Mayor Lori Lightfoot Is Watching You, Instagram Reminds Chicago

The out mayor's closure of outdoor spaces where people weren't distancing has birthed a Where's Waldo-style Instagram account.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

March 27 2020 1:29 PM EST

May 31 2023 6:14 PM EST

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Mayor Lori Lightfoot is watching you, Chicagoans.

That's the theme of memes and tweets after the out mayor announced Thursday that she was closing the city's lakefront and some popular parks because people weren't practicing proper social distancing there. All of Illinois has been under a shelter-in-place order for the past several days, allowing only for trips to buy essentials and occasional outdoor excursions, but with distancing.

Crowds at the lakefront and parks led Lightfoot to issue the closure order. "Your conduct, yours, is posing a direct threat to our public health," she said of Chicagoans who were mobbing the outdoor spaces, Block Club Chicago reports. She also issued an emergency alert via text message, saying, "Do your part: Stay Home. Save Lives." People who go around barricades to enter the closed spaces face a fine of up to $500 or even arrest.

Her order has now spawned a series of memes, many of them on an Instagram account called @WheresLightfoot, with the mayor Photoshopped into scenes of closures. Some examples:

See on Instagram

Chicago, the nation's third-largest city, is the largest with an openly LGBTQ mayor. Lightfoot, elected last year, is a lesbian. She is also the city's first African-American woman mayor.