CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has taken her “Stay Home, Save Lives” campaign to a new level this week, telling reporters she has personally confronted residents who are flouting anti-coronavirus social distancing rules.
At a news conference earlier in the week, Lightfoot said she rode up to the 50th Ward on the Far North Side where she told groups of people gathering to “break it up.” And in a new interview with WLS-AM 890 reporter Bill Cameron, Lightfoot shared the reaction she gets when she confronts residents about their social distancing and told a story about breaking up an apparent underage drinking party.
“Most people do a double take and are like, wait, is that the mayor? And then as we roll away, you’ll hear somebody saying, ‘Hey, that was the mayor. Hey, that was Lori Lightfoot,’” she said in the interview, which will air at 7 p.m. Sunday on the “Connected to Chicago” program on WLS.
“The other night I think we literally broke up an underage drinking party. There were some young folks that were in a garage with the door up, it was a beautiful night, we pulled by and I told the driver, ‘Back up,’ rolled down the window and said, ‘Hey, you’re too close. Separate yourself. Social distancing!’” Lightfoot recalled. “And we heard one person, I won’t repeat the expletive but they said, ‘Oh,’ and you can figure it out. So we had a little fun with it.”
The mayor became an internet meme last month as people began posting photoshopped images of her online enforcing the state’s stay-at-home order and clearing citizens from the public way.
In one, Lightfoot stands atop the Willis Tower. Another depicts her on Navy Pier’s Ferris wheel. One particularly popular image shows Lightfoot in the Art Institute’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” painting by Georges Seurat, which she clears with a stern look.
Lightfoot has said she is a fan of the memes, which present a humorous counterbalance to drastic measures she’s taken to curb the coronavirus, including shutting down the city’s Lakefront Trail.
But in recent days, Lightfoot also has also faced criticism for getting a haircut over the weekend even though barbers and stylists were shut down under the state’s stay-at-home order. The mayor defended the decision by saying she’s the face of the city and noting that her stylist wore a mask and gloves during the haircut.
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