Steve Cortes
| Contemptor
Talk show host Steve Cortes joined Dennis Praeger’s show to discuss Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s COVID-19-based closure of iconic Lakefront Trail and how the pandemic might affect the structure of higher education.
On March 27, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, in an effort to slow the coronavirus spread, closed the iconic Chicago Lakefront Trail one day after city residents flocked to the popular space on an unusually warm day.
“We had a wonderful day in Chicago,” Cortes said. The temperature reached the 50's and Chicago residents took to the trail and other parks.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot
| ABC7 Chicago
Cortes says Lightfoot saw it as an opportunity for a power grab.
“Mayor Lightfoot saw an opportunity for a power flex,” said Cortes. Police shut down the Lakefront Trail after Lightfoot announced that being there violates the state’s stay-at-home order issued by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on March 20.
“The trail is almost 20 miles long. You can easily stay spread out,” said Cortes. “This was an oppressive power play by a mayor drunk on her own power. And, I think it is indicative of what's happening countrywide. Authoritarians are using the virus to seize control. That’s what the left is about—controlling us. Telling us what we can eat, what we can read, how we can worship, and in this case, where we can take a walk outside.”
When Lightfoot announced the Lakefront Trail closure, Cortes said that his listeners were irate. “They probably don’t like the heavy hand of government, and aren’t fans of Lightfoot,” he said. “During my show she announced the closure, around dinnertime. “
The next day, he said, police were at the lakefront to enforce the closure.
“It’s a betrayal of our civic heritage in Chicago,” said Cortes. "After the Chicago Fire, [it was said] that the Lakefront would forever be public, open and free. To take that way is a betrayal.”
In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed more than 17,000 buildings and killing approximately 300 people in two days. Back then, the Chicago Lakefront was not like today—it was mostly privately owned. Today, there are beaches on one side of the Lakefront Trail and businesses on the other.
Cortes has children in college, and told Praeger that his daughters, who attend schools in California and Florida, are home and will attend online classes for the rest of the year.
Cortes disagrees with this decision by the universities.
“It’s absurd that colleges are going online now. Why couldn’t they have said ‘we’ll reassess in two weeks?” he asked.
He told Praeger that he will get a partial refund on his daughters’ housing costs, but not on tuition, since the schools are both taking their classes to the Internet.
Cortes believes parents and students may reconsider online education after the COVID-19 outbreak.
“The entire structure may be broken up by what they’re doing now. The whole structure of higher education is a racket,” Cortes said. "I think two things may come out of this. People may say that they don’t NEED to be on that campus, [and people may say] perhaps I can get an education that is far more applicable to the job market online without all the social justice warrior nonsense.”
Cortes’ show airs on 560 WIND from 5 to 7 p.m.