Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
It's true that not every day a little black girl in a low-income family from a segregated steel town makes the runoff to be the mayor of the third-largest city in America.
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.
What I favor is that we have health care access to people that is not income based. We have to have health care that is acceptable and it's going to come in a number of forms.
So, yes, I became the vessel into which people poured their hopes that we can have a different kind of city. I recognize that, but in politics, sometimes it's good to be lucky.
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.
If you really want to make a difference you don't do it via Tweet, via Facebook, via Instagram - you get down, you understand what the facts are and then you offer a path forward.
Let's stand together, stick together, and work together for justice of every description. Racial justice. Gender justice. Immigrant justice. Economic justice. Environmental justice.
To make blatant racial appeals or just blatant appeals only targeted to the LGBTQ+ community, I didn't think that that was a winning formula, and it's also inconsistent with who I am.
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.
I think of being the mayor of a big city with so many incredible things happening - but also so many challenges and opportunities - as really being kind of the chief advocate for the people.
I've wanted to be a parent for a really long time, and I'm going to make sure I'm doing everything I can to be present in her life, to be her mother. I don't want to be absent from her life.
When I was in my 20s and kind of going through my own coming out process, I feared that I would lose my family. I feared that I would grow old alone. And that was a real part of my struggle.
I learned early on about the real meaning of equity and inclusion, and that when those guiding principles are not met, they can have devastating effects on individuals, families, and communities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Both my brothers played football. My mother had season tickets as a school board member. I was in the band, my sister was in the band. The thing was, the unifying civic activity was obsession over high school football.
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.
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.
If you look at the number of aldermen who have been prosecuted and found liable of federal crimes over the years... the common thread among all of them is doing something in the exercise of aldermanic prerogative or privilege.
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.
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.
Our kids' lives depend upon keeping them safe. That has to be a fundamental duty and responsibility for me as mayor. That means we have to continue hard but necessary work of bridging the divide between police and communities they serve.
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.
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.
I'm not affiliated with Ed Burke, Joe Berrios or anyone else who represents the old, corrupt Chicago way. I am offering voters a complete break from that past and pushing us forward in a way that brings people together and makes government more inclusive.
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.
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.
My view is I should have been Miss Massillonian, and I wasn't. I think the reason I wasn't was because I was black. Frankly, I was told later I should have been. But they were afraid if they elected a black girl as Miss Massillonian, it would have been a scandal.
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.
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.
I have to explain to my daughter what it means when adults lie. I have to explain to my daughter what it means when adults are bullies. I have to explain to my daughter what it means when an adult says something that's not true just to try to score political points.
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.
One of the challenges I think we have is people feel like the act of governance is a zero sum game. 'Whatever I get, you're not getting.' Changing that dynamic is going to be critically important for me as a leader, so that people don't feel they're pitted against each other.
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.
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.
When you're walking down a street and you are a brown-skinned person or you're a person that lives in an immigrant community, there's no differentiating on - solely on the basis of what you look like. They don't walk down the street saying, hi, I'm an immigrant; I'm here legally or not.
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.
I grew up in a small town in a low-income family and was the only black kid in my elementary school. I felt like an outsider, and since I didn't know of LGBT people - much less LGBT black women - living happy, healthy, and successful lives, I didn't believe I could ever marry or have a child.
Look, there's no question that we have a challenge with gun violence. But there's a lot more nuanced parts of that narrative, and that's the part that I think that we have to make sure that we emphasize along with all the great things that are going on in Chicago, particularly in our neighborhoods.
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.
What I hear from folks all the time is 'us against them.' It is a core part of what they feel is happening with our government. Investing here, but not there. Listening to some, but not nearly enough. Going into certain neighborhoods, but not others. That divide is something we have to categorically reject.
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.