Mayoral Candidate Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia Criticizes Emanuel On Crime, Schools
(CBS) -- While Mayor Emanuel "looked mayoral" and hosted a news conference on winter preparedness Saturday, one of his challengers was talking about crime, spending priorities and education in the South Shore neighborhood.
Speaking before the Alliance of the Southeast Planning Coalition in a restaurant at 72nd Street and Exchange Avenue, County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia said the Emanuel administration is spending too much money on downtown areas at the expense of city neighborhoods.
Garcia said he learned from the late Mayor Harold Washington that to build a city you have to place the neighborhoods first. He said spreading around investment benefits all of Chicago.
On crime, he said he would replace Police Supt. Garry McCarthy with a home-grown superintendent if elected. He said McCarthy has all but abandoned community policing and said the crime rate won't go down so long as those at the top don't know and understand Chicago's neighborhoods intimately.
Garcia said he supports an elected school board, wants more transparency at the Chicago Board of Education and wants to give power back to local school councils, which he said have lost much of their power under the current system, in which the mayor appoints the board.