Mayor Johnson talks lessons learned from 2nd year in office, including dropping Chicago violence

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mayor Brandon Johnson, on the eve of his second anniversary in office, is talking about lessons learned from a year filled with conflicts.

The mayor is dealing with battles over the city budget, school funding and the Trump administration.

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But, he also had some wins, including seeing violent crime continue to go down.

The mayor spoke one-on-one with ABC7 Chicago political reporter Craig Wall for his year two in review.

If Johnson thought things might get easier in his second year in office, Chicago had something else in store for him: plenty of challenges. But the mayor is undeterred and now more determined than ever to keep pushing his agenda.

Johnson called this past year a testament to the fortitude of the city and his focus on helping working people.

"We are standing up for working people in this city, and I was elected to do that, and that's exactly what I've done," he said.

Some might say it's been kind of a rocky year.

"That's sometimes what comes with transformation, right? If there weren't noise, we would be still participating in the status quo. When you're turning the ship or you're providing a pathway forward for working people, yeah, it's going to upset some folks," Johnson said.

The self-dubbed collaborator-in-chief frequently butted heads with the City Council during the budget season. He was forced to back down from his push to raise property taxes.

"Here's what's the most important thing that I learned here is that I have to do a better job at communicating to the people of this city what I'm doing and why I'm doing it," Johnson said.

Then, there was his failed bid to oust Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, and the wholesale resignation of his handpicked school board.

"Well, look, here's the most important thing to note. I set out to transform our school district, and we're doing that," Johnson said.

But the mayor did get passed his affordable housing ordinance and a contract for teachers.

Violent crime continues to trend down with summer just around the corner.

"Well, as I said, it's policing, 'and.' What that 'and' looks like is that we are going to continue to prepare for large gatherings, and we put together a comprehensive approach," Johnson said. "We have to do a much better job at ensuring that we can prevent all of them from occurring."

Johnson was unapologetic in his criticism of President Donald Trump, even if it costs the city federal funding.

"My job and my responsibility in this moment is to protect the people of Chicago at all costs, and I will continue to do that," Johnson said.

Johnson was also unconcerned about his low polling numbers.

"I don't seek attention. I don't seek, you know, notoriety. I don't even seek popularity. I seek results, and that's what I'm going to focus in on," he said.

The mayor is ready to push ahead into year three, motivated by lessons learned and goals still to accomplish.

"Have we done everything? No. Will we get to everything? With everything in me, absolutely," Johnson said.

One of those fights ahead is to find more progressive revenue sources, which, so far, the mayor has struggled to win. He also needs to close a firefighter contract.

And, of course, it's never too soon to be thinking about reelection plans.