Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's public market plan slows to a crawl

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson’s marquee plan to increase access to fresh groceries on the city’s South and West sides — a plan that initially called for a city-owned grocery store and later evolved into a proposed year-round market — appears to have slowed to a crawl.

Johnson first floated the idea of opening a publicly owned grocery store in 2023, just months after he took office. The idea, a novel one at the time for a major U.S. city, has since attracted the attention of progressives elsewhere, including Zohran Mamdani, who put city-owned grocery stores on the platform that won him the mayor’s office in New York City.

But in Chicago, the Johnson administration walked back the bold proposal in early 2025, saying that instead of opening a publicly owned grocery store, it would open a year-round public market. The administration announced the change in plans only after the Tribune reported the city had failed to apply for a state grant it had planned to apply for to help fund a grocery store.

Nearly a year after announcing the pivot, the city appears unable to share any more concrete details about what that project will look like.

Cassio Mendoza, a spokesperson for the mayor, did not directly answer the Tribune’s questions about when a public market will open, where it would be located, how it would be funded or how many markets the city plans to open.

Instead, Mendoza pointed to a series of “listening sessions” the mayor’s office held last September during which officials solicited feedback about the public market concept. Participants in those sessions included farmers market managers, urban farmers, developers and retailers, amongst other stakeholders, according to Mendoza.

The city is compiling a report based on those sessions “which will include the feedback provided by attendees and a roadmap to expand food access, equity and entrepreneurship in Chicago,” he said.

“A framework for identifying potential locations and a plan to foster a network of markets will be elaborated in the report,” Mendoza said. The report will be released this quarter or early next, Mendoza said.

Seeking details related to the public market plan, the Tribune this year filed public records requests related to market planning with the mayor’s office, the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, the Department of Planning and Development and the Department of Procurement Services.

The Tribune asked for any documents related to public market planning including studies, reports or memos; grant applications; procurement or staffing plans; and contracts with corporate or nonprofit partners related to planning or creation of a market.

DPD, BACP and DPS said they possessed no such records.

The mayor’s office produced only a slide deck presentation created for the September 2025 listening sessions.

The presentation indicated that as of last fall the mayor’s office hadn’t made any decisions about the basic structure of the market or markets it planned to open, such as the market’s size, location, operating model or how many there would be.

Johnson proposed the public grocery idea against the backdrop of a seemingly intractable problem on the South and West sides of Chicago: corporations closing down grocery stores in low-income and majority-Black neighborhoods, leaving residents without reliable access to fresh groceries.

Past mayors have struggled to incentivize grocery stores to stay on the South and West sides even with carrots like tax incentives. A grocery store the city itself owned, advocates said, would function as a public good akin to a library or post office and could stay open even if it didn’t meet the profitability standards of a corporation. A 2024 study commissioned by the city found that a public grocery store in Chicago was “necessary, feasible and implementable.”

Critics of the idea, however, cautioned that opening a grocery store would be rife with logistical challenges. The grocery industry is a notoriously difficult business plagued by razor-thin margins and a highly perishable inventory.

In February 2025, after the Tribune reported the administration had passed on applying for a state grocery store grant, administration officials announced the pivot to a public market, saying such a market would sell staples like bread and milk and would also contain retail spaces for local farmers and food retailers to sell their products.

Experts said the scaled-back plan would be easier for the city to pull off than a full-on grocery store — but expressed some skepticism that it would help address food deserts on the South and West sides, because public markets are often located in dense downtown areas with lots of foot traffic and can be pricier than a typical grocery store.

At the time, officials said they weren’t ready to provide concrete details about the project, such as where exactly it would be located, how it would be funded or who would operate it. The administration did say it was focused on the South and West sides.

The fall 2025 presentation provided by the mayor’s office indicated that it was still considering those questions.

For instance, the presentation asked participants to weigh in on their preferences between various operating models, such as a city-owned and -operated market, or one that was owned by the city but leased and operated by a nonprofit.

Participants were also asked to discuss whether markets should be centrally located, located on the South and West sides or dispersed throughout the city.

The presentation said the purpose of the listening sessions was to “gather feedback, ideas and input to inform the development of a public market action plan” as well as to “brainstorm on how Chicago can become a ‘market city.’”

A ‘market city’ was defined in the presentation as one that “develops a strategic plan to support and establish a network of culturally rich, complementary markets to increase food access, create economic opportunity and support community resilience,” with Barcelona given as one example.

The Tribune requested additional documentation regarding the listening sessions via FOIA, such as meeting minutes and any feedback compiled as a result of the sessions.

The mayor’s office said it was withholding some of those records pursuant to state FOIA law because they were “predecisional and deliberative” records “in which thought process and internal discussions of the Department are expressed in regard to the public market.”

Separately from the public market concept, the city, in partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, recently opened a food pantry in a library in West Garfield Park.

Mendoza said Wednesday that in regards to the public market, the city is trying to “pursue a collaborative, community-informed process as that was the major feedback from the initial municipally owned grocery store concept.”

The city’s listening session presentation began with several “ground rules” for the discussion.

“No need to land the plane,” one of the ground rules read. “We’re not here to reach consensus today. We’re here to hear all the things you have to say.”

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