talk about deeper thinking and a more respectful airing of civic differences fails to account for the historic crises that have fallen upon our beloved city these past several months. We’re beset by out of control gun violence, COVID-19 grief, brutal differences of opinion on how we should educate our children, the sudden disappearance of office workers from our skyscrapers and neighborhoods groaning under a discriminatory lack of investment. A lot of talented government officials have been coming to the conclusion that leaders are in crisis and the problems here are bigger than the available solutions. They’ve thrown their hands in the air and walked away, perhaps toward an easier patch of terra firma. With good reason.
The Tribune is under new ownership and, like all media organizations, has been facing its own challenges and adjustments to a changed climate. The editorial board is under fresh leadership from Chris Jones, a longtime Tribune arts critic and cultural columnist who has written about all aspects of the city on its pages for more than 25 years. And some of the voices that surround this editorial page are changing too. An apt moment, then, for some opinion section reflection as to our purpose as we try our best to serve you, our readers.
Like a court, a newspaper’s editorial board has its own versions of constitutional principles — in our case, a belief in individual liberty, freedom of expression, equality of opportunity and the importance of governments that serve all citizens, ideally by not fleecing the people and getting out of the way to allow them to raise their families and achieve their goals. We’ve long argued for the kind of business-friendly environment that creates a broad range of jobs, and we’ve spoken out against governmental dysfunction and corruption, of which there are no shortage of examples in this town. All of that remains in our core.
So what might change? It’s a logical question. The pandemic might be in its waning days, but it has profoundly changed us and our communities.
Few of us would claim to be in the same place we were two years ago. Many of us have changed jobs and, in some cases, entire professions. Some of us have decided we’ve had enough discrimination or violence in our lives and have entirely upended our lives and taken what has felt like the last train out of Dodge City. Some of us are wary of leaving home and children to go back to work, and others are worried that staff may not show up to sustain a small business. And a majority of us have worries about the state of our community and the best way forward. It’s hardly weakness to point out that there is a lot of shared civic pain to go around. You can see it in all the broiling anger, most everywhere in Chicago.
Which returns us to the quality of the civic discourse, a term that’s not about rhetorical politeness — Who wants that? — but respectful striving for joint solutions.
This editorial board, small but determined, remains deeply committed to the open debate of things that matter in this city, state and nation. We’re focused on giving space and time to a broad suite of topics and a wider range of voices than in the past. We’re interested in opinions from all corners of the city and suburbs, including the neighborhoods that the Tribune mostly ignored for much of its history. We do so with more humility than at some points in the past, but also a firm belief in this newspaper’s historic and principled role as a place where people can find constructive ideas sitting alongside opinions with which they might concur and disagree.
We understand you’ve changed. And so it’s our aim both to lead and to listen for new ideas from our readers. As is true for all the Tribune journalists who serve you, you’re why we are here.