For Chicago’s Next Mayor: A New Way to Do Politics and Address Violence
by Steve Sewall (1/2/19)
2/7/19 This piece frequently rethought/revised — read the latest version!
Chicago’s wide-open 2019 mayoral election gives its next mayor a golden opportunity: a rare chance to break the chains of the money-driven, industrial-age political system that enslaves its mayoral candidates (see above), that exacerbates its racial divisions and that continues to enfeeble the entire city well into the digital age.
Take violence, which cripples half of Chicago and terrorizes the other half.
This system’s gaudy, mind-numbing, election-time TV attack ads foster the anger, apathy, ignorance and pervasive mistrust that deprives Chicago and its mayors of their vital power to address critical tasks (like solving violence) effectively: as an information-age city of involved citizens and responsive leaders.
Under this system, Chicago mayors give lip service at best to Chicago’s most powerful (yet untapped) anti-violence resource: the voices, experience, insights, wisdom of 2.7 million Chicagoans.
Instead, mayors throw billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars at police and public health attempts to prevent, contain, curb, crack down or reduce violence. Never to solve it.
The result: decades of violence reduction haven’t even reduced violence. In Chicago today
To this human disaster add endless depressing media stories about lives lost and things gone wrong:
And what you have is a beaten-down, dispirited city that accepts violence as an unalterable fact of city life.
Like brutal Chicago winters.
So where to go from here?
As bluesman Taj Mahal sings: “Take a giant step outside your mind.”
Because Chicago can and will solve violence when Chicagoans and their next mayor empower each other to solve it as a city.
When they commit to making Chicago as safe as New York.
Enter Chicago’s second most powerful (yet equally untapped) anti-violence resource: the media that comprise Chicago public communications system. How can media help Chicago solve violence?
For starters, a local TV station can air Chicago FIXIT, a prime-time public forum that makes a citywide game of solving violence. Modeled on voter-driven reality TV contests like American Idol, FIXIT is reality TV for real.
FIXIT creates a level playing field for City Hall and Chicagoans. It listens to all Chicagoans, including the at-risk children on both sides of the law whose first-hand knowledge of violence is key to solving it.
Tuning in to FIXIT, you see small teams of talented, telegenic Chicago problem solvers of all ages, races and professional backgrounds (16 teams in Phase 3 of the above graphic) competing and cooperating in season-long contests to develop solutions to violence, large and small, that earn the respect of Chicagoans and City Hall.
Team presentations are rigorously vetted by panels of experts, politicians, journalists and citizens. Weekly viewer votes select winning solutions, with the winning solution formally presented to Chicago’s mayor for possible implementation.
Week 1 of FIXIT opens with extended discussion on the possibility of solvingviolence. FIXIT concludes with a final viewer vote in week 30 on whether to make Chicago as safe as New York.
If viewers approve this commitment, Chicago recovers its “I Will” spirit and is evolving from an industrial-age “I Will City” to a digital-age “We Will City”. If not, FIXIT moves on to Season 2.
FIXIT is a major event, a possible turning point in Chicago history. Media cover and critique its proceedings much as they cover and critique the games of Chicago’s beloved sports teams.
FIXIT is as fun and exciting as anything you see on TV. Its rules and procedures reward creativity, cooperation and competence and show Chicago at its best, not its worst as often happens in media. They help Chicagoans take their fair share of responsibility for keeping Chicago safe. And they keep the FIXIT violence-solving game non-partisan, non-ideological, issue-centered and completely outcome-oriented.
FIXIT earns citywide trust with an ingenious three-level rule structure modeled on the trusted three-level rule structure of pro sports telecasts.
FIXIT features 1) rules and referees for team competitions, 2) remote umpire decisions of rule infractions based on instant replay and fact checking and 3) ongoing rule commentary of expert FIXIT hosts.
Who funds FIXIT? Sponsors include socially-responsible corporations drawn by FIXIT’s huge citywide and region-wide audience.
That’s it. A digital-age opportunity for Chicagoans and their next mayor to solve violence in a way that other cities will soon emulate: as a city.
— — — — — — — — —
- Here’s a detailed account of FIXIT.
- Our Chicago FIXIT Information Page goes even deeper into the FIXIT concept.
- In February, we’ll hold exploratory meetings about advancing Chicago FIXIT. To attend, email me (Steve) at sewall2020@comcast.net.
Steve Sewall, Ph.D., is a Chicago educator, media entrepreneur and Director of Chicago Civic Media.
