A growing rivalry between progressive city halls in New York and Chicago over rhetoric, personnel choices, and policy direction framed a wide-ranging discussion on Chicago’s Morning Answer, as host Dan Proft spoke with Mark Glennon, founder of Wirepoints.
The conversation began with developments in New York, where newly inaugurated mayor Zohran Mamdani has drawn national attention for openly socialist language and appointments. Proft highlighted remarks from a senior official in the city’s new Office of Tenant Rights suggesting that private property should no longer be treated as an individualized good but as a collective one, a shift that would fundamentally change the relationship between families and homeownership. Glennon described such statements as unmistakably Marxist, warning that they reflect a worldview that rejects traditional property rights rather than merely advocating higher taxes or expanded social programs.
Glennon argued that this strain of politics differs sharply from the Scandinavian-style social democracy often invoked by its defenders. In his view, the rhetoric coming from New York represents a more explicit embrace of collectivism that includes hostility toward private ownership and tolerance for open-border policies, ideas he said are already familiar to Illinois residents after years of similar governance in Chicago.
Proft then turned the focus back home, pointing to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who recently used a lighthearted city contest to name snowplows as an opportunity to endorse the slogan “Abolish ICE.” Johnson framed the move as a statement against federal immigration enforcement, a gesture Glennon said fits a broader pattern of undermining federal law while distracting residents from fiscal and public safety challenges.
Glennon noted that while progressive leaders often frame their agenda as targeting wealthy elites, the practical effects tend to fall hardest on middle-class homeowners and taxpayers who lack the means to relocate or shield assets. He cited IRS migration data showing sustained outflows of residents and wealth from Illinois, warning that the state is hemorrhaging hundreds of billions of dollars in taxable income as people vote with their feet.
The discussion also touched on higher education, particularly the University of Illinois, which Glennon noted receives more state taxpayer support than any other Big Ten school while charging among the highest in-state tuition rates in the conference. Proft raised concerns about state-funded faculty advocating for reparations and about the rapid growth of foreign student enrollment, especially Chinese nationals, at a public land-grant university originally intended to serve Illinois residents. Glennon agreed that public universities have a distinct obligation to state taxpayers and said such institutions could face increased scrutiny from a federal government already targeting elite campuses over ideology and governance.
Public safety rounded out the conversation, with Proft citing another case of violent crime committed by an offender on electronic monitoring, despite prior violations of release conditions. Glennon said the repeated failures of electronic monitoring and provisions of Illinois’ SAFE-T Act illustrate how easily preventable crimes continue to occur because no level of government is willing to assert responsibility. While national crime rates have dipped, he said, Illinois and Chicago remain outliers due to policy choices that prioritize ideology over enforcement.
Both men concluded that the themes connecting property rights, taxation, higher education, immigration, and crime reflect a deeper leadership vacuum in Illinois. Glennon argued that unless state officials confront these issues directly, rather than deflecting blame or celebrating symbolic gestures, the state’s economic and social decline will continue. As debates over collectivism and governance intensify in major cities, he said, Illinois residents are increasingly forced to decide whether to endure the consequences or seek opportunity elsewhere.