Chicago City Wire

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson spent the weekend engaging with residents, business owners, and other city leaders to discuss community safety and the city's budget proposal. On Saturday, he attended a town hall in Washington Heights hosted by Alderman Ronnie Mosley of the 21st Ward. The event was part of Johnson’s ongoing Protecting Chicago Budget Tour, which aims to bring details of the proposed budget directly to citizens for feedback.

During the meeting, Mayor Johnson addressed concerns about how city services are funded. He stated, “When it comes to the various services that we rely upon, I’m going to pass a budget to ensure that we’re not balancing it on the backs of working people. This is the culmination of multiple conversations. I’ve had roundtable discussions with young people, folks on the North Side, South Side, Northeast, Southeast, West Side, to put together a budget that respects our values.”

Afterward, Johnson visited Cynthia's Gumbo Express Inc., a local business that previously received a $32,000 Community Development Grant from the City of Chicago. There he spoke with owners about challenges facing small businesses due to federal policies and tariffs.

The mayor then traveled to Baltimore for discussions with Mayor Brandon Scott’s team about public safety initiatives. Both cities have invested in community violence intervention programs and direct support for families affected by violence—approaches credited with reducing violent crime rates in Baltimore. The two mayors talked about ways these strategies could be further improved for their respective cities.

“What we are demonstrating is there is an approach to public safety that doesn't involve armed, masked men sticking long guns in the faces of poor people and sending Black Hawk helicopters into the night to terrorize communities,” said Mayor Johnson during his visit in Baltimore. “The big difference is not amongst us. It's, unfortunately, the lack of support we are getting from the federal government.”

On Friday evening back in Chicago, Johnson participated in an event at the Chicago International Film Festival honoring director Spike Lee with a lifetime achievement award. He highlighted Lee’s influence through film on Black communities within Chicago.

Over the weekend a video clip showing Mayor Johnson objecting to language used when referring to undocumented immigrants gained significant attention online—garnering over 20 million views across Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok platforms. In this viral moment he said: “Let’s just get the language right, we’re talking about undocumented individuals who are human beings,” adding: “The last thing I’m going to do is accept that type of racist, nasty language to describe human beings.”

In recent months social media engagement around Mayor Johnson has increased sharply; his Instagram account @chicagosmayor now ranks as one of most followed mayoral accounts nationally.