Does Chicago Have a Crime Problem?
It was reported in the New York Post that the CEO of McDonald’s warned of crime in Chicago when he recently spoke at a meeting of business leaders. Chicago has been headquarters to McDonald’s since 2018 after having relocated from nearby Oak Brook. The CEO, Chris Kempczinski, told the Economic Club of Chicago business leaders that the company is having trouble getting employees back to work downtown due to fears over a surge in crime. They are hesitant to ride mass transit because of a significant increase in violent crime. He added that quality of life concerns have prevented recruiting additional employees to the city. He stated, “There is a general sense out there that our city is in crisis.”
Kempczinski stated that McDonald's plans to stay in Chicago, but urged city leaders to
take note of other big corporations leaving the city due to the same concerns.
He said government and business leaders need to do more to address the
crime problem.
Statistics show there has been an 18% increase in
robberies, a 28% jump in the number of burglaries, a 65% surge in thefts, and a
66% bump in motor vehicle thefts citywide since the start of the calendar year
compared to 2021 per Chicago Police Department. While there have been 15% fewer murders this year
citywide compared to last year, the number of murders so far this year — 479 —
is still 33% higher compared to three years ago.
On the other side of the coin,
Newsnation reports that Mayor Lori Lightfoot fired back at Kempczinski
by saying he should have educated himself. She cited a letter written by Michael
Fassnacht of World Business Chicago, an organization that promotes business
development in the city. Fassnacht expressed his disappointment in losing big
businesses but stated that 112 other companies had opened or relocated to
Chicago over the last 18 months. He went on to defend the move of one corporation
as, not for fear of crime, but to be near their customers and stakeholders.
Another corporate move he defended by saying that company was located in
Deerfield a northern suburb, not the city itself. He added that there are 7,400
more businesses in the city today than pre-pandemic.
According to Reuters, hedge
fund Citadel another corporate move did provide concerns about rising crime
rates as one of their reasons.
Fassnacht made an interesting
argument in his quoting of crime statistics which were not the same statistics
provided by the Chicago Police Department. He used older statistics from 2016 when
McDonald’s made the decision to move to the city and from 2018 when they
actually made the move. At that time both homicides and robberies were at a
higher level than today.
Another spin on the story from
Fox32Chicago, offers Lightfoot referencing all the good news, economic news, and
happenings in the city from Fassnacht’s report. She added, "I’m going to
focus on those things and not the comments of CEO of McDonald’s."
https://nypost.com/2022/09/15/mcdonalds-ceo-warns-of-soaring-crime-in-chicago/
https://home.chicagopolice.org/wp-content/uploads/1_PDFsam_CompStat-Public-2022-Week-37.pdf
https://www.newsnationnow.com/business/how-accurate-mcdonalds-ceo-chicago-crime/
https://www.reuters.com/business/hedge-fund-citadel-move-headquarters-miami-chicago-2022-06-23/#:~:text=The%20decision%20to%20relocate%20the,familiar%20with%20his%20thinking%20said.
Hey Deb! This is a really interesting topic, and to be honest I didn't even know that McDonald's headquarters was in Chicago. It seems to me that the issue at hand is that McD's is having trouble getting corporate employees to work from the office, because it's located in downtown? It seems there are some strange fact disparities about these arguments... is it headquartered in downtown Chicago, or in Deerfield? Is current crime up, or is crime actually down from when McD's moved in 2018? I am having trouble deciding which argument makes sense to me, because it seems there isn't even clear empirical facts to base my opinion on--either side is using different citations! But please let me know if I'm misunderstanding the blog post, I am now genuinely curious about the location of their headquarters, ha!
ReplyDeleteAyla McGinnis
Hi Ayla,
ReplyDeleteI agree this story was confusing. I consulted a few sources and am adding a few more details. McDonald’s headquarters is in fact now located in downtown Chicago. The company had been headquartered in Chicago from 1955-1971 at which time they relocated to suburban Oak Brook. The decision was made in 2016 to return and in 2018 the company returned to the heart of downtown.
Now for the crime statistics, the Chicago Police Department maintains cumulative statistics on a weekly basis. The stats were only one week old at the time of this article. They cover the years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 including percent change in numerous categories of crime. Many categories were up from last year.
The statistics quoted by Fassnacht were not cited, so a reporter (or other interested party) could perhaps verify his numbers. I venture to say the general public would not investigate further and would accept it. What Fassnacht seemed to be arguing was that McDonald’s decided to return to the city in 2016 when crime was high and moved in 2018 when crime was high so excuse my pun, where’s the beef? Could he have been dismissing Kempczinski’s concerns since it was their decision to return to the city?
I believe the important point here is that the workers or potential workers have a perception of being unsafe and have actual instances of crime and arguing about the statistics is not a productive exercise. By the Mayor saying she chooses to focus on the city’s positives from a (vested interest?) business development firm and not listen to the comments of the CEO of one of the top ten publicly traded companies by revenue in the city seemed completely dismissive.
Hope this sheds a little more light on the subject.
Deb