Chicago’s 6th Ward Alderman’s Mind Is on Vacation, but His Mouth Is Working Overtime
Alderman William Hall talks too much
First, a look back a few decades.
“Hah, Jesse don't wanna be no mayor. Jesse don't wanna run nothing but his mouth.”
These are the words of the disgraced Marion Barry in 1990. Barry served four terms as mayor of the District of Columbia and was responding to speculation that the Reverend Jesse Jackson, then a recently arrived resident of Washington D.C., would oppose him in the district's next mayoral election.
The notorious philandering crack smoker, who died in 2014, was spot on about Jackson. Barry delivered the stinging rebuke of Jackson because he knew Jackson was always far more interested in running his mouth than being responsible for civic matters such as sewers, snow removal, and law enforcement.
Like Jesse Jackson, Alderman William Hall (6) likes to run his mouth so it shouldn’t be too surprising Hall counts Jackson as a role model.
A former national field director for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and pastor, Hall was elected alderman of the 6th Ward in 2023, succeeding Roderick Sawyer. Hall is also member of the City Council's Progressive Reform Caucus.
Hall is a close ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson. He was endorsed in his aldermanic run by the far-left Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), stating in its endorsement that he has “been a CTU ally for many years.”
And clearly the CTU is important to Hall. Last year, the alderman was selected to give the invocation at the end of the third night of the Democratic National Convention. The minister used that solemn moment to name drop CTU President Stacy Davis Gates.
Hall has collected at least $62,000 in campaign contributions from the CTU.
The 6th Ward includes parts of Englewood, Park Manor, Auburn Gresham, and Chatham, where Hall lives. Over the decades Chatham has been the heart of the ward, and since becoming a majority African American neighborhood, many prominent people have lived there, including gospel music legend Mahalia Jackson, Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley, the mother of lynching victim Emmitt Till, Eugene Sawyer, Roderick's father, who prior to becoming Chicago's second black mayor was alderman of the 6thWard, and Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks. "Mr. Cub" ran for aldermen of the 8th Ward — as a Republican — in 1963. He lost, of course.
Roland Burris, the first African American to hold statewide office in Illinois, still lives in Chatham.
Back to Hall's mouth.
While a guest on the Fran Spielman Show podcast last year, Hall decried the fact the 6th Ward has only one grocery store, an Aldi. His ward has no hospitals, but St. Bernard, in Englewood, is nearby.
What does Hall think of St. Benard Hospital? This is what he told Spielman:
“I mean, it's a great hospital. "It's coming back to what it was.”
So far, so good.
Then the trouble started.
“It was a rumor, it was a whisper at the dinner table, it was something that was understood as black folks: If you want to die, just go to St. Bernard, right?”
There is more.
“And then, St. Bernard, though it's coming back, and the latest and the greatest, is still not trustworthy for black people.”
Assuming that's true about the lack of trustworthiness about St. Bernard Hospital among blacks, Hall — don't forget, he's a minister too — should be utilizing his roles to change that perception.
Hall’s oafish remarks are the type of bile you'd expect from a drunk slumped at the end of the bar at Moe's on The Simpsons.
As Homer Simpson says: “D’oh!”
No surprise, but the St. Bernard Hospital part of the podcast didn't make it onto Spielman's summary of it in the Chicago Sun-Times, nor did Spielman challenge Hall on his odious remarks. Chicago journalism continues to plunge to new depths.
Revenue, or the lack of it, and crime are the biggest issues in Chicago.
Regarding revenue, Hall is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Revenue. He's a big proponent of drastically increasing the number of electronic billboards downtown. With an over 30 percent retail vacancy rate in the Loop, there is certainly plenty of space available for them. While Hall is not touting these lighted eyesores as a fiscal cure-all, he does sound a little bit like the naive Chicagoans who retired Fox Chicago political reporter Mike Flannery said regularly told him that the legalization of marijuana would quickly solve all of Chicago and Illinois' financial shortfalls.
Hall made a fool out of himself last summer when he created a Google Docs survey for his 49 City Council colleagues. The survey consisted of questions for the aldermen, asking them if they favored such items as a congestion tax, linking property tax rates to the Consumer Price Index, an income tax surcharge, a grocery tax, a sales tax on services, and reinstating the employee head tax.
But that survey was not password protected — it was left open to anyone to view it and vote on it.
Thanks to Hall's massive blunder, Chicagoans know what's on the radar screen of the progressives in the City Council.
As for crime, while still alderman-elect, Hall was queried by N'Digo on what the most pressing problem in the 6th Ward was.
“Crime and safety. We are the leading ward in gun violence in Chicago. That’s embarrassing."
What is also embarrassing is that despite all the shootings in his ward, Hall voted against the renewal of ShotSpotter, the gunshot detection system that Mayor Johnson, in a campaign promise, vowed to cancel.
Over 12,000 gunshots were recorded in the 6th Ward in a 13-month period ending last August.
Even more embarrassing, Hall may not even know how ShotSpotter works.
In a recent X (Twitter) back-and-forth with Aldermen Raymond Lopez of the 15th Ward, Hall complained that it took Chicago Police officers nearly two hours after a ShotSpotter alert for CPD to reach a murder victim. CWB Chicago then weighed in, replying to Hall: "If police response is the problem, that's a CPD issue, not a software issue."
Lopez is a Chicago City Council rarity; he’s blessed with common sense.
Legendary jazz and bluesman Mose Allison said it best in one of his songs about people like Hall.
“Because your mind is on vacation and your mouth is working overtime.”
Hall was one of the 27 alderman who voted "Yes" on Johnson's 2025 budget. In December, while on Fox 32's Good Day Chicago touting his support for the bloated $17.1 billion budget, Hall boasted: “And this does not hurt the credit score, it helps us develop Chicago.”
Last week, S&P Global lowered Chicago's credit score to just one level above the lowest investment grade, citing “a sizable structural budgetary imbalance.”
D’oh!
It is pretty clear that Hall is ignorant of budgetary matters and doesn’t have a good grasp of fiscal policy.
Here's more proof of that. For political campaign contributions of over $1,000, state law requires campaign committees to fill out A-1 forms and submit them to the Illinois State Board of Elections within five days, and even quicker close to an election. Hall's campaign committee, Friends of William Hall, was fined $13,000 for late reporting of A-1 forms.
The voters of the 6th Ward can do better.
