(The Center Square) – Members of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration say they are making progress with efforts to streamline government processes. Critics of the administration don’t agree.
The mayor marked one year of his office’s Cut the Tape initiative at the Chicago Cultural Center Monday.
The city’s chief operations officer, John Roberson, said the city has made changes.
“We’ve streamlined permitting for affordable housing, removed outdated barriers to commercial development and improved coordination across departments to move projects forward more quickly and more transparently,” Roberson said. “I want to say that again, because at the heart of this, what Mayor Brandon Johnson told us is to get bureaucracy out of the way.”
Johnson said an executive order he signed in 2023 was critical to streamline the city’s development process.
“We want to foster the development and preservation of affordable and market-rate housing. We wanted to bring more economic activity through our commercial corridors,” Johnson said.
ChicagoRED founder P Rae Easley provided The Center Square with a statement in response.
“Mayor Johnson’s celebration of Cut The Tape is a celebration of the growth of socialism in the city of Chicago. More taxpayer funds are being diverted to non-for-profits as an invisible line item in the campaigns of upcoming elections. As we lose more industry in the city, social organizations emerge to take their places and purchase votes in the form of grants instead of benefits-paying jobs,” Easley stated.
At Monday’s event, the mayor did not discuss efforts to streamline government spending.
Last month, Johnson announced the opening of an affordable housing development on the city’s South Side, at a cost of $810,345 per unit.
The city is facing a projected budget deficit of more than $1 billion.
