Chicago mayoral candidate Toni Brooks focuses on revitalizing city's neighborhoods

Chicago mayoral candidates have about a month and a half left to gather petition signatures in order to appear on the ballot.

Candidate Toni Brooks said her grassroots organization has been working on that mission for the past month or so. The Chicago-born Army National Guard veteran wants to take over the fifth floor of City Hall, and is well aware that she has a lot of competition this election cycle.

Brooks is seeking to stand out with a platform centering on revitalizing city neighborhoods and new means of promoting public safety.

Specifically, she said she wants to rebuild the city block by block.

"So past administrations, they've made decisions to build the city from the outside in — meaning making it more appealing to tourists — but at some point, it became at the cost of the citizens," Brooks said during an appearance on CBS News Chicago on Tuesday morning. "So we're reversing everything, and we're starting with the home — rebuilding the home, stabilizing the home. Once the home is stabilized, the block is stabilized, and the city can truly benefit."

Brooks said she plans to revitalize neighborhoods and the city as a whole with what she called a "3D strategy."

"It's dignity, dollars, and defense," she said. "So when it comes to the home, dignity at home. Dignity — aging at home, having a stable home, having a safe home. And then it goes to dollars, which is building wealth — and not just job creation and economic development, but actual wealth in the neighborhoods. And the defense is the public safety in the city as a whole."

Brooks said she is undeterred by the city's budget issues in finding the money to make her plans happen. Currently, the city is facing a deficit of $882.4 million, according to a 2027 budget forecast put out last week by Mayor Brandon Johnson's office.

"So I'm an MBA in finance, so money and numbers is my thing," Brooks said. "So I've found funds — cushion funds, dormant funds — where we could actually reallocate to make these things happen."

Brooks also said she plans to donate 95% of her first year's salary to what she called a "shared power fund."

"It's an ode to the participatory budget that we normally have within the wards, so it's a way of sharing the power with the citizens, and we get together, we decide how the funds are being spent," she said.

In participatory budgeting, several wards, as well as the Chicago Park District, set aside portions of discretionary funds for projects endorsed by residents.

Meanwhile, Brooks called for hiring more police officers, but also creating a 50,000-person Chicago citizen responder group to reduce crime and conduct violence intervention.

"That's 50,000 Chicagoans being trained on stop the bleed, CPR, conflict resolutions, so they can kind of police their own communities until professionals actually arrive," she said, "and I found the funds to pay for that, and so these are like the backbone of the community."

Brooks said she I already working on training people to step in during emergencies through her nonprofit work.

"Right now, we're going into the neighborhoods. We're teaching CPR," she said. "We're teaching CPR to kids as early as 5 years old, and so it's doable. We're doing it now."

An alum of Sothern Illinois University Carbondale, where she earned two bachelor's degrees and an MBA, Brooks touts that she founded the nonprofit Toni Brooks Foundation, which supports women veterans, domestic violence survivors, foster youth, young adults, and seniors as they move toward independence.

A total of 14 candidates have declared for the 2027 Chicago mayoral race. Mayor Johnson has not yet announced whether he is running for a second term, but he is set to make a "special announcement" about an as-yet-unspecified subject this coming Sunday.