Publishers Weekly
02/26/2024
Crime, scandals, a powerful union, and her own abrasive personality did in Chicago’s recently deposed mayor, according to this savvy debut analysis. Chicago Tribune reporter Pratt recaps Lori Lightfoot’s sudden rise to the mayoralty in 2019 as a political newbie running as a progressive, despite her background as a former federal prosecutor. In his telling, her administration was bedeviled by contradictions: her expansive promises to invest in impoverished minority neighborhoods ran up against her conservative budgetary policies, Illinois governor JB Pritzker’s Covid lockdowns clashed with her preference to keep businesses open, and soaring crime and the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests provoked her tough-on-crime instincts, which collided with the public’s demands for policing reforms. Though Lightfoot was ultimately stymied by the powerful Chicago Teachers Union, which backed Brandon Johnson, the progressive who beat her in 2023, Pratt paints Lightfoot as her own worst enemy: she screamed at the city’s aldermen, berated her staff, and conducted herself like a tough-talking but not very intimidating mob boss. (“My dick is bigger than yours and the Italians.... I have the biggest dick in Chicago,” Pratt quotes the mayor blustering during a dispute over a Christopher Columbus statue.) The colorful narrative paints a sharp, entertaining panorama of Chicago governance and its evergreen tapestry of corruption and backroom dealing. It’s a clear-eyed portrait of Lightfoot and of the city’s intractable problems. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
"Gregory Pratt is a smart, tenacious reporter in the best tradition of old-fashioned City Hall journalism. The City Is Up for Grabs is a must-read for anyone who cares about Chicago and the future of America’s greatest cities.” —McKay Coppins, staff writer at the Atlantic and author of Romney: A Reckoning
“Deep and rich—an enormously enlightening history of Chicago’s four-year kakistocracy. Gregory Pratt takes us with him on the trail, inside Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s meetings, and around the city she’d promised to reform. Real politics, no fluff.” —David Weigel, politics reporter at Semafor and author of The Show That Never Ends
“Vividly told and authoritative, Pratt’s gripping narrative captures history as it unfolds in a great American city. We know how the saga will end, but it begins with so much promise that we read in disbelief.” —Elizabeth Taylor, coauthor of American Pharoah: Mayor Richard J. Daley; His Battle for Chicago and the Nation
“The City Is Up for Grabs provides an intriguing and detailed accounting of an important time of transition in Chicago government and politics. Pratt takes readers on a journey through the twists and turns of a historic mayoral election, a global pandemic, and a time of intense disagreement over the future of the city. The book props open the door to the proverbial ‘smoke-filled room’ and provides an up-close glimpse of the people and moments who shaped this chapter of Chicago’s history.”—Becky Vevea, Chalkbeat Chicago bureau chief and former City Hall reporter for WBEZ
“From rising crime to a deadly pandemic to deep financial stress, US cities have faced enormous challenges in recent years. Chicago, one of the nation’s great cities, has been particularly vulnerable. Rich with detail, Greg Pratt’s fine book exposes the unraveling of a mayor as her city falls into crisis. This is political reporting at its best.” —Bruce Dold, former publisher and editor, Chicago Tribune
“This is a gripping, vividly detailed account of a uniquely chaotic and democratic time in a city almost always ruled by machine politicians. A product of Chicago’s neighborhoods, Greg Pratt broke nearly every major story that helped fuel Lori Lightfoot’s sudden and unlikely rise to power. And no journalist revealed more of the ‘senseless acts of self-harm’ that hastened Lightfoot’s rapid political unraveling.” —Dan Mihalopoulos, political reporter, WBEZ Chicago
“The City Is Up for Grabs is an incredible behind-the-scenes look from the top at one of the most consequential periods in Chicago’s history. Some moments read as network-level dramas combined with a city-politics setting unlike anywhere else in the United States. Glad I read this sitting down.” —Omar Jimenez, Emmy award–winning CNN correspondent
“There’s nothing quite like Chicago politics, and there was nothing quite like Lori Lightfoot’s tumultuous term as the city’s mayor. Few know this better than Gregory Pratt, who covered Lightfoot’s tenure every day for the Chicago Tribune. With The City Is Up for Grabs, Pratt goes deep inside the wards, boards, factions, and enmities that shape Chicago and, with help from her own hand, undermined its first Black female mayor.” —Jonathan Martin, Politico columnist and coauthor of This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future
Kirkus Reviews
2023-12-15
A Chicago Tribune investigative reporter explores how a “political wunderkind” went from being Chicago’s next great hope as mayor to a one-term city hall catastrophe.
Lori Lightfoot’s rise to mayor of Chicago in 2019 was both spectacular and improbable. Before her tenure, the city had been run by a coterie of privileged white men like Richard J. Daley, his son Richard M. Daley, and former Obama chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel. As a Black lesbian federal prosecutor with a reputation for “toughness and using her fighting skills to pound on her rivals,” Lightfoot beat out her opponents by brawling with them over ethics and corruption issues that plagued Chicago City Hall. Pratt, who covered Lightfoot for the Tribune from the start of her political career, argues that those same hardball tactics were a large part of what brought about her downfall. Her tenure came at a time when Chicago, like much of the nation, was struggling with political polarization, seething racial tensions, and the Covid-19 pandemic, all of which overwhelmed local concerns such as those pertaining to the city’s viability as a global competitor. As difficult as these problems were, however, Lightfoot’s unapologetically contentious handling of events—such as the post–George Floyd riots that rocked the city and the massive teacher walkout during the pandemic—cost her the support of her constituents. As labor leader and alderperson Susan Sadlowski Garza, once a Lightfoot ally, observed, “I have never met anybody who has managed to piss off every single person they come in contact with—police, fire, teachers, aldermen, businesses, manufacturing.” Pratt’s analysis sometimes gets lost in day-to-day details, particularly those surrounding Lightfoot’s troubled political relationships, but those who follow Chicago city politics will undoubtedly find the book of interest.
Comprehensive reporting that may have limited appeal on the national stage.
